Freddie Slater has one main goal right now – to get to Formula 1.

The 17-year-vintage British driver is preparing for his rookie Formula 3 season with TRIDENT Motorsport and was 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.

A Dream Realized

“Joining Audi and also being the first member of their Driver Development Programme is incredible,”

Freddie Slater

Slater shared, 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

Slater has experienced a meteoric rise to Formula 3, making waves in single-seater racing after a successful karting career.

In 2024, he won both the Italian and UAE F4 Championships, and in 2025, he won the Formula Regional European Championship.

This record attracted interest from several F1 teams, but Slater felt the timing wasn’t right until now.

“For me, it wasn’t right,”

Freddie Slater

Slater explained.

“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 position 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.”

Learning from the Best

Slater recently finished second in the Formula Regional Oceania Trophy in New Zealand, with three wins and six podiums.

He has yet to connect with Audi driver Gabriel Bortoleto, the 2023 Formula 3 champion, or his TRIDENT teammate, Nico Hulkenberg.

However, he has already begun working with Allan McNish – the Director of Audi’s Driver Development Programme – during testing in Barcelona.

“I’ve been very busy, so I’ve been keeping to what I’m doing, and just focusing on myself,”

Freddie Slater

Slater said.

“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 lousy experiences as well. Some of the stories, and the way he says to head 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 great bits, and then use it to my advantage.”

A Valuable Friendship

Slater also has a friendship with McLaren driver Lando Norris, sharing the same management company.

“To be honest, we don’t talk too much about the driving,”

Freddie Slater

Slater explained.

“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 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.”