Prema began competing in Formula 3 almost immediately after its founding, joining the Italian Formula 3 Championship in 1984. The early years established the team's ability to develop young talent, with notable alumni including touring car star Fabrizio Giovanardi, multiple Le Mans winner Rinaldo Capello, and Formula 1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve. Italian Formula 3 Championship titles followed in 1990 with Roberto Colciago, in 1998 with Donny Crevels, and in 1999 with Peter Sundberg. The team also made its first appearance at the prestigious Macau Grand Prix in 1988, a race it would contest regularly in the decades that followed.
In 2003, Prema took the significant step of entering the Formula 3 Euro Series, the pan-European championship that sat at the top of the F3 pyramid. The debut was immediately successful: Ryan Briscoe won the inaugural edition of the series for the team, delivering a title in the very first season of participation. The team then went through a period of more modest results before rebounding strongly in the early 2010s.
Roberto Mehri claimed the 2011 Formula 3 Euro Series title with Prema, followed immediately by Daniel Juncadella's championship in 2012. Juncadella also gave the team its first Macau Grand Prix victory in 2011. These back-to-back championships announced Prema's return to the top of the European F3 order and set the stage for an era of near-total domination.
When the Formula 3 Euro Series transitioned into the FIA Formula 3 European Championship in 2013, Prema continued where it had left off. The team won every team championship from 2011 through 2018 — a run spanning eight consecutive seasons — and claimed every driver's title during that period except one. The sequence of Prema champions reads as a list of future Formula 1 drivers: Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll, Mick Schumacher, and Andrea Kimi Antonelli all won the FIA Formula 3 European Championship with the team.
Lance Stroll's 2016 title was particularly notable given the intensity of the competition, while Mick Schumacher's 2018 championship carried additional weight as the son of seven-time Formula 1 World Champion Michael Schumacher. The team's ability to develop Ferrari Driver Academy, Red Bull Junior, and other manufacturer-backed talents while consistently winning championships made it the most coveted seat in the F3 field.
In parallel with their European F3 dominance, Prema expanded to cover the full junior single-seater ladder as the FIA formalized its pathway toward Formula 1. The team won the first two editions of the Italian Formula 4 Championship with Lance Stroll and Ralf Aron, and consistently placed highly in the German ADAC Formula 4 championship. This breadth of participation across every rung of the junior ladder reinforced Prema's standing as the premier junior team in European motorsport.
Prema's record in European Formula 3 competition stands as one of the most comprehensive in the history of junior motorsport. The combination of institutional knowledge, strong manufacturer relationships, and a clear methodology for driver development produced a pipeline that fed directly into Formula 1. Drivers who came through the Prema F3 programme across the team's peak years accounted for multiple Formula 1 race wins, podiums, and championship challenges in the years that followed. The team's European F3 chapter formally closed when the FIA Formula 3 European Championship was replaced by the current FIA Formula 3 Championship in 2019, at which point Prema continued its dominance in the new series as well.