2014 British F3 Silly Season

[brands]

Marshall had a slow getaway both on the formation lap and the race start and yet the driver behind still managed to hit him at the start.
Therefore a SC and then 25 minutes with one pass and much snoring from a very small crowd.

A very poor day, another series was canned and therefore the timetable on the BARC this morning was completely out of date.
Funny that the programme had the revised timetable, I assume they must have printed them overnight

[touring fan01]

5 cars what a joke. they need to switch off the life support machine.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/115423

To me that suggests that they actually didn't care and decided they had better things to do. Shame, because I don't see what Lynn and Tincknell actually had to focus on! Surely driving a car helps...

[kipper]

Originally Posted by Biscuits In A Red Bull

Shame, because I don't see what Lynn and Tincknell actually had to focus on! Surely driving a car helps...

It was a pity that none of the drivers mentioned in the Autosport article were racing at Thruxton. I suspect that the quality of the field meant that any of the potential guest drivers would have been expected to win. As such anything less than that would have been seen as a disappointment and a win be equally overlooked.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

It does, however, tell us why the teams can't find any drivers! The drivers don't care!

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by kipper

It was a pity that none of the drivers mentioned in the Autosport article were racing at Thruxton. I suspect that the quality of the field meant that any of the potential guest drivers would have been expected to win. As such anything less than that would have been seen as a disappointment and a win be equally overlooked.

Sounds like a load of fluff to me. Why would any of these people pay £30K+ of their own money to poddle around among 4 or 5 other cars. They'd need to be nuts.

[p-matt]

Originally Posted by Biscuits In A Red Bull

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/115423

To me that suggests that they actually didn't care and decided they had better things to do. Shame, because I don't see what Lynn and Tincknell actually had to focus on! Surely driving a car helps...

Lynn does have a GP3 title to win! He could have risked injury by doing it. It's not like he needed to race last weekend; he doesn't need F3 experience, and he doesn't even need to do Macau this year.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

FR UK Winter Series runner-up and FPC frontrunner Dan Wells will take the Double R seat. Thought he had no cash to do Japanese F3 for the last 2 seasons, so this is both surprising and encouraging for his career!

However, it does still look like there'll be only 5 cars...

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by Biscuits In A Red Bull

FR UK Winter Series runner-up and FPC frontrunner Dan Wells will take the Double R seat. Thought he had no cash to do Japanese F3 for the last 2 seasons, so this is both surprising and encouraging for his career!

However, it does still look like there'll be only 5 cars...

It isn't if he's one of the 5 car BF3 farce ? He'd be well advised spending his money on something else.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Oh come on, it shows that he has enough money to enter an F3 event, however depressing. He may well get a win. And, being Asian-based now (Hong Kong) and having raced in the FMC event at Macau last season, he could be trying to get a Macau GP drive. Sound negative now? Not really. In fact that sounds pretty good...

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by Biscuits In A Red Bull

Oh come on, it shows that he has enough money to enter an F3 event, however depressing. He may well get a win. And, being Asian-based now (Hong Kong) and having raced in the FMC event at Macau last season, he could be trying to get a Macau GP drive. Sound negative now? Not really. In fact that sounds pretty good...

Printing a bank statement would be a more cost effective way of showing he has enough money to enter an F3 event.
A win in the current series is meaningless.
If he wants a drive at Macau, then he just needs to take his folding along to one of the teams to book himself a seat.

[jondownunder]

I assume he's only bothering with this farce of a series so he qualifies to race at Macau. Although I imagine it would be significantly cheaper just to do a round of F3 Cup as da Costa, Korjus, Ocon, and Sainz Jr did in 2012-13.

[peebee2]

Can't see how he would get a Macau invite no matter what he races

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Santino Ferrucci will put his reputation on the line and race at Brands this weekend. He and Merhi racing in the series means that F1 hopefuls are still racing in British F3. Or that's what the PR people will say

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

7 cars (!!!!) for Brands as Max Marshall returns.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Ferrucci shows Lynn and Tincknell how to do it, winning R1 comfortably from pole. Cao is on R3 pole though, so the grid isn't that bad. It's this bad.

[edenrace]

It is so easy knocking a series when you sit on your backside just complaining and doing nothing,,,get a life and get involved

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by edenrace

It is so easy knocking a series when you sit on your backside just complaining and doing nothing,,,get a life and get involved

The series has been failing because drivers do not see it as a worthwhile way to spend several hundred thousand pounds of their money. Attempts at changing the series to address that haven't worked so the only alternative is to can it. If those running the series wish to perpetuate it in its current form, they will be open to the dismay voiced by most of the contributors on this thread.

[Moneyseeker]

Sadly it's clear that despite watering the series down to a handfull of events, there is no appetite for a British/UK F3 series and the powers that be need to accept it, to be honest.

Peter, I know it easy to be an armchair critic, but I can't see what can be done, that hasn't been tried already. It's the teams that have the cars and access to the drivers and if neither of those want to enter, it is really out of anyone else's control.

Unless a benefactor sponsor or organiser is going to subsidise the entrants/series to such an extent that teams can offer supported or even free drives, nothing will happen.

In any event, for those of us who remember the great names that have claimed the title in the past, the current series hardly does the pedigree justice and is perhaps better laid to rest as a result.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Ferrucci does what was to be expected and wins R3.

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by Moneyseeker

In any event, for those of us who remember the great names that have claimed the title in the past, the current series hardly does the pedigree justice and is perhaps better laid to rest as a result.

To achieve a BF3 podium, let alone a win, was a stupendous achievement in world motor racing terms. The current farce, and the clowns involved in it, are significantly devaluing and tarnishing that accolade which is why the series should be canned. People like Cao, Ferrucci etc... don't have the right to be discussed in the same context as Senna, Piquet, Hakkinen etc...

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Sorry but Ferrucci and Merhi are genuinely amazing. Cao and Rao aren't.

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by Biscuits In A Red Bull

Sorry but Ferrucci and Merhi are genuinely amazing. Cao and Rao aren't.

Roberto Mehri did well in the Euroseries a few years ago but everything went south after that. Who know's what he's at these days... a bit of this and that it would seem.

Santino Ferrucci is still very young. He has done a lot of karting and has done OK there. He wasn't a stand out in my book and is definitely no Verstappen. It would appear he then abandoned karting to 'dabble' with cars. There seems to be no coherence to what he's at. Why hasn't he spent the last two years nailing international karting titles before moving to cars at an age when he can actually compete ?

The 'stars' of BF3 could best be described as journeymen.

[peebee2]

Ferrucci amazing? At Brands Hatch nobody got within 1.5s of the times from last year in the same equipment! The others apart from Ferrucci 2.0s. Amazing I don't think

[edenrace]

Merhi ran in DTM for 2 years at Mercedes request has joined a new WSR team and is second in the championship...lapped as quick as FIA F3 cars at Spa ....Ferruci could only start car racing this year as he is just turned 16 and is driving in FIA F3 series but ran in British to gain more experience ...........appears the clowns may have more knowledge...not difficult