‘I might scream’: Mansell eyes home F3® podium after Bahrain brilliance

Australia’s FIA Formula 3® ace Christian Mansell admitted he “might scream” if he can repeat his podium finish in Saturday’s F3® season-opener in Bahrain in his home race at the FORMULA 1 ROLEX AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX 2024 in three weeks’ time.

In his maiden race weekend for ART Grand Prix, Mansell matched his career-best F3® result with a storming drive to second from eighth on the grid in the 22-lap Bahrain Feature race, and the 19-year-old has his sights set on replicating that result in front of his home crowd in Melbourne, as FIA Formula 3® races at Albert Park for the second time.

“If I get a podium (in Australia), I think I might scream,” he grinned after Saturday’s result equalled his second place in a rain-hit Belgium Feature race last season.

“I genuinely think (Albert Park is) one of the best tracks on the F3 calendar just from a racing standpoint. Qualifying is so fast, we have four DRS zones, its super high-speed. We are on the mediums (tyres) as well now, so it is going to be super high-speed again. I am just really looking forward to being there.”

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With a sell-out crowd in attendance for a second successive year, all local eyes on the F1® undercard will be on F3® duo Mansell and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Tommy Smith, and Mansell says the hometown support – and familiarity with the track – will play a crucial part, with 17 drivers in the 30-strong field in their first season in the category.

“A home crowd advantage, it’s always really nice … no matter where you are in the world a home crowd is always nice,” Mansell said.

“A smile is worth two-tenths (of a second), I firmly believe that.

“It will be very interesting for the rookies. Obviously, they have had three days of testing in Bahrain, but then in Melbourne it is going to be really fresh. I think that’s where the likes of myself and (Bahrain Feature race winner) Luke (Browning, Hitech Pulse-Eight), (Prema Racing’s) Dino (Beganovic) all of the returning drivers who placed well last year I think are really going to shine through, but we won’t know until we get there.”

Mansell, who finished ninth in the Melbourne Sprint and 10th in the Feature last year for Campos Racing before his off-season move to ART, used a robust opening stint to Saturday’s race to vault into podium contention after just three laps, and drew to within 0.2secs of race-leader Browning with six laps remaining before the Williams Academy junior eased away to win by 1.264secs.

“I was very, very aggressive in the opening stages of the race, I knew exactly what I wanted to do,” Mansell said.

“Turn 8 was my favourite corner in that race, I made a few pretty decisive moves into there but overall, just really happy with how the race turned out. I was saving (tyres) the whole race. A part of me wished I maybe pushed and tried to go for a move, but at the same time, P2 … it’s a mega result.

“You need to have good points at the start of the season because you’re going to have a bad round, it’s F3 so we all have bad rounds no matter what. It’s about building up that tally as soon as possible and then maintaining it.”