After finishing runner-up in the 2024 Eurocup-3 season with MP Motorsport, Javier Sagrera will compete in the 2025 FIA Formula 3 championship with AIX Racing, partnering with Nicola Marinangeli. Like Marinangeli, Sagrera will make his F3 debut in Melbourne.
A controversial end to the 2024 Eurocup-3 season
Despite strong performances throughout the 2024 season, a contentious end in Barcelona overshadowed Sagrera’s Eurocup-3 campaign. During the first race, Emerson Fittipaldi Jr. defended his lead against Christian Ho to claim victory. Ho’s team protested this result as they believed that Fittipaldi had made his defensive move outside track limits.
After a lengthy appeals process, in late February 2025, the FIA International Court of Appeal announced that Fittipaldi had exceeded track limits and handed the Brazilian a five-second penalty. He dropped to second while Ho claimed the win. Ho was subsequently awarded the 2024 title, surpassing Sagrera—who had been named provisional champion—by five points.
Sagrera aiming to thrive in “bigger category”
While speaking with the media, including Pit Debrief, Sagrera addressed the controversial end to his 2024 Eurocup-3 championship and its effect on his preparation for the 2025 F3 championship.
“I always say that things happen for a reason and I don’t want to focus too much energy on things that I don’t have control in,” Sagrera said, in response to the loss of the title.
Instead, Sagrera chooses to focus on the “bigger challenge” of F3, identifying the need to maximise his performances in the series. He explained that his goal was to show his capabilities at a higher level to prove his place in motorsport.
“I also say for this season I have a bigger challenge. I have new opportunities ahead and a bigger category to thrive for and also to let people know in this F1 world how I can deliver because I think I’m operating at quite a high level.”
The Spanish driver added that his experience in Eurocup-3 has helped him grow as a driver and stated that he had “absolutely no hard feelings” over its outcome.
“Thanks to EuroCup and that’s what actually made me grow a lot as a driver, I would say. I can only be thankful for last year and I have absolutely no hard feelings on anything because everything happens for a reason, as I say.”
Sagrera to “take things step by step” in 2025
With the Eurocup-3 championship now settled, Sagrera is focused solely on his debut F3 season. However, despite his previous success in open-wheel racing, the Spaniard believes he would need to be able to adapt his expectations and take things “step by step.”
“I think as a rookie I come and I think always coming into a season you need to readjust your expectations or what you come with.”
“I know I’m a rookie so I need to learn a lot, take everything step by step.”
Despite this, Sagrera will be aiming for wins once the season kicks off in Melbourne, though he identifies the need to prioritise “hard work” and building a strong relationship with his new team to achieve these.
“I think with a lot of hard work and just building a great relationship with the team, every time I put [on] my helmet, I’m aiming for wins. For sure, I think at some point I would like this to come.”
However, Sagrera also noted that, as rookie, he will have both good and bad races in 2025. He added that he hoped to use these experiences, along with those from the off-season, to maximise his performance behind the wheel.
“I know as a rookie I’ll have good races, I’ll have bad races.”
“I think you need to learn and capitalise from every scenario and hopefully our work also, that we’ve done a lot during this off-season, will come to fruition I would say and we can get good results and hopefully some wins.”
“Confidence can only go up from here”
Despite his relative inexperience behind the wheel of an F3 car, Sagrera is excited for the 2025 season. In response to a question from Pit Debrief, Sagrera explained that his time on track during the three-day pre-season testing had raised his confidence behind the wheel. He stated that his confidence could “only go up” as the season progressed as further “work and progression with a car” were valuable to a driver’s comfort.
“Well, I think confidence can only go up from here. I think because getting more track time with an F3 car is something that I think for every driver it’s really valuable.”
“So it only raises our confidence and I think especially these three days I’ve never done so much work and progression with a car.”
Sagrera added that he hoped that the team would be able to use their findings from pre-season to do some “final retouches” that would help them have a good performance in Melbourne.
“So we’ve done so many laps, we’ve tested so many things that I’m just so excited now to be able to do these final retouches during these last weeks and just make sure we put everything together for Melbourne and hopefully our work that we’ve put in, we can show it and deliver something in Melbourne.”
