Australian Formula 3 ace Christian Mansell’s star is rising.
The 19-year-old’s first Formula 3 campaign last year started slowly but ended with a bang. Driving for mid-grid Campos team, Mansell scored maiden points in Melbourne, charged to his first podium in Silverstone and rocketed from 23rd to second place on a chaotic weekend in Spa, a performance that earnt him the award for comeback of the year.
It was a steep and impressive trajectory that by the end of the season had him riding a wave of momentum and cemented him as challenger in the super competitive international series.
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“It was a steady grind,” he tells Fox Sports. “But Silverstone was an absolute turning point, and then obviously Spa was quite good as well.
“Getting on the F3 podium just gives you a lot of confidence. To go forward you need it. That sounds very obvious — of course you need it — but momentum is such a big part of how you can move forward very, very quickly, and ever since I got the podium in Silverstone I’ve felt a sense of belonging.
“I felt like I was at the top of my game, I was one of the top people in the championship, and if you tell yourself that, if you believe it, you can do a lot with that.”
He hasn’t missed his chance to do a lot with it.
His graft with the mid-grid Campos team turned heads, and by the end of the year his stock was soaring.
European grandee ART Grand Prix called.
Nursery for a laundry list of truly household motorsport names, ART has promised to keep Mansell’s star in its rapid ascent.
“It’s just being in a team of that pedigree,” he says. “I mean, ART, the people that have been through those doors, the racing drivers that they’ve been able to produce over the years, have been phenomenal.
“Half of the Formula 1 grid have them to thank for their careers.”
It’s barely an exaggeration.
Of the current F1 grid, ART counts Lewis Hamilton, George Russell, Charles Leclerc, Valtteri Bottas, Alex Albon and Nico Hülkenberg as alumni.
World champions Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg are also on the honour role.
Former F1 drivers Romain Grosjean, Kamui Kobayashi, Paul di Resta, Adrian Sutil, Esteban Gutierrez, Jules Bianchi, Stoffel Vandoorne, Pasto Maldonado and Nyck de Vries also went through the ART program.
Now Maitland’s finest is on the same conveyor belt with a shot at making it to Formula 1.
“I’d love to be on that wall of fame,” he says.
“Obviously I’m much more valuable nowadays than I was in 2022 finding a seat for 2023 … but it’s also just learning from them, from the experience that they have of being up the front.
“They’re a racing team bred to be up the front. They don’t come eighth in the championship and be happy with that.”
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As the team’s list of graduates suggests, ART isn’t racing in the feeder series just for fun.
The European powerhouse is racing royalty, founded by Ferrari team principal Frédéric Vasseur and renowned driver manager Nicolas Todt, son of former FIA president Jean Todt.
It’s won teams or drivers championships in every mainstream category it’s ever entered.
Joining ART’s ranks is a reflection Mansell’s burgeoning reputation in Formula 3, and so far it’s been a perfect fit.
“Just being in and around factory, the people, the environment — it’s a very serious work environment but it’s also a very fun team to be a part of, and I think that’s what’s made it so enjoyable driving for them and working with them,” he said.
“It’s French, so everything is very structured, which I really, really like. I originally lacked structure as a young racing car driver, so being forced to have good structure has benefited me, as we have seen.”
The benefit of the new structure is clear from Mansell’s results in the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.
He slipped from fifth to 14th in the opening sprint race, but overnight he directed set-up changes that totally revitalised his fortunes, allowing him to charge from eighth to second, securing his third podium in the category and his most impressive rostrum appearance to date.
“Bahrain was very, very good on the basis that it didn’t necessarily fall into my lap,” he said. “Bahrain was pure pace.
“We went from P8, we fought through to P2 and then we decided to not push the tyres any harder and stay in P2 rather than try and go P1. That was pure pace. That definitely gives more wind behind the sails.”
It comes with the territory of having had time to process and digest his first campaign behind the wheel.
“Less things are going to be jumping at me and I feel more on top of it,” he says. “On the whole definitely in the second year you just feel much better.
“You know what’s going on, you know all the things to expect and you can pre-empt it and you have a lot more mental space to worry about other areas.
“When you do the same amount of preparation, if not more, and then go into it already having a pretty good idea of what’s going on, you definitely do get a sense of just how underequipped you were going into some races last year.
“It definitely makes it an interesting mental space, because you just feel like you know a lot more.
“You’re able to perform at a higher level with a less amount of stress.”
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A second season in Formula 3 inevitably comes ladened with expectations. Do a strong job this year and Formula 2 beckons — and ART won last year’s F2 championship, making progression a tantalising prospect.
“I’m not going to put a position on it,” Mansell says of his target for this year. “If I start putting positions on it, I just start getting annoyed when I don’t meet those positions.
“But I will say this, and I’ve said this to the team, I’ve had plenty of conversations: my one request of myself is that I maximise the weekend to 100 per cent of its potential.
“I don’t care if that’s P10, P1 or P30; if the car is capable of delivering a result that I give or it’s predicted to be better and I get that result, I’m happy with that.
“Formula 1 teams aren’t silly. They’re pretty smart. If the car is capable of P5 and I finish P5, mega. That’s all we could have done that day. But if the car’s only worth P12 and I still finish P5, then I would class that as an outstanding effort.
“Everyone says they want to win the championship, but it’s just a very basic tunnel-vision view of looking at it. If you look at the championship on the whole, if you do maximise every weekend, you’re going to be in a good position by the time we get to Monza.”
The road to the finale in Monza routes through Melbourne for the second time in the history of the series, and while Mansell is steadfast in his week-by-week approach to success, there’s no doubt he’ll be pulling out all stops to better last year’s memories after scoring his maiden points.
“It is an absolute privilege and a half, that is for sure,’ he says. “The smile on my face is ever growing the closer it gets.
“It’s my people. Being an Australian in the Australian Grand Prix is genuinely one of the coolest experiences ever.
“To go into it as the leading Aussie in the feeder series … I’ve got to make sure I deal with this pressure somehow.
“But it’s good, because there are a lot of things that I do behind the scenes with a sports psychologist of mine, my physio — we have very long conversations about you techniques that I can use, because I’m very transparent with them.
“This is going to be the one race where I’m going to want to do the best at and I’m going to feel the most pressure at, so it’s just about preparing mentally and making it as good as we can.”
Mansell qualified 10th on Friday. He will line up third on the grid for Saturday’s sprint race and 10th for the feature race on Sunday morning.
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