End of Formula V8 3.5

[S griffin]

Formula V8 3.5 has been cancelled for 2018, mainly due to uncertainty over the 2018 WEC calendar, a series it supported in 2017

There's always the argument of too many single seater feeder categories, but Formula Renault/V8 3.5 seemed to have it's place and has produced some good/great drivers who went on to F1, like Kubica, Magnussen and Bianchi. It will be missed.

Anyone got any thoughts?

[peebee2]

Nothing to do with the calendar. No top-line drivers with budgets wanting to do it. And very few medium drivers with budgets wanting to either, so it’s basically died.

[jondownunder]

Very sad, though seemingly inevitable the way the last two seasons have gone.

I don't think they ever had a chance with the FIA's anti-competitive bias towards their own series in allocating F1 Super Licence points.

[S griffin]

I also think maybe the rise of Super Formula hasn’t helped

[LavidaLoca]

Originally Posted by S griffin

I also think maybe the rise of Super Formula hasn’t helped

Honestly i do not think Fr3.5 and Super Formula are concurrent series .

Superformula is like formula 1,5 and Formula V8 was Formula 3,5 in the last years

[loon]

Sadly Super Formula is only a shadow of it's former glory days of the early 90's when the entry was stronger than even F1

[Formulahistory]

i don't think Super Formula has a big rise.
It was just because the last F2 champions didn't get a seat in F1 that they raced in Super Formula instead for one year.

But Super Formula with just 7 races in a year isn't that popular to drivers I fear.

[Nikki Katz]

This was always going to happen from the moment that Renault pulled out. To be honest it probably needed to at this point, a championship with 10 cars isn’t much of a championship and i’m not certain I really rate any of this year’s lot given that binder was leading the championship at one point. It’s a shame it didn’t properly merge into f2 though, and it’s given some great drivers over the years.

[loon]

It was a fantastic series when it was launched as it had paid drives and not just F1 wannabees but as soon as it became just another F1 feeder series it was doomed to be strangled to death by F2

[Juntos]

Good news. This series were no longer necessary. The last two seasons were tragic. The idea of going with WEC didn't help the cause. Race promoters must learn from the mistakes of others. You can't possibly live long enough to make them all yourself.

[p-matt]

Originally Posted by jondownunder

Very sad, though seemingly inevitable the way the last two seasons have gone.



I don't think they ever had a chance with the FIA's anti-competitive bias towards their own series in allocating F1 Super Licence points.

You think? Wasn’t it 35 points for the champion last year and then it got downgraded to 25 for this year?

I’m not sad that it’s gone. The fact drivers like Palou and Chaves had been able to come in and immediately beat the regulars shows what a joke the series had become.

I’d rather see a really strong F2 than 2 half baked series’ trying to do the same thing.

[coppice]

I won't be losing any sleep as decent , accessible , modern big power single seater racing has been missing presume dead for years in UK , more's the pity.

[NaBUru38]

FR3.5 / FV8 was a good intermediate step between F3 and GP2.

Its alumni list is impressive: Marc Gené, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, Antonio Garc�*a, Heikki Kovalainen, Robert Kubica, Álvaro Parente, Robert Wickens, Kevin Magnussen, Carlos Sainz Jr, Justin Wilson, Stephane Sarrazin, Markus Winkelhock, Kamui Kobayashi, Jaime Alguersuari, Jean-Eric Vergne, Daniel Ricciardo, Esteban Guerrieri, Esteban Guerrieri, Will Power...

[Mekola]

Well, when organizing FV8 3.5 TWPC noted in the predictions and important lack of interest, had an enormous struggle to run the competition, then noted the series itself struggled hardly to continue, from 2014 onwards.

Surely, their best years were the first ones - From 1998 Open Fortuna days, and the peak, perhaps, whas when Vettel stepped up directly to F1 in 2007.

This series won't have existed without the help of Coloni Motorsport, since it started as a "step-up" of his Superformula ran from 1995-97. Wonder what will be of RPM Racing and the Alguersuaris, if they have something on plan after the series folded.

[peebee2]

Ironic that Binder won the last race. Sums up the last few seasons rather well.

[jondownunder]

Originally Posted by p-matt

You think? Wasn’t it 35 points for the champion last year and then it got downgraded to 25 for this year?

Sorry, you're quite right - I was going by wikipedia which shows the most recent revision to the points, which based on the poor quality of the final year, seems reasonable.

I must have been getting mixed up with Super Formula which awarded little over half of the points of F2 from the very beginning I think.

[Juntos]

Originally Posted by p-matt

I’m not sad that it’s gone. The fact drivers like Palou and Chaves had been able to come in and immediately beat the regulars shows what a joke the series had become.

Indeed.

[Roninho]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

FR3.5 / FV8 was a good intermediate step between F3 and GP2.

Its alumni list is impressive: Marc Gené, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, Antonio Garc�*a, Heikki Kovalainen, Robert Kubica, Álvaro Parente, Robert Wickens, Kevin Magnussen, Carlos Sainz Jr, Justin Wilson, Stephane Sarrazin, Markus Winkelhock, Kamui Kobayashi, Jaime Alguersuari, Jean-Eric Vergne, Daniel Ricciardo, Esteban Guerrieri, Esteban Guerrieri, Will Power...

The serie indeed produced a bunch of talents. And typically the racing was pretty good.

However imo it is also a perfect example of what is wrong in motorsports.

FR3.5/Nissan/Renault WS is from a time where we had GP2, A1GP, Formula Superfund, Italian F3000, FR 3.5 and a bunch of european F3 classes and i am sure i miss some. All of those series aimed for becoming 'the' serie below/next to F1. With all gone except for GP2 you can say that this didn't work.

It's a shame that the FIA, F1/FOM/Bernie and OEM's let this happen and did not work together on building an infrastructure where junior series have enough commercial exposure for teams to have sponsorincome and actually hire drivers based on their talent in stead of who pays.

There was a short moment after introduction of GP2 that there was a decent chance were GP2 could have developed into such a serie. They had the teams, and for a few GP's the saturday and sunday races were live on the main tv networks as part of the F1 deal. I remember a sunday morning race having over 1.5 mio viewers in Germany alone. It was actually to good because quickly Bernie dropped the races from TV.

[S griffin]

Personally I think Formula 3.5 maybe could have merged with GP2, as it was usually promoted well and as I said produced several at the very least decent F1 drivers

[LavidaLoca]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Personally I think Formula 3.5 maybe could have merged with GP2, as it was usually promoted well and as I said produced several at the very least decent F1 drivers

GP2 peoples knew that Formula 3.5 will collapse anytime soon , it was just a matter of time .

the merge of the 2 championships was done "naturally" with the healthy teams (only Charouz) moved in GP2