American rising star Oliver Wheldon completed his first day of testing in the GB3 Championship with the sixth-fastest time at Austria's Red Bull Ring on Thursday.
The 15-year-old, who is the son of double Indy 500-winner Dan Wheldon, made his first appearance in the Tatuus MSV GB3-025 car with front-runners VRD Racing.
Wheldon’s fastest time of the day was set in the first of three sessions, in which he placed third overall. He ended Thursday 0.533 seconds off the overall pace, set by Hitech’s Deagen Fairclough.
Speaking after the final session, Wheldon was encouraged by his first impressions of the GB3 car.
“It’s a lot better than what I have driven before,” he said. “I’m really happy with how we’ve worked together with the team today. There is still more but I’m super happy with my results today and taking that big step up from USF2000. I’m excited for tomorrow.”
Wheldon will continue testing with VRD tomorrow but will not take part in the qualifying or races when GB3 makes its official debut at the home of the Austrian Grand Prix this weekend, as he's not yet old enough to compete.
“I know that F1 races here, which is pretty cool,” he said, also admitting being in awe of the picturesque Red Bull Ring venue. “It’s got a lot of history and when you’re driving, you can just look around, and all the scenery is really cool.”
Keen to build on a promising first day, Wheldon has identified where he can improve his own driving in order to extract more lap time tomorrow.
“Trusting the downforce is what I still need to work on,” he explained. “Definitely in the high-speed, I’m losing a bit because the [USF2000] car that I have driven before doesn’t have that much downforce.”
After such a strong start, Wheldon is already considering his options for the 2027 season. His older brother, Sebastian, is currently third in Formula Regional Europe, but Oliver believes his career could lie with the GB3 Championship instead.
“A lot of the drivers are super competitive [here] and all of the tracks GB3 goes to are super nice, so I’ll definitely be looking into it,” he said.
Testing resumes at 08.30 local time (CEST) on Friday morning, before the weekend properly kicks off with qualifying at 10.20 local time on Saturday morning.