March 4, 2025 | Formula Winter Series
The grid for race one was led by a pair of US Racing cars; championship leader Gomez started from pole position, with Kabir Anurag behind him. In his second full season in the Formula Winter Series, the Singaporean had yet to finish on the podium, and finished fourth in all three races at Valencia.
As the race started, Gomez succeeded in retaining his lead, and Anurag remained hot on his heels.
Behind the front row starters, several cars ended up with damage and missing front wings. Leo Robinson, who started in in seventh, glanced the rear of his Hitech teammate Fionn McLaughlin at the first turn, and ripped the front wing from his car in the process.
At turn five, US Racing’s Maxim Rehm moved around the outside for third position, at the expense of his second row neighbour Bart Harrison (Jenzer). However, Harrison clipped the rear-left tyre of Rehm as they exited the left-hander, puncturing Rehm’s tyre and dislodging Harrison’s front wing. By the end of the first lap, Dante Vinci had also lost his front wing, while Simon Schranz missed his braking point at the turn 16 hairpin. The Renauer driver collected Chloe Chambers and Sebastian Bach in the ensuing collision.
At the first corner on lap two, Anurag managed to find his way past Gomez. Despite immediate attempts from the Brazilian to find his way back past, Anurag did not offer up an opportunity for his teammate, and soon began building a lead.
By the race’s end, Anurag was three seconds clear of Gomez, and secured his first victory in the Formula Winter Series. Fionn McLaughlin finished in a well-earned third overall, while also taking Rookie Trophy honours. The Irishman in his Red Bull-liveried Hitech machine spent the entire race under scrutiny from Maximilian Popov, with Andrija Kostic also close behind.
Nina Gademan once again took her Hitech machine into the overall points, finishing ninth and securing the Female Trophy award.
Race 2:
After overnight rain, Sunday morning’s race would be held in greasy conditions. Gabriel Gomez and Kabir Anurag once again formed the front row of the grid, however, it was their US Racing teammate Maxim Rehm who got the best start from third. By the first corner, Rehm was in the lead, while Anurag moved into second place.
Rehm, who expressed confidence in his wet weather abilities prior to the race on the broadcast, fought valiantly against Anurag. The Singaporean made his intentions clear with a dive to the inside at turn 16 on the second lap. However, Anurag went deep into the corner, allowing Rehm to cut back to the lead. Just a lap later, Anurag again saw an opportunity to lunge, and the second attempt was successful.
As Anurag and Rehm fought, Gomez brought himself into contention. And, while the three US Racing drivers began to squabble among themselves, Hitech’s Fionn McLaughlin was closing in. Soon, McLaughlin began picking up podium spots. With just over 20 minutes left in the 30-minute +1 lap race, he eased past Rehm at the turn 16 hairpin. Less than a lap later, Gomez also fell behind the #5 car.
In order to challenge for the lead, McLaughlin had to erode a 2.7-second deficit to the race leader. In clean air, McLaughlin soon began setting fastest laps, and with ten minutes of the race left to go, Anurag was now under immense pressure from his Irish adversary. A good run out of turn 15 bore fruit for McLaughlin, as the inside beckoned at the end of the long back straight, and he moved into the lead.
A late safety car was triggered by contact between Mathilda Paatz (AS Motorsport) and Payton Westcott (Van Amersfoort Racing). The race would eventually resume with just one lap left to go. McLaughlin was fast out of the blocks, and ensured a victory with a measured final tour, ahead of Kabir Anurag and Gabriel Gomez, who continued to extend his championship lead over Leo Robinson. The Anglo-Algerian driver was classified sixth, after a five-second penalty for Maxim Rehm dropped the #71 car to seventh.
Nina Gademan once again won the Female Trophy, her seventh triumph in the category during 2025.
