Finnish driver Tuukka Taponen had a very good weekend at the Bahrain GP as he secured P3 in the F3 Sprint, followed by 4th in the Feature on the Sunday. It was his first podium in the series.
The 18-year-old Ferrari academy driver started 7th in the Sprint. He made up two places on the opening lap. From there he passed Dufek and Stenshorne to finish on the podium.
Taponen proud of the bounce back from Melbourne F3 nightmare
“Yeah, I’m quite satisfied, to be honest,” Taponen told Pit Debrief and other media outlets.
“After the struggle we had in Melbourne, it is a good step up from Melbourne, and I think we can be quite proud of that.”
Was a potential win on before the Safety Car?
An incident involving Ivan Domingues and Joshua Dufek meant the Safety Car appeared was deployed with five laps to go. Before that, the top 3 had a gap to the rest, with the Finn sitting nicely behind Nikola Tsolov and debutant Freddie Slater.
Taponen believes victory in the F3 Bahrain Sprint was possible without the Safety Car bunching the field back up together.
Nonetheless, he feels proud of what he achieved.
“I think before the Safety Car, I could have a fought for the win. But to be honest, the safety car killed the momentum a little bit. And the pack was all together again.
“So I think without the Safety Car, I could have won this race.
“But I need to be proud for this as well.”
Late race plans
Asked by Pit Debrief on how he approached the final restart with two laps to go, Taponen revealed he did not want to take any crazy risks. In the end he had to fight off Martinius Stenshorne into turn 1 when the green flag was thrown.
“Yeah, I got some pressure from Martinius [Stenshorne] on the restart. So I had to watch behind as well. I couldn’t fully focus forward.
“And to be honest. I didn’t want to take a massive risk on that Safety Car restart. I was kind of waiting for my moment while they [Tsolov and Slater] were fighting together.
“But in the end, it’s quite difficult to follow in Sector 2.”
Tuukka Taponen and his tactics during the F3 Bahrain GP Sprint
Asked what his plans were going into the race from P7 on the grid, Taponen revealed it was a case of seeing how it panned out during it. He gained two spots on the opening lap.
After clearing Dufek and Stenshorne with DRS later in the race, the young Finn could manage his tyres in a comfortable P3. The late Safety Car spoiler his hopes of attacking Tsolov and Slater, however.
“I managed to grab a few places in the start and then I was in a quite good situation. I had a little bit gap to the back [cars behind]. So I was able to save the tyres a little bit quite early in the race.
“And I think that’s why I was coming quite fast at the end before the Safety Car came out.
“So yeah, my plan was just to go how the race goes. If I need to fight, I will fight. If I can save the tyres, I will save the tyres.
“I had no plans before. I was just going lap after lap.”
Taponen prefers minimal communication
On radio communication with his engineer, Tuukka Taponen is very much like Kimi Räikkönen when it comes to messages on the radio.
The 18-year-old explained he likes minimal talking from his engineer during a race as most of the discussions take place in advance.
“I don’t like so much information, because I want to focus by myself.
“And yeah, I like the engineer to be quite quiet and just give me a few important advices and information what we planned before the race.
“So definitely it helps me, but I don’t want him to talk too much.”
Taponen bouncing back from Melbourne to bag valuable points across the F3 Bahrain GP weekend
After doing a round at Spa last year, Tuukka Taponen made the full-time jump to F3 this year.
Unfortunately for him, Melbourne was utterly forgettable. He qualified a lowly P25, leaving him in a virtually impossible position to score points. While he charged through to 14th in the Sprint, a very wet and miserable Feature race meant he left Albert Park with no points.
Taponen explained that ART Grand Prix worked on solving some issues from Melbourne during the in-season test in Bahrain ahead of the F3 weekend, and it paid off with a podium in the Sprint.
“It wasn’t quite visible because the test in Barcelona went so well. And then we kind of dropped massively in Melbourne.
“So it was clear we had a small issue there, but we fixed that already in the test in Bahrain a couple of weeks ago.
“And I came here again with a big confidence to fight for the podium and that’s what we did.”
Melbourne a one-off for ART and Taponen in the 2025 F3 season?
As previously touched on, ART had a shocker in Melbourne. Laurens van Hoepen was their highest qualifier in P17, with Wharton and Taponen 23rd and 25th respectively.
The team left with no point as a P12 from Van Hoepen was their best result across the two races. It was a huge surprise to them following a strong pre-season test in Barcelona.
Taponen explained the importance of qualifying in the top 12 for the reverse grid, as well as consistently bagging points throughout the season.
“Melbourne was just a bit extreme for us. The pace has been good. It’s not that we found the pace after Melbourne, we had the pace already before, but we just couldn’t manage to put it all together in Melbourne and it was affecting massively the race weekend.
“When you don’t qualify in top 12, you qualify at the back, it’s difficult to come back for the points. But obviously, it’s super important to score points every weekend.
“In the end, you don’t need to win always. It’s just important to score some points for the championship and then it will give you also a bit of confidence.”
Taponen taking confidence from the F3 Bahrain weekend and Sprint podium
Along with his podium on Saturday, the Finnish driver rounded off a fine weekend with a P4 in the Feature. It moved him up to P7 in the standings. ART teammates Van Hoepen and Wharton remain scoreless.
“A bit of a boost, definitely. I know the pace is there. We just need to keep this good momentum up and score points in every single moment we can.”
