After a difficult season in Formula 3, Noel León grabbed his first podium finish of the year in a rain-soaked Feature Race at the British GP.
Noel León has had an unfortunate season, especially as the start of the season was rough for all three PREMA drivers. The car’s struggles with pace and consistency made it difficult for the young driver to take significant steps forward.
During the sprint race, the PREMA driver secured his then-best finish of the season as he clawed his way to P7.
He built on and improved on this result in the feature race, as the twenty-year-old battled his way to P3, securing his new best result this year.
Facing downpour around Silverstone
As it was a wet race start for the feature race around the iconic Silverstone circuit, many drivers opted to swap to wet tyres during the delayed start.
One of the drivers who started on wet tyres was Noel León as he lined up 10th on the grid for the F3 Feature Race at the British GP.
After perfecting his launch off the line at the start, the PREMA driver quickly climbed his way to third place. The mixed conditions during the race led to important decisions on tyre choices.
The Mexican driver expressed to media that his experience from the last year in F3 with Van Amersfoort Racing benefitted him in making decisions in the rain-filled race.
“Yeah super happy with P3 today in the Feature Race. Of course, it was a tough decision to make, when you see the other guys going in the other direction you think, am I doing right or not, but to be honest I was pretty clear in my decision because I have experience from last year.
“Sector three was really damp and as soon as I was that the rain was a little bit harder, I asked my engineer to put the wet tyres on and he trusted me. We had strong pace the beginning and then at the end we were struggling a bit more to catch Théo but in the end P3 and a lot of points in the bag.”
Difficult conditions leading to red flag
The feature race at the F3 British GP begun in the wet, however different parts of the track held different conditions. Around ten laps into the race, the rain came down heavy and visibility significantly worsened for the drivers.
As several drivers began to lose control of their car and they were left without grip, the safety car was deployed.
On Lap 15 the decison to red-flag the race as a result of the rigorous weather and concern for drivers’ safety came. The race was not continued and ended prematurely, leading to the current results of the race standing.
Noel León was asked about these difficult conditions before the red flag, in which he expressed:
“To be honest it was really difficult. Especially with two laps to go it started to rain pretty hard. We started to aquaplan a lot, we couldn’t see anything, so it was the right decision from the FIA director to stop the race because it was really dangerous.
“At the end of the day, we couldn’t finish the race but that was for safety.”
Fighting in the last three rounds
Taking third, in the challenging weather conditions during the Feature Race at the British GP boosted the PREMA driver’s confidence moving into the final three rounds of the season. He emphasised the team’s progress during the last few weeks expressing:
“Yeah for sure, it’s been a tough season, at the beginning we were fighting for P20 now we are getting to the top 10 more and more. I am not very confident with the car but for sure this does give you a lot of confidence. So, I am looking forward to Spa and to Budapest which last year were great races for me.”
León appeared optimistic for the last three rounds of the F3 Championship, especially as he previously had good results in both Spa and Budapest.
With the three-week break before the next race weekend, the PREMA team will have time to reset and the young driver will have prepared for the exciting upcoming weeks. Coming off his best weekend this season, he will be aiming for his strong momentum to continue.