Race 3:
As the third and final race drew closer, the circuit had dried out, and almost all teams opted for slicks. However, moments before the formation lap, rain started to fall around the circuit. The rainfall was heavy enough for three drivers to head to the pitlane rather than their grid slots; Jenzer Motorsport’s Artem Severiukhin and Bart Harrison, and Van Amersfoort’s Payton Westcott.
Meanwhile, the lights went out and the race began. Once again, Maxim Rehm had a magnificent launch, this time from fifth on the grid. Pole-sitter Kabir Anurag and fellow front row starter Thomas Bearman both had a tough time getting the power down, allowing both Rehm and Fionn McLaughlin to streak by.
Rehm took a wide approach to the first corner, and struggled to turn in on the slippery paint, allowing McLaughlin to assume an early race lead as the entire field searched for grip to little success. At turn seven, Rehm found the inside line and took first position back, while Simon Schranz of Renauer Motorsport was ascending rapidly through the pack. Renauer had been the only team to send a car to the grid with wet tyres on, and Schranz moved from 20th on the grid to sixth position on the first lap alone.
Less than a lap later, Schranz had moved into the race lead, taking full advantage of the superior grip from his wet tyres. However, this lead was to be short-lived, as Schranz had a spin at the first corner at the start of lap three. This dropped him down to fifth; critically, Bart Harrison was now ahead of the Austrian, having started from the pits after switching to wets post-formation lap. As the slick-shod drivers continued to struggle and lose time, Harrison and Schranz completed the third lap in first and second place.
Gradually, many teams and drivers elected to pit for wet tyres. However, some stayed committed to negotiating the greasy circuit on slicks. Among them was Hitech’s Fionn McLaughlin. By half-distance, McLaughlin was running third, leading those on the slick tyres, but running 24 seconds back from Bart Harrison.
However, McLaughlin began matching and then surpassing the lap times of the two cars ahead, as the circuit continued drying and the pendulum swung away from those with wet tyres. Soon, McLaughlin began pumping in fastest laps, and made short work of Simon Schranz. And, within ten minutes, the near half-minute gap between the leader and McLaughlin disappeared; with six minutes left to go, McLaughlin breezed past Harrison on the exit of turn seven to take the lead.
McLaughlin held the top spot for the remainder of the race, performing a sweep of Sunday at Motorland Aragon, and taking his third victory of the season. Maxim Rehm’s impressive start proved to be a little too fast, as he was handed a five-second jump start penalty. However, due to the spread out nature of the race, he remained second in the final results. Championship leader Gabriel Gomez kept his 100 per cent podium record alive in third, ahead of Maksimilian Popov and Kabir Anurag. Eventually, everyone in the top five remained on slicks throughout the race. Having led the middle portion of the race, Bart Harrison eventually had to settle for sixth place on his wet tyres.
Payton Westcott won the Female Trophy in 13th overall, having fought within the top ten following Van Amersfoort Racing’s decision to call the American in for wets before the race start.
Barcelona: A finale likely to yield glory for Gomez
Gabriel Gomez’s stunning consistency has put him in a strong position heading into the Formula Winter Series season finale at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
With 182 points to his name, Gomez holds a 68-point advantage over his closest competitor. And, while Leo Robinson had often looked like the strongest adversary for Gomez, it is now Fionn McLaughlin who sits second in the standings. However, with just 82 points left to score, any title aspirations for Hitech’s Red Bull Junior come attached to remarkably long odds.
Leo Robinson scored just eight points at Aragon, which leaves him third in the points on 106. He is now mathematically out of contention for the overall title, but could still regain second position from McLaughlin on 114.
Kabir Anurag sits fourth in the standings on 97 points.
Fionn McLaughlin also leads the Rookie Trophy by an impressive 80 points. His closest competition in the class comes in the form of Thomas Bearman, who sits 11th in the overall standings on 34 points. A score of just two points will sew up the season-long Rookie accolade for McLaughlin.
New drivers and determined full-season entrants will clash in Barcelona, as the Formula Winter Series will end on a high on 8-9 March at the home of the Spanish Grand Prix.
