Mansell flying home on a high

By Thomas Miles

Date posted: March 19, 2024

Aussie FIA Formula 3 star Christian Mansell is riding a wave of confidence to Albert Park fresh from his best result in Bahrain.

After flying to second in the season opening Feature Race at Sakhir, Mansell is arguably Australia’s best chance to see a home hero on the podium at this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix.

The 19-year-old has commenced his second full season in the FIA Formula 3 World Championship and first with ART.

It has started with a third career podium joining his performances at Spa and Silverstone last year.

Mansell admitted he is still on a high from the result, which has only fuelled his excitement for his second home race at Albert Park where he scored his first F3 points.

“It has been a pretty big whirlwind of emotions so far,” he told Auto Action.

“Obviously we had such great success in Bahrain and I think everyone in ART and the Mansell camp did an exceptional job.

“It just creates good momentum coming to Australia and I just want to do the very best I can this weekend. Not only for myself but also for the Aussie fans.

“Seeing them fully behind me gives me a pep in my step and I will try to use it the best I can.”

Christian Mansell made a number of moves at turn 8 in Bahrain. Image: Dutch Photo Agency

After making four starts in 2022, Mansell took on his first full F3 campaign last year with Campos Racing and was the leading Aussie in 12th after a second in the Spa Feature and third in the Silverstone Sprint.

But within months of the Monza finale, Mansell made the move to ART completing the non championship Macau Grand Prix plus post- and pre-season testing either side of the new year.

This extra seat time helped Mansell settle into his new French team ahead of the Bahrain opener.

Although the Sprint didn’t quite go to plan, finishing 14th when the team “didn’t go in the right direction” they nailed it on Sunday.

Starting eighth, Mansell rocketed up to the top three within three laps with a number of aggressive but clean moves.

Mansell ranked his third career podium as the highlight of his F3 career.

“I thought I was in a good place and I just kept picking them off one by one,” he recalled.

“I didn’t quite have the tyres to battle for the lead at the end but we had mega pace.

Christian Mansell in Australia last year. Photo by Lionel Ng / Sutton Images

“My other podiums, at Silverstone and Spa, fell into my lap but I still had to take them.

“But this was not luck – this was a proper drive and it means more.”

Having tasted racing at home for the first time and all of the on- and off-track hurdles that came along, Mansell knows he returns in a stronger space.

“The strong point is that I am doing it again,” he said.

“It is my second time – it makes a world of difference having that experience and insight because it is not fresh with things jumping out at you.

“You can go into it a lot calmer.”

Mansell will not be the only Aussie to cheer for on the F3 grid with Tommy Smith also suiting up for Van Amersfoort Racing.

FIA Formula 3 schedule

Friday, March 22

Practice: 08.50-09.35

Qualifying: 14.00-14.30

Saturday, March 23

Sprint Race: 11.15-12.00

Sunday, March 24

Feature Race: 09.05-09.50

There’s lots more loaded into a bumper edition of AUTO ACTION magazine, on sale at newsagents and available digitally here.

For more of the latest motorsport news, subscribe to AUTO ACTION magazine.

On the latest RevLimiter podcast … F1 was another snoozefest, but everywhere else the action was hot.

Listen to our latest episode on your podcast app of choice or here

Recent Stories

array ( 0 => WP_Term::__set_state(array( 'term_id' => 660, 'name' => 'International', 'slug' => 'international', 'term_group' => 0, 'term_taxonomy_id' => 660, 'taxonomy' => 'category', 'description' => '', 'parent' => 0, 'count' => 2609, 'filter' => 'raw', 'cat_ID' => 660, 'category_count' => 2609, 'category_description' => '', 'cat_name' => 'International', 'category_nicename' => 'international', 'category_parent' => 0, )), 1 => WP_Term::__set_state(array( 'term_id' => 11, 'name' => 'Latest News', 'slug' => 'latest-news', 'term_group' => 0, 'term_taxonomy_id' => 11, 'taxonomy' => 'category', 'description' => '', 'parent' => 0, 'count' => 13296, 'filter' => 'raw', 'cat_ID' => 11, 'category_count' => 13296, 'category_description' => '', 'cat_name' => 'Latest News', 'category_nicename' => 'latest-news', 'category_parent' => 0, )), 2 => WP_Term::__set_state(array( 'term_id' => 2029, 'name' => 'ZZZ-Email', 'slug' => 'email', 'term_group' => 0, 'term_taxonomy_id' => 2029, 'taxonomy' => 'category', 'description' => '', 'parent' => 2031, 'count' => 4213, 'filter' => 'raw', 'cat_ID' => 2029, 'category_count' => 4213, 'category_description' => '', 'cat_name' => 'ZZZ-Email', 'category_nicename' => 'email', 'category_parent' => 2031, )), 3 => WP_Term::__set_state(array( 'term_id' => 2031, 'name' => 'ZZZ-RSSFeeds', 'slug' => 'zzz-rssfeeds', 'term_group' => 0, 'term_taxonomy_id' => 2031, 'taxonomy' => 'category', 'description' => '', 'parent' => 0, 'count' => 3612, 'filter' => 'raw', 'cat_ID' => 2031, 'category_count' => 3612, 'category_description' => '', 'cat_name' => 'ZZZ-RSSFeeds', 'category_nicename' => 'zzz-rssfeeds', 'category_parent' => 0, )), )