Leading single-seater team Douglas Motorsport will be back for a sixth consecutive season in the BRDC British F3 Championship this year, with Saudi Arabian star Reema Juffali their first confirmed driver signing for the upcoming campaign.

The Corby-based team have a great track record in the UK’s premier single-seater championship, with no less than 14 race wins and more than 60 podium finishes to their name. In both 2019 and 2020 they took drivers into the final rounds of the season in title contention.

Aiming to enjoy front-running success with them this year will be Juffali. She joins BRDC British F3 as the next step in her ground-breaking racing career, having made history as the first ever Saudi Arabian woman to hold a racing license and compete both in her homeland and abroad.

Starting her career back in late 2018 in the TRD 86 Cup and MRF Challenge, the 29 year old then made the move to the UK to compete in the F4 British Championship. An impressive maiden campaign saw her net consistent points finishes.

After being a guest driver in the Jaguar I-PACE e-Trophy in Saudi Arabia and then competing in the UAE F4 Championship across the winter of 2019/20, Juffali returned to British F4 last season and showed fantastic progress en-route to 11 top ten finishes across the campaign.

Juffali is now aiming to build on all the experience she’s gained so far and make her mark in BRDC British F3. After showing impressive pace during an initial test with Douglas Motorsport last year, they have more outings planned in the coming weeks in preparation for the new season.

The BRDC British F3 Championship is the pinnacle of the UK single-seater ladder, competing at the biggest race circuits across the country and further afield. The series is watched around the world courtesy of free live online streaming of its races and a highlights programme on ITV4. 

Douglas Motorsport have been mainstays of the championship since its inception in 2016, having also competed in its predecessor, BRDC British F4. The team have more than 200 race starts in single-seater competition to their name and have been race-winners every year they’ve competed in the discipline.

Image from Jakob Ebrey Photography.

Douglas Motorsport unfortunately missed out on the Drivers’ title in a challenging and incident-packed season finale to the 2020 BRDC British F3 Championship at Silverstone GP circuit last weekend (7/8 November), but grabbed third place overall with Ulysse De Pauw.

De Pauw entered the final three races of the season still in title contention for the Corby-based team, with a 42-point deficit to make up at Silverstone. His hopes were unfortunately dashed though when the Belgian was taken out of the opening race while in a strong position to pick up more points.

Both De Pauw and team-mate Manaf Hijjawi started the weekend strongly with top-10 showings in testing held across Thursday and Friday in colder early winter temperatures, with cars lapping much quicker than last year’s lap records.

With 108 points to play with, an in-form De Pauw went into the 20-minute qualifying session on Saturday hoping to state his intentions to fellow title rivals. The two-time race winner qualified fifth on the grid in a high-paced contest, while Hijjawi’s 16th place on the grid was not representative of his true pace as three of his best times fell foul to strict track limits rulings.

A strong start in race one later that afternoon allowed both to progress early on in the 10-lap sprint. De Pauw settled into fourth place and was fending off Reece Ushijima when his race and title chances were brought to an abrupt end as contact from Ushijima forced him to retire with broken rear suspension.

Hijjawi found himself in the thick of a huge scrap that started just inside the top 10. The Jordanian eventually took the flag in 15th, meaning he could start the second race the following morning much more strongly from fourth on the grid.

The Jordanian was one of many drivers to start on wet tyres for the second race, held in foggy and greasy conditions early in the morning. It looked an inspired choice initially as Hijjawi confidently surged up to second and grabbed the race lead from Josh Mason at Copse in the opening laps, but the track conditions turned around very quickly.

Hijjawi held on initially very well in the top five, until the slick-shod runners made their way by. Hijjawi salvaged 14th place behind his team-mate De Pauw, who himself fought hard on wet tyres to make up ground from 18th to 13th in yet another strong reverse grid charge by the Belgian.

The final race unfortunately did not pan out how the pair wanted later on Sunday. Hijjawi was forced to pit after being victim to an opening lap skirmish further down the pack, while De Pauw maintained a top-six placing after starting fourth prior to the early squabbling. A battle with Louis Foster sadly ended in contact between the two at Village. Spinning to the rear, De Pauw salvaged 15th place, with Hijjawi two places behind.

