Dino Beganovic impresses in Formula 3 post-season testing in Jerez

FIA Formula 3 post-season testing began on Wednesday 21 September ar Jerez, Spain; making up one-third of the PREMA racing lineup for the three-day test was rising Ferrari Driver Academy starlet Dino Beganovic. 

Beganovic, who currently leads the Formula Regional European Championship by fifty-four points, entered the weekend keen to gather some valuable data for the PREMA team in his first ever outing in a Formula 3 car.

The test started slowly for the Swede, however, as he recorded a 1:31.660 to end the morning session of day one all the way down in fifteenth place.

However, the afternoon session would prove to be much more positive for Beganovic as an extremely impressive 1:31.358 meant he finished the session second, four places ahead of next best PREMA finisher Zak O’Sullivan.

Beganovic once again struggled to reach full potential in day two’s morning session, as a 1:30.383 left him twelfth, however, the impetus of PREMA’s morning session looked to be focused on gathering data, and Beganovic’s forty-four laps haul in the morning session alone certainly would have contributed to that.

The eighteen-year-old once again lit up the timing screens in the afternoon session, finishing the day in fourth just 0.012 seconds off his PREMA teammate Paul Aaron.

As the final day of Formula 3 testing rolled around, this time Beganovic began the day positively finishing the session in sixth while also completing thirty-eight laps of the Jerez track, despite most of the morning session being dominated by pit stop practice.

The final session of Formula 3’s three-day test in Spain saw all three PREMA cars finish outside the top twenty as they put all their efforts into gathering key data ahead of the 2023 Formula 3 season.

Beganovic completed a colossal fifty-one laps throughout day 3’s afternoon session, contributing to his overall tally of two hundred and twenty-nine laps of the Jerez track over the course of the three-day test.

Beganovic reflected on the test, “It was a great experience, the car is very different to the one I race in Formula Regional and it was great fun to drive. The first thing that struck me was there is much more grip than I am used to and obviously more power from the engine. 

“Overall, it’s a very quick car and I was pleased with my initial results, both over a flying lap and in race simulations. It was definitely a wonderful experience.”

Beganovic is now focusing on the European Formula Regional championship. With two rounds remaining, he heads the standings on two hundred and fifty-three points. The next round is in Barcelona from 14-16 October and the Swede could clinch the title there.