After a successful 2024 Eurocup-3 season, Christian Ho will make his FIA Formula 3 debut with DAMS Lucas Oil, partnering with Matías Zagazeta and fellow rookie Nicola Lacorte for the 2025 F3 championship.
Ho “looking forward” to 2025 F3 season
While speaking to the media, including Pit Debrief, Ho stated that he was trying to focus on his 2025 campaign, noting that as DAMS is a newcomer to the F3 championship, they need to build themselves up from the basics.
This response came after the Singaporean was asked if he was ready to start his new campaign given the turbulent end to his 2024 season in Eurocup-3. After a contentious Barcelona round in which Emerson Fittipaldi Jr. claimed the win in the first race after defending his lead against Ho, the Singaporean was provisionally classified second, behind Javier Sagrera, who also steps up to F3 for the 2025 season with AIX Racing.
However, after a lengthy appeals process, the FIA International Court of Appeal handed Fittipalidi a five-second penalty after deeming that he had exceeded track limits while defending against Ho. As a result, Fittipalidi dropped to second, handing Ho his rightful win. The decision by the FIA International Court of Appeal also saw Ho take the 2024 title, surpassing Sagrera by five points.
Ho admitted that he had not been focusing on the end result of the appeal, having deemed it more important to prepare for his F3 debut season in 2025.
“Well, I think the championship ended five months ago so I kind of was waiting for the result. [I was] not really looking at what the end result was going to be.”
“And I’m just trying to focus on the campaign this year. I think we’re a new team in the championship. So, starting off, I think we have to poke at our basics. And that’s what we were doing in the tests.“\
“I’m looking forward to this year,” Ho declared.
Ho confident going into 2025 F3 season with “professional” DAMS behind him
Having raced with Campos Racing in 2024, Ho acknowledged that transitioning to DAMS Lucas Oil had shown the differences between the teams.
“Yeah, obviously, I was in Campos last year. So I worked with the F3 team there as well. So being in [DAMS] has been quite a different experience, I’d say.”
However, he described his new team’s approach to racing as “effective” and stated that he felt confident going into the 2025 F3 season with a “professional” team behind him.
“Very different way of working, but also quite effective.”
“Because, I mean, the first day we were in the workshop, we were learning about how the car works and the small things that can make a car faster. And to improve our feedback, basically, which I think is key of a new car.”
“And yeah, I mean, I’m quite confident going into this season knowing that the people behind me are professional.”
With such positive experiences with DAMS so far, Ho believes that the French team will be ready to fight in Melbourne once they “put in the work.”
“And I’m sure that as long as we put in the work, we’ll be ready for Melbourne. And we should be ready to fight there as well.”
