Finlay McSporran
Published: 12:54 13 September 2026
The season came to a close on the streets of the Madring
Race Report
Ugochukwu and rival Freddie Slater came into this final race level on points, meaning it was a straight shootout for the title. Whoever finished ahead would become champion.
The advantage lay very much with Ugochukwu, who started the race from second on the grid.
He would remain there after the lights went out, as pole – sitter Tuka Taponen raced away in front.
For Slater, there was a lot of work to do.
The British driver was in ninth after lap one, having lost a position to Yevan David.
With nothing to lose, Slater got to work, dispatching David on lap five and setting the fastest lap for good measure.
Unfortunately for Slater, that was about all he could do.
Ugochukwu also struggled to get by, as he spent most of the race tucked up behind Taponen. Not that it mattered too much to him anyway, with Slater further behind.
On lap 17 of 19 the safety car was deployed after Hiyu Yamakoshi came to a halt at the side of the track.
With two laps left it looked like the championship was set to finish under the safety car, but, thanks to some quick work from the marshals, we were able to get one more lap of racing.
The final lap of the season came… and went.
Ugo Ugochukwu crowned himself the 2026 FIA Formula 3 champion, after what was perhaps a little underwhelming end to the season.
Taponen took the win, with newly crowned champion Ugochukwu, and Taito Kato joining him on the podium.
Slater has to settle for second in the championship, after a great campaign that saw the Audi backed driver on the podium at every round bar this one. That tricky qualifying on Friday proved very costly in the end.
Ugochukwu will no doubt have attracted the attention of some F1 teams. He will likely be making the jump up to F2 next season, perhaps with backing from Redbull, as was rumoured a couple of months ago.
The American broke the streak of Trident drivers winning the title, as Campos Racing secured both the teams and drivers championship, the first team to do so since Prema with Oscar Piastri in 2020.
This was also the final time we got to see AIX Racing, as they will be taken over by Lando Norris’ LN4 Fusion team for next year.
Feature Race 2 Results:
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tuukka Taponen | MP Motorsport | 37:25.407 |
| 2 | Ugo Ugochukwu | Campos | +1.398s |
| 3 | Pedro Clerot | Rodin | +2.302s |
| 4 | Taito Kato | ART | +2.701s |
| 5 | Mattia Colnaghi | MP Motorsport | +3.321s |
| 6 | Alessandro Giusti | MP Motorsport | +3.827s |
| 7 | Enzo Deligny | Van Amersfoort | +4.311s |
| 8 | Freddie Slater | Trident | +4.780s |
| 9 | Ernesto Rivera | Campos | +5.222s |
| 10 | Yevan David | AIX | +5.625s |
| 11 | Brando Badoer | Rodin | +6.065s |
| 12 | Théophile Naël | Campos | +6.480s |
| 13 | Alex Powell | Prema | +7.117s |
| 14 | Fionn Mclaughlin | Hitech | +7.766s |
| 15 | Jin Nakamura | Hitech | +8.758s |
| 16 | James Wharton | Prema | +9.532s |
| 17 | Bruno Del Pino | Van Amersfoort | +10.056s |
| 18 | Matteo De Palo | Trident | +10.865s |
| 19 | Kanato Le | ART | +11.849s |
| 20 | Nicola Lacorte | Dams | +13.134s |
| 21 | Noah Stromsted | Trident | +14.011s |
| 22 | Maciej Gladysz | ART | +14.554s |
| 23 | Fernando Barrichello | AIX | +15.101s |
| 25 | Woohyun Shin | Hitech | +20.893s |
| 26 | Jose Garfias | Prema | +47.420s |
| 27 | Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi | Dams | +1 lap |
| DNF | Hiyu Yamakoshi | Van Amersfoort | DNF |
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