One returnee and two rookies comprise Hitech Pulse-Eight’s 2024 FIA Components 3 lineup that holds loads of potential and mix for what the crew hopes shall be a title-contending marketing campaign.
Luke Browning returns after finishing his rookie season within the Championship and including the F3 Macau World Cup to his spectacular CV. New teammates in Martinius Stenshorne and Cian Shields boast their very own single seater successes in their very own proper to kind a promising trio of drivers.
Will Hitech Pulse-Eight take a step in direction of Championship rivalry this yr although? 2023 had loads of excessive factors however the crew couldn’t fairly maintain a title bid final time round. The substances are there for the crew to push on in 2024.
Browning was reflective of his up and down rookie marketing campaign on the finish of final yr and can little question be working arduous to place the teachings discovered into apply this time round. The Williams Driver Academy expertise has been busy on the Components 1 crew’s base at Grove, ramping up preparations for the upcoming season.
The aforementioned Macau success on the tail finish of final season was a press release victory in a discipline that was stacked with acquainted expertise in addition to quite a few returning F2 drivers.
His win will little question have given him confidence heading into his second go round in Components 3, with such a mature drive to victory the precise sort of efficiency he’d do nicely to copy as soon as the 2024 marketing campaign begins correct.
Browning was a factors scorer simply six occasions final season, however that betrays what his true potential was by way of uncooked velocity. Taking only one podium end throughout the season additionally, Browning has loads of room to enhance this yr in his second try, however the Briton may be very able to placing collectively a constant marketing campaign that will nicely have him contending on the high.
Considered one of two new rookies to the crew, Martinius Stenshorne arrives in Components 3 recent from competing for the Components Regional European Championship title, finally ending as runner up within the Drivers’ Championship.
The Norwegian will hope to observe in compatriot Dennis Hauger’s footsteps in turning into an F3 Champion himself, and whereas that is perhaps a tricky ask in his rookie season, he made greater than a splash in FRECA in the identical place.
Taking 5 wins throughout the season and an additional six podium finishes, Stenshorne was comfortably the highest-placed rookie of final season, ending up 39 factors adrift of eventual Champion Andrea Kimi Antonelli, although equalled the Italian in race wins.
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Stenshorne made a promising begin to life in F3, going quickest within the afternoon session of the post-season Jerez take a look at and was in and across the high 12 pretty typically throughout the remainder of the periods.
He’s at the moment competing within the Components Regional Center East Championship in his preparations for the 2024 marketing campaign and is second total within the standings. With 4 podiums and a streak meaning he’s but to complete outdoors the highest 5, Stenshorne has been sharpening the talents he’ll want in F3 come Sakhir and lights out.
Cian Shields arrives in Components 3 after impressing in Euroformula Open and ending as runner up in 2023. The British driver started his single seater racing profession with Hitech, so will really feel proper at dwelling as he learns the ropes in FIA Components 3. In his inaugural season in GB3, he secured two podium finishes en path to P13 within the standings.
A winner on 4 events final season, Shields has race-winning expertise round acquainted venues in Spa-Francorchamps and Spielberg, whereas he was on the rostrum in Budapest and Barcelona throughout the Euroformula Open marketing campaign.
That sort of expertise will depend so much in his favour with such restricted apply time out there on every race weekend in F3. Going again to his 2022 GB3 marketing campaign to incorporate Silverstone, Shields has been on the rostrum round 5 of the ten venues on the 2024 calendar.
Whereas he finally ended up in need of eventual 2023 Euroformula Noel León within the standings, it would have been a confidence boosting marketing campaign to expertise going right into a maiden F3 season.
Hitech have but to string collectively a title-contending marketing campaign in F3, with a finest end of second within the inaugural F3 marketing campaign the high-water mark for the British outfit to date. Whereas the crew have taken victories within the intervening years, the prospect of securing a primary Groups’ trophy is definitely the subsequent step for the skilled campaigners.