Mid-season Academy Report: Fighting at the front in F3 and FRECA

While our F1 drivers and staff are using the summer break to rest before the races between August and December, there's a different story for some of our junior drivers.

Luke Browning and Alessandro Giusti's seasons will be over soon after they next get in the cockpit.

Luke has one more round and two Monza races where he could clinch the F3 title.

Alessandro, meanwhile, must tackle a trio of September races before his Monza season finale in October.

Both drivers sit in their championship's upper places. Here is how they got there.

Heading into his second season of Formula 3, Luke knew he'd have to deliver a championship challenge to show his racing credentials.

That's precisely what the 22-year-old Brit has done after staying with the same Hitech GP team he debuted with in 2023.

Starting at the opening round in Bahrain, Luke set out how he wanted his season to go by winning F3's first Feature Race from the front row.

By becoming an early championship leader, Luke's Sunday consistency has kept him atop the standings or nearby all year.

Before the Silverstone showers significantly affected F3's Sunday, Luke had turned in Feature Race finishes of P5 or better across Australia, Emilia Romagna, Monaco, Spain, and Austria.

With F3 having such a deep 2024 field that has witnessed nine different victors in the first nine rounds, being an ever-present challenger for the podium is no easy feat.

Luke narrowly missed more Sunday silverware in Melbourne by under a second, then turned P9 into another P4 at Imola to keep the heat on his title rivals.

While Saturday Sprint Races that see fewer points handed out haven't been as fruitful for Luke, he secured his first 2024 top-10 finish in one at Monaco in a good omen for his Feature Race.

After missing out on a Principality podium by a single position in 2023, Luke secured his spot on one of motorsports most sought-after rostrums by taking P3 at Monte Carlo one day later.

"I remember seeing it last year and going 'I want to be on that' and this year we were," is how Luke remembered that special weekend, but Monaco wouldn't be his last accolade.

A hard-fought weekend in Barcelona that sadly had a two-position drop in the last lap meant a P5 finish in the Feature Race, but better things followed one week later.

Luke took his first F3 pole position at Spielberg, putting him in the best seat on the grid for Sunday's race and his championship charge.

Although the Austrian circuit always sees plenty of overtakes, he kept ahold of that P1 position for all 26 laps of the Red Bull Ring to bring home his second F3 victory - and return to the top of the championship table.

Another pole position went Luke's way on home soil, too, with a Silverstone P1 qualification in front of the cheering British crowd.

Unpredictable weather meant turning that into a P1 finish wasn't possible, but he secured more Feature Race points.

A qualifying crash and Safety Cars didn't help Luke's Hungarian and Belgian trips, but he heads to Monza with a slim six-point gap to close to become the 2024 F3 champion.

Our sole representative in the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine, Alessandro Giusti, has had a year touring some of mainland Europe's best circuits.

Taking on the team leader role at ART GP after being one of only two rookie drivers to take any wins in 2023, Alessandro has helped the French outfit bounce back up the teams' championship standings after their disappointing campaign last year.

Multiple Safety Car slowdowns hindered any hopes of hauling home solid points from the season-opening Hockenheim race, but a trip to Spa went much better.

Frustratingly, a post-race penalty demoted Alessandro to P7 in Race 1, but a last-lap overtake on Ferrari-backed Tuukka Taponen in Race 2 out of Eau Rouge secured P4 and 12 valuable points.

It was Zandvoort when Alessandro's season first saw silverware, though, and he made up for just missing out in Spa.

Two trips to the Dutch podium were a well-earned reward for fighting the seaside showers and changeable weather over the weekend, with one race wet and one dry.

FRECA's frantic racing had Alessandro learning wheel-to-wheel racecraft at Hungary and Mugello, with Budapest's round even featuring a five-car fight as Race 1 reached boiling point.

Yet the highlight of our young Frenchman's season came at the French round that preceded the summer break.

Home circuit expertise might be a thing for Alessandro after winning at Paul Ricard for his maiden FRECA victory in 2023 and then taking his first win of 2024 at the same site this year.

Rain and Safety Car slowdowns seemed to trouble everyone else but not Alessandro, who aced two restarts to turn a P5 start into a P1 finish in Race 2.

A French driver racing for a French team winning in France is quite the way to start a summer break, and Alessandro will look to use that race-winning performance when FRECA returns at Imola on 7 September.