Martinius Stenshorne, a promising young driver in McLaren’s junior program in Formula 1, has been suspended for one round in Formula 3 before even competing in a race. The 18-year-old Norwegian, who was a rival of Mercedes’ F1 contender Kimi Antonelli in the regional Formula championship last year, was recently announced as a junior driver for McLaren alongside fellow F3 driver Alex Dunne. Stenshorne and Dunne will make their debut for McLaren at the Imola race this weekend. However, Stenshorne will not be able to participate in the Silverstone round, McLaren’s home turf, due to a serious violation of testing regulations that gave him a sporting advantage. This violation resulted in a four-point penalty on his license.
The reason for Stenshorne’s suspension is his participation in the Silverstone round of the GB3 series. According to regulations, F3 drivers must obtain approval from the FIA and the F3 promoter if they wish to participate in a different championship. They are prohibited from participating in track activities in single-seater cars with a weight-to-power ratio similar to that of an F3 car without permission. The stewards found that Stenshorne and his team did not seek approval for the GB3 event and the previous test. Stenshorne claimed to be unaware of these requirements, while his F3 team, Hitech, stated that they were not aware of his participation in the GB3 round. It is worth noting that Hitech is also involved in GB3, although Stenshorne competed with Chris Dittmann Racing for this particular round.
Los comisarios enfatizaron que a Stenshorne se le había negado permiso para participar en la ronda GB3 debido a las similitudes entre el coche GB3 y el coche de F3, ya que esto le daría una ventaja deportiva significativa. Otro novato de F3, el junior de Red Bull, Arvid Lindblad, también enfrentó sanciones por una salida no autorizada en GB3. Sin embargo, Lindblad solo participó en la sesión de pruebas y no en la ronda del campeonato en sí. Los comisarios consideraron las acciones de Lindblad como un error administrativo, lo que resultó en una multa de €20,000, la mitad de la cual fue suspendida. Nikola Tsolov, junior de Alpine F1, que compitió en el campeonato Eurocup-3 en Spa-Francorchamps, también está bajo investigación por participar en otro campeonato. Al igual que Stenshorne, a Tsolov se le prohibió participar en la ronda de Spa y recibió cuatro puntos de penalización en su licencia.
