Taylor Barnard made his debut in Formula 3 last weekend in Bahrain, with him earning a 14th place finish in the sprint race and a 16th place finish in the feature race.
Not bad from the 18-year-old Briton, after he had to start both races from the back of the grid in 30th, and he was able to show plenty of his racing acumen over the weekend to progress through the field.
Arriving in F3 after driving Formula 4 cars last year, Barnard is one step closer to the ultimate dream of driving in Formula 1 but, of course, as you get higher up the battle to reach the top level only gets harder.
At 18, though, he still has bags of time to get where he wants to be and this year he is instead focusing on having a good debut campaign in F3 and establishing himself at this level.
GIVEMESPORT spoke to Barnard in Bahrain to get his thoughts on the new season and his hopes for it, but we first started by talking about his 2022 achievements, the highlight of which saw him finish second in the ADAC Formula 4 championship:
“The F4 campaign was quite good,” reflected Barnard, “we started as a rookie team. I think in UAE we made some good progress, and we were ready for the European season.
“I think the German season was a lot better than the Italian one but in the end, I think we made good progress. We had some race wins so it was good.”
Off the back of his F4 showings, he earned testing time at the F3 post-season test for Jenzer Motorsport at the end of 2022, and clearly did enough to earn a drive for the team in 2023.
We asked him how he felt going into that test knowing what might be on offer if he did well:
“It was always going to be really nerve-racking. I hadn’t driven any other car besides an F4 so jumping straight to [F3], it was like a 19-second lap time difference so it was completely different. I think in the end, we did quite well and the test actually went really well for me and for the team so I guess that contributed quite a lot to me getting the seat for this year. I was very nervous but I think it turned out quite well.”
F4 to F3 is certainly a big jump in terms of car performance, too, as Barnard explains:
“It’s night and day, like a Formula 4 car just feels like a road car. Moving to [an F3] car is incredible with its braking and then in the high speed corners it’s actually really difficult for me to describe how it feels because it’s completely different. It just sticks to the ground compared to the F4 car.”
Coming through in karting, Barnard was a protégé of 2016 F1 world champion Nico Rosberg and, though the Briton is not associated with the German now, it was still a positive experience and a nod to his potential:
“It was kind of like a collaboration between my karting team and him,” explains Barnard. “I didn’t really see much of the work or the effort that he put in because I was just the driver. I guess it was more of a collaboration and financial support between the karting team and him but I saw him a couple of times in real life and I spoke with him a bit.
“I guess it was a bit of a confidence boost [to be on the programme] and it was quite nice, even if I’m not working with him now. I guess it was like a bit of recognition for myself to say I’m doing something good.”
As for this season, now one round old, Barnard told us he’s looking to try and finish in the top third of the standings this year:
“I would like to get into the top ten this season. I know that will be extremely difficult but I think we can do it.
“The races at the start of the year will be difficult being a rookie – the team needs to adapt to how I am as a driver and there are things we need to adapt on the car as well. So the start of the season is always going to be much more tricky compared to the more experienced people but I think as the season gets on, we can get much stronger.
“Maybe three, four weekends in we can start scoring some really serious points and having some good results.”
And, naturally, being in F3 and travelling to the same venues as the F1 circus only makes the dream of reaching the top table feel that bit closer:
“Of course when you’re walking around the paddock and you can see the cars, the people, and you can see everyone from F1, the commentators, the team bosses, it’s a lot more of a reality than a dream but of course it’s really far away.
“We need to keep working as hard as we can but of course there’s a step in the middle to get to Formula 2 first so I need to concentrate on this year and just try to get the best results that I can. Maybe I’ll have another year in Formula 3 – we’ll see what happens. There’s a long way to go and I just need to keep doing my best work.”
Certainly, there are still hurdles along the way for Barnard but he is making good progress, and will be fully focused on achieving positive results in Australia, which is where round two takes place at the start of April.
