Written by Sean McKean and Vyas Ponnuri
Welcome to Feeder Series Recap, your weekly series bringing you the best of driver announcements from the world of Formula 2, Formula 3, as well as F1 Academy. The news this week has seen DAMS sign their first driver onto their Formula 3 line-up, while a returning face and a young rookie form part of MP Motorsport's line-up. Vyas and Sean take you through this week's news.
Tim Tramnitz returns for a second challenge with MP
Early in the week, MP Motorsport announced that Tim Tramnitz would rejoin the team for a sophomore challenge in 2025.
The German driver began his career in ADAC F4 in 2020. Despite the dominance of Jonny Edgar and Jak Crawford up front, Tramnitz did well to take one win and finish fourth in the standings.
The Red Bull junior returned to ADAC F4 and made an entry into Italian F4 in 2021. However, in a season dominated by the F1-bound Ollie Bearman, second overall in each championship with nine combined wins was what Tramnitz had to settle for.
2022 saw Tramnitz make the leap to FRECA. But, he struggled to get to grips with the Tatuus chassis – finishing 15th in the standings with a best finish of fourth in the second race at the Hungaroring.
In 2023, he went for a second year in FRECA and vastly improved on the year prior. Throughout the season, he was firmly in the title fight with Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Martinius Stenshorne, eventually coming home third in the standings with three victories.
Last year, Tramnitz graduated to FIA Formula 3 with MP Motorsport. Despite the promise a podium in the opening feature race of the season showed, inconsistency throughout the season derailed a possible rookie title charge. However, he still took his maiden F3 win in the final sprint race of the season in Monza.
Bruno del Pino joins F3 from Eurocup-3 with MP Motorsport
One day separated from the confirmation of Tim Tramnitz, Spaniard Bruno del Pino will join the F3 grid alongside him in 2025.
The 18-year-old began his single-seaters journey in 2022 – starting in the Spanish F4 Championship. Results did not come easy, however, as he finished 14th in the standings with 24 points in a season utterly dominated by champion Nikola Tsolov.
He finished out 2022 in the FIA Motorsport Games in Paul Ricard in F4 machinery and took his first podium.
Del Pino moved up to Formula Regional machinery in 2023 in the all new Eurocup-3 Championship. He fared well with the transition, finishing eighth in the standings and ahead of current championship leader Javier Sagrera.
The Spaniard started 2024 in the FR Middle Eastern Championship but, akin to his first F4 stint, saw few notable results.
For the summer, del Pino has partook in Eurocup-3 again. He currently sits third in the standings with three victories on the season. Before the upcoming season finale in Barcelona in November, he still remains in championship contention.
Matias Zagazeta becomes DAMS first Formula 3 driver for 2025
It was only a couple of weeks ago when DAMS Lucas Oil officially confirmed their participation in Formula 3. The Formula 2-only French outfit expanded their Feeder Series roster to the lowest rung along the road to Formula One, taking over the tenth spot vacated by Jenzer, who departed the series after five seasons.
The team have signed on a former Jenzer driver onto their roster, with Matias Zagazeta becoming the first name to join the team in their Formula 3 journey. The Peruvian took part in his maiden F3 campaign in 2024, the high point being a maiden podium at Silverstone.
In a topsy-turvy weekend, Zagazeta started third for the sprint race, having qualified tenth in Friday's 30-minute qualifying session. After battling with PREMA's Arvid Lindblad and VAR's Noel León at the start, the 21-year-old drove a calm and composed race to hold off Rodin's Callum Voisin for his maiden rostrum appearance.
These would be his only points of 2024 for the Spanish outfit. The Peruvian expressed his delight on finishing third in the race, although he expressed how he was slightly on the edge, given he had used up his track limit warnings during the race.
Nevertheless, it was the highlight of his season, not the smoothest of introductions for the Jenzer rookie, who had stepped up after racing in FRECA for the past two years. Zagazeta also missed the Monaco round of the season due to appendicitis, with James Hedley replacing the Peruvian for the weekend.
Now with a new outfit in DAMS Lucas Oil, Zagazeta will be looking for a stronger, more potent season, looking to put all the learnings from his debut Formula 3 campaign to the best use, and finish higher up in the standings in 2025. He will also be looking to give DAMS a memorable maiden Formula 3 campaign.
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