Hitech TGR’s Martinius Stenshorne claimed his third FIA Formula 3 podium after a strong performance in the 2025 F3 Melbourne Sprint Race. The Norwegian driver, who most recently finished the 2024 season 18th with 38 points, launched an aggressive campaign against the race leader, and eventual winner, Santiago Ramos. However, despite his best efforts, a late collision between AIX Racing’s Javier Sagrera and MP Motorsport’s Bruno del Pino, saw him forced to settle for the second step of the podium as the race ended behind the Safety Car.
Melbourne Sprint a “good race” for Stenshorne
Though he wishes that the second Safety Car, which ultimately cost him any chance of challenging for the win, had not come out, the Norwegian driver, a member of the McLaren Driver Development Programme, deemed his P2 finish “a good result”, especially as he had worked his way up from P4.
“It was a good race,” Stenshorne summarised, when asked about his race during the FIA F3 Post-Sprint Press Conference, attended by Pit Debrief.
“I started in P4, I got into P2 after lap one, so I had a good start. And then obviously with the safety cars we caught up again. I had my tyres in quite a good window throughout the whole race, so I wish the safety car didn’t come, but P2 is still a good result, so I’m happy with that.”
He also described the intense first lap as he had experienced it. Having started from P4, Stenshorne found himself locked in a fierce battle with the drivers around him. Ultimately, he emerged victorious, claiming second place ahead of Rodin Motorsport’s Rodin Bilinski who settled for third, and DAMS Lucas Oil’s Matías Zagazeta who dropped to fourth from his second-place starting position.
Stenshore described the race as having been “fun” from the cockpit, despite a small mistake in Turn 3 which threatened his position.
“I made a small mistake in T3. I [braked] a bit too early, but luckily I came back around T10 and T11.”
New car “not too bad” — Stenshorne
The Sprint Race also provided the young Norwegian driver with his first opportunity to experience the new 2025 F3 car under proper race conditions. To Stenshorne, the new car is similar enough to the old, though he experienced more understeer in the medium-high corners. Overall, however, he deemed that as “not too bad.”
“It was not too bad. It’s quite similar to last year, to be honest. Yeah, you can, of course, get a bit more understeer in the medium-high speed corners, but honestly, it’s not too bad.”
While the Norwegian driver believes that he got a feel for the car, especially around the more challenging corners, he could not yet classify his experience as good or bad, needing to experience the Feature Race before he could properly describe it.
“Yeah, I think I have,” Stenshorne replied when asked if he had gotten a feel for the car in the faster corners, “I don’t know if it’s good or if it’s bad. Tomorrow I will let you know more.”
“That’s what we came here for” — Stenshorne on Hitech competitiveness ahead of Australian GP
Though he needs some more time in the car before he can be fully comfortable in it, Stenshorne is not surprised by his competitiveness, having done significant preparation with his team ahead of the season opener.
“That’s what we come here for,” Stenshorne told the media when asked about his competitiveness.
“We work hard [at] Hitech on the sim and all this kind of stuff. So we’ve been working hard and our Barcelona test was quite strong towards the end. So I think we are, more or less, where we wanted to be and hopefully we can keep improving.”
Though he acknowledged some differences between the Melbourne and Barcelona tracks, Stenshore believes that his other preparation helped overcome any associated deficiencies.
“Yeah, of course, there’s some small differences. Of course, there’s not so much grip here and this kind of stuff. But we have prepared well on the simulator, so we were quite good from the beginning.”
Hitech learned a lot from F3 Sprint Race in Melbourne
After such a successful Sprint Race, Stenshorne hopes to take some of his learned into Sunday’s Feature Race, to maximise his outcome. Among these learnings is an increased understanding of the medium tyres.
“Yeah, obviously, with the medium tyres, it’s the first time we run them,” Stenshorne replied when asked about his major learning points from the F3 Sprint Race in Melbourne.
While responding to a question from Pit Debrief, Stenshorne explained that while he and Hitech TGR had gone into the Sprint Race with “a lot of unknowns”, they had collected significant data, including on tyre performance, that they would use to prepare for Sunday’s Feature Race.
“So there was a lot of unknowns going into the race, balance-wise and leg-wise, all this kind of stuff. So for sure, we learned a lot today and we’re going to keep studying the data this evening and be ready for tomorrow.”
Stenshorne hoping for dry conditions for the Feature Race
Of course, the conditions in the Feature Race could threaten Stenshorne’s performance in the Feature Race. When asked if he would prefer the dry conditions experienced in the Sprint Race, or the wet conditions predicted for Sunday, the Norwegian driver stated that he preferred to race in the dry.
“I’m happy if it stays dry, to be honest.”
He explained that he had enjoyed strong pace in the dry conditions, and added that he believed that a dry race would be beneficial for his fight up the order.
“We had good pace in qualifying as well. We were [in position] to win when the red flag came out, so it was a bit of a shame, but still we were in the top ten, so that was alright. And I think the pace today was quite strong as well, so yeah, I think if it’s a dry race tomorrow we can move forward.”
