All is set for the ninth and the last GP3 Series season

The 2018 GP3 Series season will start this weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as a supporting event to the Formula One Spanish Grand Prix. It would be the first of nine GP3 meetings this year, all nine will serve as a part of F1 Grand Prix weekends.

The GP3 Series calendar has been expanded compared to the previous year from eight to nine events. The series is returning to the Sochi Autodrom and will make a debut at Circuit Paul Ricard while a stand-alone event at Jerez is not a part of a schedule anymore. Besides Catalunya, Sochi and Le Castellet, other fixtures on the calendar are Red Bull Ring, Silverstone, Hungaroring, Spa-Francorchamps, Monza and Yas Marina Circuit.

In eight GP3 Series seasons, Barcelona hosted season-opening round seven times

The 2018 GP3 Series season would be ninth and the last for the competition which has been launched in 2010. For 2019, GP3 Series and FIA Formula 3 European Championship will merge into the FIA Formula 3 Championship.

Twenty drivers are in a contention for the last GP3 championship title. They are divided into six teams, the same number as the year before with one change. DAMS left the series and MP Motorsport became a new entry. The other teams are ART Grand Prix, Trident, Jenzer Motorsport, Arden International and Campos Racing.

ART Grand Prix is the most dominant GP3 team so far, with seven Teams’ titles in eight years

Last year’s GP3 Series champion George Russell and the front-runners Jack Aitken and Nirei Fukuzumi graduated to the FIA Formula 2 Championship. The fourth-placed driver from 2017, Anthoine Hubert, is the first on the list of sophomores, followed by Dorian Boccolacci, Ryan Tveter, Juan Manuel Correa, Julien Falchero, Leonardo Pulcini and Niko Kari. Four drivers experienced GP3 racing for the first time in 2016 and will return in 2018: Giuliano Alesi, Jake Hughes, Alessio Lorandi and Tatiana Calderon.

Nine rookie drivers who will compete their first full season in GP3 are Callum Ilott, Nikita Mazepin, Pedro Piquet, David Beckmann, Gabriel Aubry, Joey Mawson, Simo Laaksonen, Diego Menchaca and Will Palmer.

Tatiana Calderon will be the only girl on GP3 Series grid

2018 GP3 Series entry list