Kari makes a shock return

Niko Kari, is making a shock return to Formula 3 this weekend at the season opener in Bahrain.

Kari is filling Jenzer Motorsport’s third car in a one-off, marking his first appearance in the Formula 1 support series since 2019. The 22 year old, race in F3’s GP3 from 2016 to 2018, where he won one race and coming 10th in 2017.

After getting an opportunity to do two rounds in F2 with MP Motorsport in 2018, he then raced in F3’s inaugural season in 2019 where he finished 12th with Trident, he was then set to race for Charouz Racing System in 2020 but lost his seat just before the season started.

After that, he fount a seat in the European Le Mans Series’ LMP3 class. He came fourth in the standings with two class podiums and also appeared in the supporting Le Mans Cup.

His focused then switched to animal hunting in his home country and did not contest in the F3 pre-season testing earlier this month. It is not anticipated to remain in F3 for the second round- if Jenzer did not fill its full roster of three cars for the season opener, it would have been subject to a fine.

Kari also has experience in European F3, Masters of F3, Formula 4 North European zone champion, with him winning the latter.