The Prime Minister of Thailand, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, congratulated the country’s first-ever race car driver to win a round of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile Formula 3 Championship (FIA F3). The historic win took place on Saturday, July 5, at the iconic Silverstone Circuit in the United Kingdom.
The currently suspended Paetongtarn, who also serves as Minister of Culture, posted a message and photographs of herself with the victorious Thai driver, Tasanapol “Tern” Inthraphuvasak, on her official Facebook page, Ing Shinawatra, yesterday, July 6.
“Congratulations to Tasanapol ‘Tern’ Inthraphuvasak on his historic victory in the F3 Championship British Round Sprint Race 2025 at Silverstone Circuit, UK. He is the first Thai to achieve this win.
“His perseverance, endurance, and dedication to rigorous training are truly an inspiration to Thai youth. I fully support every dream of Thai athletes and will do all I can to help turn them into reality. #Silverstone #CheerThai #BritishGP”
The 20 year old rising star from the Campos Racing team was competing in his second F3 season, and this year made history for himself and Thailand.
Tern’s passion for motorsport appears to run in the family. His father, Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak, was a former GT racing driver. Tern himself was runner-up in both the 2017 Asian Kart Open Championship and the 2018 IAME Asia Series.
He began karting in 2013 at the age of eight, competing in national and Asian circuits. At 14, he moved to the UK to further pursue his motorsport dreams.
By 2019, he had progressed to compete in Europe and the United States, including participation in the FIA Karting European Championship in the OK-Junior category.
Tern made his F3 debut in 2024 with PHM AIX Racing, earning a podium finish (P2) in the Budapest Sprint Race and finishing 24th overall in the championship with nine points.
For the 2025 season, he rejoined Campos Racing, his former team from Eurocup‑3, and made a powerful impact, becoming the first Thai driver to claim victory in an F3 event with his win at Silverstone.
In a previous interview with the F3 team, Tern revealed that Thai-British F1 driver Alex Albon had been a major inspiration for him.
“My racing hero would have to be Alex Albon. When I was growing up and I started racing, he was doing GP3 and F2 and I was early in karting, so watching him grow as a driver and progress in his career was really good to watch.”
Albon won four races in the 2016 GP3 Series before the competition was restructured and merged with the FIA F3 European Championship to become the current F3 Championship.
The story Thailand claims first-ever victory in FIA Formula 3 history as seen on Thaiger News.
