Hugh Barter says “For next year definitely the plan is to do FIA F3” after the final round of the Spanish F4 championship at Catalunya.

The Australian finished second in the championship behind his Campos Racing team mate Nikola Tsolov, whilst contesting a dual campaign in Spanish and French F4.

Barter performed admirably in Spanish F4 taking six victories, including a peerless trio of wins at Navarra.

The Australian explained to InsideF2 that after two seasons in F4 he would want to make the step up to FIA F3: “For next year definitely the plan is to do FIA F3 we definitely don’t want to sty in F4 it’s our second year, we just need to see where things take us.”

The 17-year-old took two podiums during the final round of the season in Catalunya taking second and third in Race 2 and three.

Barter said his pace was good in Catalunya but his struggles with the balance of the car hindered him over the weekend.

He said: “So the weekend was a ok weekend. The pace was really strong even during collective testing all the way to the last race.

“Just a shame that we missed out on pole by half a tenth in qualifying 1 and then in qualifying 2 we lacked pace in general and had a bit of trouble with the balance of the car which we had solely for race 2 and 3. 

“We did what we could with where we qualified even though I reckon we should’ve been on the podium in all three races but it is what it is.”

Catalunya is notoriously difficult to pass on, Barter echoed this and said it puts sightly more emphasis on the start.

“It’s definitely a very difficult track to pass on at least in these cars without DRS and no push to pass and there being quite long radius corners and high speed it’s quite hard to follow.

“So it puts a little bit more pressure on the start that seems to be where you make all your ground up, in qualifying it’s not so much of a problem.”