Despite a challenging end to the season, Douglas Motorsport netted third place in the final BRDC British F3 Championship standings thanks to De Pauw, with the team with a strong total of 12 podiums across the season.

Images from Jakob Ebrey Photography.

Douglas Motorsport have moved their BRDC British F3 Championship podium tally up to 11 for the season, as a brace of top three finishes for Ulysse De Pauw kept the team in title contention after the penultimate meeting of the season at Donington Park this past weekend (24/25 October).

De Pauw, buoyed on from a second victory of the season last time out at Snetterton, hoped to continue that strong form and immediately lay down a marker in testing by topping two of Thursday’s timed sessions, with team-mate Manaf Hijjawi consistently challenging the times inside the top 10.

Rain threatened on Saturday but stayed clear for qualifying, De Pauw parking his Tautus chassis fourth on the grid in a hugely tight session – only 0.17s from pole position. Hijjawi closed to within half a second of the pole-sitting car, finishing 11th by the flag after a tense 20 minutes against the clock.

Rain soon arrived and did not relent, meaning race one was delayed and subsequently moved to Sunday morning for safety reasons. Clearer skies greeted drivers on Sunday for the trio of races, although wet tyres were selected by most drivers for race one, including the Douglas duo. 

De Pauw was keen to make up places early to trim the 32-point gap in the title fight, and made progress immediately by dispatching two cars on the opening lap to move into second place. The young Belgian chased and grabbed the fastest lap of the race, but just ran out of time to challenge for a third win. Hijjawi made a strong start, but was unlucky to be eliminated in a lap one incident at Old Hairpin.

A reverse grid put De Pauw back to seventh on the grid for the drier second encounter, with Hijjawi recovering from a starting spot of 14th. De Pauw moved himself up into fifth place in the opening laps, but it was lap five where he made a key double overtake to dispatch two cars at Redgate in a superb attack to grab third place.

The Belgian, now clear of his main title rivals, caught up to second-placed driver, but ran out of time to progress as he brought home a fantastic second podium finish of the day. Hijjawi hunted a train of cars ahead of him looking to make progress in the second half of the race, but unfortunately failed to finish.

The final race did not start the way De Pauw would have wanted after a shuffle near the front of the pack delayed the fourth-placed starter and dropped him to 13th; Hijjawi tucking in behind as the pair gave chase.  De Pauw made steady progress up the order and soon moved into the top 10 with a brace of overtaking moves, finishing in eighth place after two time penalties were applied to drivers ahead, while Hijjawi took the flag in 13th.

The weekend means Douglas Motorsport sit just 42 points adrift in the drivers’ championship standings with just three more races remaining in the BRDC British F3 season, which take place in two weeks’ time (7/8 November) on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit.

Douglas Motorsport have continued their BRDC British F3 Championship title challenge with a third win of the season and a strong haul of points in a wet outing at Snetterton this past weekend (03/04 October).

The team headed to Norfolk with Ulysse De Pauw and Manaf Hijjawi both on a strong run of form with podium finishes at the previous meeting at Donington Park. The former went on to add his seventh of the season in the second of four British F3 races at Snetterton’s 300 circuit, before claiming a fine victory in the final outing of the weekend.

The action around the 2.99-mile circuit was affected by rain across both days, including Thursday’s test session prior to the weekend in which the pair clocked up plenty of miles and data ahead of qualifying on Saturday morning.

Hijjawi and De Pauw both sat inside the top five for much of the 20-minute qualifying session, which was blighted late on by a timing glitch that resulted in a chequered flag being displayed earlier than planned. Hijjawi still secured fifth on the grid while having qualified third and fifth, De Pauw was frustratingly put back to ninth and sixth.

In the damp opening race later that afternoon, a determined De Pauw showed his intent to put right the wrongs of the previous session, and charged up to seventh place early on before making a brace of impressive moves around both Josh Skelton and Hijjawi to move into fifth place. Both chased the podium battle ahead, before finishing a solid fifth and sixth respectively.

