The 2019 FIA Formula 3 Championship was the first edition under the merged format replacing both the FIA Formula 3 European Championship and the European Formula 3 series. It ran as a support series to the Formula One calendar, giving Prema access to the same circuits and audience as the top tier. The team had dominated the predecessor European championship, winning all team titles from 2011 through to the series' end in 2018, and arrived as strong favourites in the new format.
Robert Shwartzman, a Red Bull-supported Russian driver who had impressed in his first full Formula 3 European season in 2018 finishing second, was paired with Jehan Daruvala — a Renault Sport junior — and Marcus Armstrong, who had finished fifth in the 2018 Formula 3 European Championship. All three were experienced at the Prema operation and all three arrived with junior-program backing and championship ambitions.
Shwartzman proved the most consistent of the three across the eleven rounds. He demonstrated a particular ability to convert qualifying pace into race victories and to manage championship points throughout the tight multi-driver field that characterised the new series. Armstrong was competitive throughout the first half of the season and led or contended for the championship at several points, particularly strong at Red Bull Ring and in sprint races at Spa-Francorchamps, where he dedicated a victory to Anthoine Hubert following the French driver's fatal accident the previous evening. Daruvala also contributed race wins and podiums across the campaign.
Shwartzman clinched the drivers' title at the Sochi finale — the championship's closing round — where Armstrong himself won the final race by overtaking Shwartzman on the last lap, though the Russian had already secured the title. Armstrong finished second in the championship, with Daruvala third. The margin between the three Prema drivers was small enough that teammate results influenced each other's positioning throughout the back half of the season.
Prema won the teams' title comfortably, with the combined points total of three competitive drivers proving decisive across the fourteen-round calendar. The result extended Prema's run of Formula 3 European and FIA Formula 3 team titles to a remarkable continuous streak reaching back to 2011.
The 2019 sweep established a template that Prema repeated in subsequent FIA Formula 3 seasons — fielding multiple championship contenders simultaneously, with the team structure effectively ensuring points were harvested from several grid positions at once. Shwartzman subsequently graduated to FIA Formula 2 with Prema for 2020 and finished fourth. Armstrong followed into Formula 2 with ART Grand Prix. Daruvala also graduated to Formula 2. All three remained on the trajectory toward Formula One consideration, a direct outcome of the platform Prema's 2019 programme had provided.