The GB3 Championship’s 2026 campaign gets underway tomorrow as part of the support bill for British GT’s Silverstone 500 season opener. 23 drivers will take to the track, with seven returning from the 2025 season and 15 making their GB3 debut. This weekend will also see the competitive debut of upgrades that the Tatuus MSV GB3-025 chassis received over the winter.
After Silverstone, GB3 will visit Spa-Francorchamps and the Hungaroring again before heading to the Red Bull Ring for the first time. A second visit to Silverstone kicks off its UK leg at Donington Park and Brands Hatch. The season finale will once again be held internationally, this time at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
The championship will not return to Zandvoort or Monza, the venue of last year’s finale.
What’s new in GB3?
The aforementioned upgrade package notably includes a brand-new 2.4-litre four cylinder engine from Mountune, with numerous changes to the construction of its components to improve reliability. Revisions to the aerodynamic package and the chassis itself were also made to reduce drag, increase downforce and improve stability.
GB3 have also shifted away from races being run to a set number of laps. All races will now last 25 minutes, albeit without an additional lap after the clock hits zero like in other championships at this level.
Car numbers will see a change this year. Instead of drivers choosing their own, numbers will instead be allocated according to the team’s championship position in the previous season. Each car’s roll hoop camera will now be uniquely coloured, with the lowest number’s be black, the second lowest being fluorescent yellow and the third lowest being fluorescent red.
Two teams join the grid for 2026. After debuting in GB4 last year, Nitrous Competitions ADM Racing will make their GB3 debut with a single-car entry. Arden Motorsport return to the championship after a year away following the end of their collaboration with American outfit Velocity Racing Development. In regards to the new car numbering system, their car numbers have been assigned based on when each team’s entries were received.
Who’s driving where in 2026:
Nine teams will compete in GB3 this weekend. 2025 competitors Argenti with Prema, Chris Dittman Racing and JHR Developments will not be competing at Silverstone and it is currently unclear if they will appear in future rounds.
Rodin Motorsport
Maxim Rehm joins the team for his first full season after competing in GB3’s Monza finale with Hillspeed last year, where he won the final race of the season from pole position. The defending teams’ champions will also field Martin Molnár, who finished third in his second British F4 season with two wins and ten other podiums.
Lastly, Abbi Pulling returns for a second season of GB3 with Rodin after finishing tenth last year with a third-place at Brands Hatch. She went fastest in yesterday’s second test session with a 1:51.722 and finished fifth overall with a 1:50.990 from the third session.
Hitech
Jin Nakamura will compete in his debut GB3 season alongside his commitments in Formula 3 with the team, replacing the previously announced Noah Lisle who withdrew for personal reasons. He will miss the Hungaroring and Donington rounds, when F3 will be racing at Silverstone and Monza respectively.
Yuhao Fu steps up from British F4 and Deagen Fairclough returns for a second season with Hitech after finishing third last year with a win at Monza and five other podiums. Fairclough also topped yesterday’s other two test sessions, his best time being a 1:50.477 in the third session, which was also the fastest lap overall.
Today, Fairclough again went fastest in the first session with a 1:50.507 and finished third overall.
Xcel Motorsport
Lucas Fluxá finished eighth in GB3 last year and moved to Xcel after competing with Argenti and later Hillspeed, with whom he won at Donington Park. He is also competing in the Le Mans Cup’s LMP3 class with Brutal Fish by Campos and finished fourth in the season opener in Barcelona.
Rowan Campbell-Pilling joins the team after finishing tenth in British F4 with a win at Knockhill and two other podiums. Ricardo Baptista makes his GB3 debut after previously competing in multiple championships such as the Formula Regional Oceania Trophy, Brazilian F4 and Eurocup-3.
Hillspeed
The Derbyshire-based team will field a lineup comprised entirely of GB3 debutants. Dante Vinci comes over from Italian F4 and the E4 Championship whilst Peter Bouzinelos returns to racing after sustaining major injuries from a road accident in his native Australia in 2024, where he was hit by a car whilst riding his bicycle.
Completing the lineup is former Ferrari Driver Academy member Aurelia Nobels, who finished 13th in F1 Academy last year with a third-place in Las Vegas.
Elite Motorsport
Kirill Kutskov will make his GB3 debut after mainly competing in Italian F4 last year. He also entered the final two F4 CEZ rounds, where he scored three wins and two third-places.
Flynn Jackes returns for a second season with the team and Kyuho Lee, who is a member of the Genesis Magma Racing Trajectory Programme, steps up from Spanish F4.
VRD Racing
Nikita Bedrin, who is also a development driver for DS Penske in Formula E, makes his GB3 debut after finishing 11th in FR Europe last year with two podiums. He topped today’s final test session with a 1:49.577, which was also fastest overall.
Brothers Patricio and Rodrigo Gonzalez return for their first full season after competing from last year’s August Silverstone round with the team.
Fortec Motorsports
Alexandros Kattoulas will make his first full-time debut this weekend after previously making his single-seater debut with the team in the championship’s Donington Park round in 2024. Last year, he finished fourth in GB4 with a win at the April Silverstone round and four other podiums.
He will be joined by Jack Taylor, who finished tenth in his second GB4 season with Fortec after taking two wins in the August Silverstone round and two other podiums.
Arden Motorsport
Lewis Gilbert makes the sizeable step up from karting to GB3 for his single-seater debut after graduating from the Arden Academy, the team’s development programme. In February, he completed a simulator assessment and tested F4 and FR machinery before being offered the seat.
Leon Wilson finished seventh in his second GB4 season with Arden after scoring two wins and a third-place.
Nitrous Competitions ADM Racing
Jason Pribyl will compete in the team’s single GB3 car. In GB4 last year, he took a single second-place in the April Silverstone round on his way to 17th in the standings.
The weekend’s schedule
Both qualifying sessions will take place back-to-back on Saturday morning, starting at 10:40. The first session will set the grid for race one at 15:10 and the second session will set the grid for race two on Sunday morning at 11:16.
The reverse-grid race three, which reverses the top 12 combined fastest times from qualifying, will start at 17:25.
TSL Timing will provide live timing for every session during the weekend. The MSV TV YouTube channel will broadcast every race.
Main Image Credit: Jakob Ebrey Photography
