EXCLUSIVE: F3 prospect Slater on his rapid rise, joining Audi and his friendship with Norris
Freddie Slater, the first driver signed to Audi's junior programme, chats about his rapid rise to F3, his goal to make it into F1 and his friendship with current World Champion Lando Norris.
Freddie Slater has one main goal right now – to get to Formula 1.
There's plenty of talk around the young British driver, with the 17-year-old preparing to race in his rookie Formula 3 season with TRIDENT Motorsport and he was also recently announced as the first member of Audi’s newly-formed Driver Development Programme.
The latter is an opportunity he knows doesn't come around often, as he looks to continue the rapid progress he's shown up until now.
“Joining Audi and also being the first member of their Driver Development Programme is incredible,” says Slater, speaking in Barcelona ahead of the F3 pre-season test.
“They are all about the long term and that's the thing for me, because even though I am just starting in F3, and that’s my full focus, my full goal is to get to F1.
“So now it's just about slowly starting to build me into hopefully an up and coming Formula 1 driver. It's adding those little bits of one percent that they can add with what my team have already done, and just to keep improving day by day.
“I think it's a very cool team I've got around me now and lots of cool people to take the information from – to then use it and hopefully get better.”
Why now was the right time to join an F1 driver academy
Slater has had a meteoric rise to Formula 3, making plenty of waves in single-seater racing after a trophy-laden karting career.
In 2024, the 17-year-old won the Italian and UAE F4 Championships, and he followed that up in 2025, by joining the likes of Kimi Antonelli, and last year’s F3 champion, Rafael Camara, in winning the Formula Regional European Championship.
This record has meant there has been long standing interest from several F1 teams for Slater’s signature. However, for him, it was never the correct time to sign on the dotted line – until now.
“For me, it wasn't right,” says Slater on joining an F1 academy earlier in his career. “There was a phase in karting where there was a bit of interest and it wasn't right then. The end of F4, it wasn't right at all either.
“During the FREC season, I'd probably say is when it started to become a bit more like, ‘okay, now you're going to Formula 3, it's the right time to have a team behind you to start developing you as a driver.’
“At the end of the day, the key is for them to develop you into an upcoming Formula 1 driver to then put you in their car. So it needs to happen at the right time, and this period of time going into Formula 3 is perfect for me.
“Before that, it was too early because it would have just been a name, they would not have been actually developing me as a driver. So, right now is the perfect time for me to have that, but it doesn't change much for me.
“It was quite cool before having everyone guessing, asking me about F1, and I was like, ‘no, I'm alright on my own.’ I was enjoying it. But my main focus was just to do the job on track, and to let my managers deal with that. So I was pretty oblivious to most of it half the time.”
Slater has had a busy start to the year, racing in the Formula Regional Oceania Trophy in New Zealand – finishing second in the Standings with three wins and six podiums in total.
This means he has not had a chance yet to talk with Audi driver, Gabriel Bortoleto, who won the Formula 3 title in 2023 with TRIDENT, nor his team mate, Nico Hulkenberg.
But the Briton did have Allan McNish – the Director of Audi’s Driver Development Programme – by his side during testing in Barcelona, something he is incredibly grateful to have.
“I've been very busy, so I’ve been keeping to what I'm doing, and just focusing on myself,” he explains. “But Allan will be around and he's one of the greatest drivers ever to drive cars.
“It's nice to have him and his life experiences on this part of my journey, it’s just things to learn from. He's had some incredible experiences and some very bad experiences as well.
“Some of the stories, and the way he says to go about things, is very cool to hear. But obviously it will be nice in time to chat to Gabriel and Nico about how they approach certain things, and obviously how F3 and F2 went for Gabriel.
“They are not the easiest championships, so I’ve just got to pick the bits of information, the good bits, and then use it to my advantage.”
Slater can also count on the 2025 World Champion Lando Norris for some advice, having built up a good relationship with the McLaren driver over the years, with the pair under the same management company.
The F3 rookie also spoke about their friendship, and how it is not built on him constantly asking for tips, but it is instead about enjoying life away from the pressures of racing.
“To be honest, we don't talk too much about the driving,” says Slater. “When I've hung out with him, we've just had fun.
“We've just messed about, done a bit of karting, gone for dinner, and had fun. Sometimes we don't always want to go in to meet these people, start friendships and start asking questions. Sometimes you just want to relax.
“So for me, it was more about having a laugh with him and having a bit of banter. It's been nice to do a bit of karting with him, spend some time with him, have dinners with my managers as well, who are also his managers.
“It's nice to just have a chilled environment to talk, and even though he is a Formula 1 driver, to still just have a normal conversation with him.”
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