Germany’s Tim Tramnitz heads into his second F3 season looking to establish himself as a title contender in 2025. The 20-year-old finish 9th in the standings last year. He stays at MP Motorsport, while former teammate Alex Dunne steps up to F2. The pair were very close on pace throughout last year, with the German slightly more consistent.
Tramnitz took his first F3 victory at Monza, the final round of the 2024 season. He controlled the reverse grid Sprint race in masterful fashion after starting on pole. That followed Sprint podiums at Imola and Monaco. His only top 3 feature finish came at round 1 in Bahrain.
Tim Tramnitz looking for F3 qualifying gains
Despite some great results, the driver from Hamburg is aware he needs to improve his qualifying performance in 2025 to fight for the championship. Tramnitz was only inside the top 5 once for the feature race grid (P3 in Austria). He usually found himself qualifying somewhere between P7-P12, or further down the grid.
As the field is so close, getting yourself up front is vital to be in the mix for the big points on Sunday morning, as Tramnitz told Pit Debrief and other media outlets during F3 media day.
“For me, pretty much the biggest thing last year was qualifying. I mean, obviously, the qualifying is so important in F3.
“So yeah, pretty much, I had some qualifying which were out of the top 12, which, of course, doesn’t really help your weekends. So the target is definitely to be in the top 12 every quali or even higher.
“But I feel like as soon as you’re out of the top 12 in quali, your weekend just becomes very, very tough and difficult.
“So yeah, qualifying is pretty much the point which I have to improve the most.”
Feeling the pressure of Red Bull?
Tramnitz has been a Red Bull junior since October 2023. He finished P3 in FRECA two years ago, behind now Mercedes F1 driver and current F3 rival Martinius Stenshorne.
Asked by Pit Debrief if he felt any extra pressure trying to perform and move up the ladder as a Red Bull academy driver, Tramnitz explained the positives and advantages of it.
“No, honestly, it doesn’t really add extra pressure at all, because of course going into my second year, the goal is to fight for the title or to win the title anyway. So there’s not an extra pressure.
“I would even say it’s more an extra help to have a junior team background and to be part of an academy.
“At least with Red Bull, there’s a lot of support in the background, mental and fitness training. Also, of course, the simulator sessions are helping out a lot.
“So yeah, it’s a big help, but not an extra stress for me.”
Conversations with Helmut Marko
As has been the case for many years now, Red Bull junior drivers are always under the microscope with Helmut Marko around. He gets straight to the point. If a driver is struggling, they will know about it. Indeed, quick dismissals after never far away. Kacper Sztuka found that out last year.
Tim Tramnitz says he enjoys and appreciates the directness and honesty of Marko, explaining how it helped in F3 last year. Following qualifying performances of P22, P10, P10 and P16, a stern talking to from the Austrian helped the German driver. He qualified P3 at the Red Bull Ring.
‘Well, actually, that’s a good question because I feel like there are two sides you can always see. It’s like the side you see on TV and then, of course, it’s a bit different when you speak to him. But to me, he is quite calm.
“But if I don’t do a good job, he tells me that I have to improve these areas. So he’s very honest with me.
“But I feel like it was always helping me throughout my career if someone was very honest to me and was just saying the truth. Even if I did a bad job, just telling it to my face was the thing which worked for me.
“[For] example, actually, last year before the quali at Red Bull Ring, I had a meeting with him and he told me to improve the quali and to be more consistent there. And I think after that, I had my best quali of the year.
“So I feel like he can always kind of talk to me like this. But it’s a very calm and good atmosphere.”
