Formula 3

[marcus]

driving home tonight from work a thought popped into my head about formula 3.

we have of course formula one wich is a world championship and Formula 3000 wich is a european chamionship and i would guess in most peoples minds this would be close to a world champioship for F3000
there are also similar classes around the world wich are a lead up to the european series.

but with formula 3 there is no European/worl series that I know of ??

maybe there is but Im pretty sure there isnt ..why is that ???

the closest to it i guess would be brittish F3 and there are several other series around the world that are national based but why not a european chamionship..travelling with F1 and F3000 for a few races or so

would this see the end of the national series that are very good or could each or most countries sustain their series ???

ok we have the masters at Zandvoort and the macau street races but these are just 2 race meetings ..im talking of perhaps 10 to 12 races comprising a european or world series.

anyone else think this is a good idea or a bad idea ???

[bella]

you start going into expensive territory with anything but national series, and usually the only kids that can afford to do those series are the really rich ones who are going to get to f1 anyway.

there's a theoretical grand slam of zandvoort, spa (?), and macao, like you say. maybe they should bring those into a series.

[Mekola]

In the past there was an European F3 Championship.
It raced during 1975-84. Known drivers as Alain Prost, Michele Alboreto, Riccardo Patrese and Ivan Capelli won this important championship. I don't know much about this, but I know it was important specially during 1977-82. You can see that Jan Lammers and Alain Prost made directly the jump from Euro F3 to F1 the year after they were Champions. Alboreto made it too but he raced in F2 some time in 1981 before his insertion in F1.

Oscar Larrauri, an Argentinian who won the Euro F3 Championship in 1982, was the equivalent of Norberto Fontana on hid days on Europe, but in his time he never clinched an F1 drive (someone told me he must raced at Euroracing-Alfa Romeo in 1983) an he needs wait until 1988 when the same Pavanello give him a seat at his EuroBrun team. During the waiting he had some success in Sportscars in Europe.

Going back to F3, we only have the meetings at Pau and Zandvoort as remains of the Euro F3 championsip.

European F3 Champions.
1975: Larry Perkins (AUS), Cowangie Ralt-Ford
1976: Riccardo Patrese (I), Trivellato Chevron-Toyota
1977: Piercarlo Ghinzani (I), AFMP March-Toyota
1978: Jan Lammers (NL), Roger Heavens Ralt-Toyota
1979: Alain Prost (F), Martini Martini-Renault
1980: Michele Alboreto (I), Euroracing March-Alfa Romeo
1981: Mauro Baldi (I), Euroracing March-Alfa Romeo
1982: Oscar Larrauri (RA), Pavanello Euroracing-Alfa Romeo
1983: Pierluigi Martini (I), Pavesi Ralt-Alfa Romeo
1984: Ivan Capelli (I), Coloni Martini-Alfa Romeo

[R]

For those who are interested, Formula Pages has a lot of info on F3, including all the final standings in the European F3 from the years Mekola mentioned. A lot of famous names there!

[formula-3000net]

Originally posted by bella
you start going into expensive territory with anything but national series, and usually the only kids that can afford to do those series are the really rich ones who are going to get to f1 anyway.

there's a theoretical grand slam of zandvoort, spa (?), and macao, like you say. maybe they should bring those into a series.

How about Zandvoort, Macau, Korea, Pau?

[marcus]

I guess cost is the main problem here..it would be pretty expensive to slug a 2 car team around the world..but I still think it would be good to see.

so this Euro championship that used to run died because of money ???

interesting that it seems to have dissappeared around the same time as Euro Formula 2 ????

[Marshal]

Euro F2 became F3000. And yes, as I recall Euro F3 died due to funding constraints. There was also a lot of stuff about tyres, which were free (as to the type you could use) so lots of people spent a lot of money on qualiers and the like.