The German driver’s pace was unmatched on Friday. He topped the time sheets in the practice session and secured his maiden pole position in the final Qualifying of the season.
The reverse grid and a penalty he carried over from the previous round (10-place grid drop for “Team personnel associated with his car not leaving the grid at the 15 seconds signal.) put Oliver in P22 on the grid for Saturday’s Sprint Race. Despite the unfortunate circumstances, he kept his head, stayed clear of the chaos unfolding at the start and moved up eleven places by the end of the opening lap before the Safety car got deployed.
The race resumed in lap 5 and Oliver once again made a perfect getaway. It didn’t take him long to sweep past Villagomez, launching himself into the points.
The absolute highlight of his race came in lap 8 when he executed a spectacular double overtake into Turn 1 moving all the way up to eighth while also setting the fastest lap.
After breezing past Mansell for P7 and gaining an additional position due to Saucy’s incident, Oliver found himself in sixth place.
Unfortunately, his attempt to get past O’Sullivan didn’t go to plan and lost two positions, but he still crossed the line in P7 and got promoted to fifth following the post-race penalties.
On Sunday morning, Oliver was supposed to take his hard-earned position in the first slot on the grid, but disaster struck in the formation lap when his throttle failed and Goethe was forced to retire before the race even started.
Ending the season like this leaves a bitter taste in the mouth but the German youngster can look back at a successful Rookie campaign.
He started the year on the podium in Bahrain, claimed a spectacular Feature Race win at Silverstone, and finished six times in the points, finishing P8 in the overall classification out of 35 entrants.
Oliver Goethe:
“There’s never a good time to have a technical issue, but this was one of the worst possible scenarios. I was really looking forward to being out in the front and leading the field into Turn 1. Especially knowing that I had the pace to finish the season with a strong result. It’s been a challenging year, but I didn’t expect anything less from FIA F3. Thanks to Trident Racing, I have learned a lot in my rookie season, and I am grateful to all my partners: ROFGO Racing, Venture Engineering, Gulf Oil International and Tag Heuer for making it possible.”
María Catarineu, Commercial Director Bullet Sports Management:
“We are proud of Oliver’s progress this year. FIA F3 is one of the most competitive junior single-seater championships in the world with thirty drivers on the grid who are all trying to get their breakthrough, so to be able to claim a pole position or a win in this environment is a big achievement. Unfortunately, hard work and raw speed aren’t enough, you also need some luck in motorsport, which was not on Ollie’s side in the final two rounds of the championship. Nevertheless, he has proved his talent on many occasions and has grown as a racing driver. He is still at the early stages of his career and the future is bright for him if he keeps up the hard work.”
As the FIA F3 season comes to an end, Oliver’s final year of high school begins. Goethe returns to the International School of Monaco where he is part of a special programme for student-athletes, to prepare for his IB exams.