Following a mixed 2023 season, Oliver Goethe continued in F3 for the 2024 season, aiming to polish his performance and build towards a title challenge.
Goethe switches to Campos Racing for 2024
For his second full season in F3, Goethe switched to Campos Racing—the team with which he made his F3 debut in 2022. Having earned his maiden win in the 2023 Silverstone feature race, Goethe sought to replicate the peaks of his rookie year. However, he hoped to avoid the disappointment that he had faced toward the end of the 2023 F3 season.
A hot start to 2024
Goethe’s 2024 F3 season started with him picking up points in the sprint and feature races of both the Bahrain and Melbourne rounds. This was a positive start to the German’s season, with him taking points in the first four races of the season. He would not, however, make it onto the podium until the first European race of the season.
The 2024 Imola F3 round would prove to be the highlight of Goethe’s 2024 season and indeed his F3 career. After qualifying 7th, he started the sprint race from P6 under the reverse grid conditions. While Van Amersfoort Racing’s Noel León took an early lead in the race, an excellent restart after the deployment of the Virtual Safety Car on the penultimate lap saw Goethe claim the race lead on the final lap. He ultimately crossed the finish line first.
However, stewards threatened Goethe’s win by handing him a 5-second penalty for an infringement at the restart after safety car conditions. As a result, León temporarily took the win instead of Goethe.
Fortunately, the stewards soon reinstated Goethe’s victory after determining that the penalty had been invalid. They subsequently classified him first, ahead of MP Motorsport’s Tim Tramnitz, while León dropped to third after receiving a penalty for a safety car infringement. Goethe then secured P2 in the next day’s feature race.
The German’s excellent weekend in Imola was a statement of his title aspirations and an impressive show of form. Unfortunately, he would struggle to carry this form through the season.
Mid-season stagnation
Unfortunately for Goethe, his performance in Imola would be the pinnacle of his 2024 F3 campaign. Despite maintaining an impressive streak of points, Goethe struggled to finish within the top 5. In fact, his next best weekend, in Barcelona would be the only other time that he would make it onto the podium. After a strong performance, he finished the Barcelona sprint race third. Unfortunately, he missed out on another podium in the feature race, managing only a P4 finish.
Goethe promoted to F2 ahead of the Monza round
His lack of silverware in F3 would not deny him a chance for promotion. Ahead of the final F3 round in Monza, Goethe was called up to F2. He replaced Franco Colapinto, who had been called up to race Williams Racing’s Logan Sargeant in F1, at MP Motorsport.
Though Goethe suffered much disappointment in the final four rounds of the 2024 F2 season, he managed to score 14 points. This helped earn him a full-time F2 spot for 2025 with MP Motorsport.
A respectable end to his F3 career
Despite missing the season finale in Monza, Goethe finished 7th in the F3 championship—an improvement of one position from his rookie season. Despite reaching the podium only a handful of times, Goethe collected points throughout the season. By the time he made the jump to F2 he had amassed a respectable 94 championship points.
With a promising F2 career looking, Goethe will, without a doubt, be hoping to build upon his experiences in F3. He will want to recreate the winning feeling of Imola as he gets one step closer to the pinnacle of motorsport.