The reverse grid for race two put De Pauw back to ninth once again, but the Belgian put in a spirited charge on a drying track to carve through the pack once again. Making up several spots on the opening lap, he soon turned his attentions to team-mate Hijjawi, moving ahead and then swiftly disposing of Alex Fores and Piers Prior with some bold overtaking moves to move up into the podium places. 

A mistake at Nelsons corner by Skelton late on under pressure allowed De Pauw by to chase after the race leader, setting the fastest lap on the way to a fine second place. A fast-starting Hijjawi again battled among the lead group and improved from eighth on the grid, the Jordanian showing his defensive skills by hanging onto seventh place.

Race three was a far wetter affair on Sunday morning, with Hijjawi running fourth throughout and narrowly missing out on a podium finish by less than a second. De Pauw followed his team-mate home in fifth place in a race that saw problems for the championship leader, enabling the Belgian to trim further into the series lead.

A front row start for De Pauw in the final race gave him further opportunity to close the gap, and he pounced on a wide moment for pole-sitter Louis Foster on lap one to grab a lead he would never lose to add to his victory at Donington Park in August. Hijjawi was unfortunately tipped into a spin at the Wilson hairpin on lap one of the race and finished 16th on an otherwise strong weekend for the British F3 rookie.

The win moves De Pauw up to fourth in the title race with two meetings remaining, now sitting within 32 points of the championship lead as the BRDC British F3 Championship returns to Donington Park on 24/25 October.

Images from Jakob Ebrey Photography.

Douglas Motorsport have picked up a brilliant hat-trick of podium finishes in the most recent trio of BRDC British F3 Championship races at Donington Park (19/20 September).

The Corby-based team moved their podium tally up to eight for the season, thanks to a brace of second place finishes for Ulysse De Pauw and a maiden visit to the rostrum for Manaf Hijjawi.

Buoyed on by his maiden BRDC British F3 victory last month at the same Donington Park circuit, De Pauw headed the Douglas Motorsport charge in both testing and qualifying. The Belgian placed his car second in the times in practice and then again in qualifying with a fine lap that was just two tenths of a second from pole position.

After having his best time removed for track limits, Kiern Jewiss recovered well to 10th place on the grid for the opening race. Hijjawi’s additional experience showed as he took 13th, just 0.6s from the front row in a tightly-bunched field.

De Pauw held onto his starting position when the lights went out later that afternoon for the first of the weekend’s three 12-lap races, chasing the race leader Kaylen Frederick all the way to the flag to seal a sixth podium finish of 2020 for the team and his fifth.

Hijjawi gained a place with a fighting drive to 12th, while Jewiss’ attempts to gain ground were unfortunately halted by suspension damage suffered in contact at Coppice on the opening lap of the race. The Douglas mechanics worked hard and amazingly repaired the damage in a matter of minutes, but Jewiss narrowly missed the 80% race distance required to be a finisher in a valiant attempt by all to grab a place towards the front on the reverse grid for race two.

That second race the following day would be one for Hijjawi to shine in, as he made a great start from fifth to leap into the top four, soon moving up into third place after dispatching front row men Alex Fores and Roberto Faria. The Jordanian hung on to seal a superb maiden podium finish in his rookie F3 season, and finished just under two seconds behind the winner.

De Pauw meanwhile shone brightly also with a charging drive through the pack from 15th on the grid into the top 10, easing his way by title rival Kush Maini along the way to finish ninth by the flag. Jewiss started and finished 17th, but would start the final race from a better grid slot with the chance to recover.

In the third race of the weekend, De Pauw took advantage of a mistake for Frederick early on to jump from third on the grid to second heading into the Melbourne hairpin, a position he held superbly to the flag to make it two podiums from three races and climb to fourth in the championship. Jewiss made a blistering start to climb from ninth to sixth, losing out in the final two laps at McLeans to finish eighth while Hijjawi unfortunately did not finish.

Four more BRDC British F3 races await at the next round at Snetterton 300 circuit, which takes place in two weeks time across the weekend of 3/4 October.

Image from Jakob Ebrey Photography.