F3 Austria Wrap; Rivera & Strømsted win, 8 different winners in 8 races, as Ugochukwu extends his lead

• Ernesto Rivera and Noah Strømsted continued Formula 3’s remarkable run of first-time winners in 2026, becoming the seventh and eighth different race winners of the season in the Spielberg Sprint and Feature races respectively.
• Championship leader Ugo Ugochukwu extended his advantage with another podium finish, while Freddie Slater maintained his run of scoring a podium at every round despite missing out on victory.
• Théophile Naël’s title challenge suffered a major setback after a poor qualifying session left him unable to recover beyond 15th in either race, dropping him 26 points behind Ugochukwu.

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Rivera earns first F3 Sprint win

It was another weekend of firsts in Formula 3, as Ernesto Rivera became the seventh different winner of the season by claiming victory in the Spielberg Sprint race.

The Campos Racing driver started second on the grid and swept past reverse-grid polesitter James Wharton to secure his maiden F3 win.

It proved to be a disappointing race for Wharton, who was shuffled off the podium altogether as Pedro Clerot and Jin Nakamura passed the Australian on the final lap to claim second and third respectively.

Noah Strømsted and Freddie Slater came together on the opening lap, with the latter coming off worse and retiring from the race.

Wharton defended robustly against Rivera throughout the Sprint, navigating a Virtual Safety Car period as well as light contact with the Mexican at Turn 3.

It was on Lap 14 that Rivera made the decisive move, using DRS to take the lead into Turn 4 ahead of the PREMA driver.

Strømsted becomes eighth different winner

From being involved in a first-lap clash on Saturday to winning Sunday’s Feature Race, Trident’s Noah Strømsted became the eighth different winner in eight races this season.

Claiming his second victory of the championship, Strømsted launched from fourth on the grid and immediately passed Tuukka Taponen for third.

Pole-sitter Hiyu Yamakoshi covered off championship leader Ugo Ugochukwu into Turn 1, but an early Safety Car was deployed following an incident involving Maciej Gładysz.

Following the restart, the lead changed hands several times. Ugochukwu briefly led before Slater moved ahead on Lap 9, with their battle allowing Strømsted to close onto the leading pack.

As the race unfolded, Strømsted emerged in front ahead of Ugochukwu and Slater, while a last-lap fight between the American and Briton decided the remaining podium positions.

Wharton misses out on podium

Despite starting from reverse-grid pole in the Sprint, Wharton ultimately finished fourth, although he highlighted the progress PREMA had made over the weekend.

“Overall, it was a good points haul for us as a team,” the Aussie explained.

“At the end of the day, it’s not coming easy, so a top five this year, the end result is OK. But at the same time, there was more left on the table.

“A little mistake with one lap to go cost me P2, and then my right mirror was off the car, so I had to defend on the last lap not really knowing where the cars were, which is why I defended too much.

“So, little things didn’t quite go our way, but at the same time, in this sport, little mistakes cost a lot, and we experienced that today. We were fighting at the front, and I was P2 on Lap 20 of 21, so we need to take that away for tomorrow.”

Sitting 14th in the championship, Wharton recovered to finish 11th in Sunday’s Feature Race, narrowly missing out on the final point to Japanese driver Kanato Le.

Difficult weekend for Naël

After climbing to second in the championship in recent rounds, Théophile Naël endured a difficult weekend in Austria, losing that position to Slater and ending the round 26 points behind championship leader Ugo Ugochukwu.

Qualifying a lowly 24th proved to be Naël’s undoing in Spielberg, with the Campos driver unable to put together a clean lap during Friday’s qualifying session.

Recovering to 15th in both races across the weekend did little to aid his title hopes, especially with both Ugochukwu and Slater scoring podium finishes.

“I think it’s wrong place, wrong time, and wrong timing,” he said after the challenging weekend.

“We decided to go in the pack for our lap in the tow, and that was clearly the wrong choice.

“We bet on the slipstream but I think it was better to be alone on track like Hiyu and Ugo. So anyway, we learned from that. It was a team decision and my decision as well.

“So wrong place, wrong time but I mean the pace was still good. I was P3 and in the top five in the first push.

“We showed some great pace this weekend with the fastest lap in the Feature race as well. So quite happy with that and we will come back stronger for Silverstone.”

Ugochukwu extends his lead

With ninth and second-place finishes across the weekend, Ugo Ugochukwu somehow managed to extend his championship lead over rivals Freddie Slater and Théophile Naël.

Behind the Campos driver, Slater has been the model of consistency, scoring a podium at every round of the 2026 championship so far.

Naël now trails Ugochukwu by 26 points and sits 10 points behind Slater heading into his home race weekend at Silverstone.

So far, there has not been a repeat winner in the 2026 Formula 3 season—but can that change next time out?

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Written by

Jawad Yaqub

An eCommerce Specialist by day and reporting on F1 by night. Jawad is passionate about motorsport, having provided accredited F1 coverage for more than a decade and is a member of the AIPS (International Sports Press Association). Live blogging (almost) every grand prix too since 2014, as well as articles on the Supercars Championship. Also keen on sustainability, photography, collecting vinyl, (trying to) expertly barbeque and learning to Dad.

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