British F3 silly season 2010

[strider]

We may as well get this started properly, although the first story isn't silly at all, it's pretty impressive stuff.

James Calado is to graduate to British Formula 3 next season with Carlin Motorsport, having retained the backing of the Racing Steps Foundation which funds his career.

I'd say that you have a potential title winner right there, someone who could go one better than Oliver Turvey who, incidentally, is moving up to GP2 with iSport, still funded by Racing Steps.

[jondownunder]

Glad to see RSF stick with Calado, and a sensible move for him.

Read in Autosport last week that RRR had tested regular driver Huertas, Felipe Nasr (F.BMW Europe champ) and Renger van der Zande.

Carlin were due to test Calado, Adriano Buzaid and Jazeman Jafaar, while Fortec were due to test Daniel McKenzie, Oli Webb and Will Buller.

Also, West-Tec will run 3 cars in the National class after buying McKenzie's Dallara from Fortec, and they were due to test Aussie Tom Tweedie as of a few weeks ago.

[jab]

I'd like to see Buzaid in a top team next year. I think he would definitely be a title challenger

How about James Cole? Sniffing around?

[strider]

Don't underestimate T-Sport. They're a lot better than some people seem to realise. They had wins with all their drivers this season, which I think is more than any other team managed.

I'm sure James Cole will be sniffing around. What's the name of the guy who sponsors Wayne Boyd? There may be a connection.

[GroupOfOne]

Motorsport News today says that four of the ten rounds will be overseas next season, with the calendar to be announced in the next couple of weeks.

Paul Ricard is the likely fourth venue, joining Hockenheim, Spa and the Algarve which will all stay on.

So which British track will be dropped, will they have just one round at Silverstone, or will the Donington chaos solve the problem nicely for them?

[alias99]

Çole and Boyd, to my knowledge are managed by Coles father. They both have very similar sponsors, so that might be what your looking for Strider

[MKII]

Originally Posted by strider

Don't underestimate T-Sport. They're a lot better than some people seem to realise. They had wins with all their drivers this season, which I think is more than any other team managed.

I'm sure James Cole will be sniffing around. What's the name of the guy who sponsors Wayne Boyd? There may be a connection.

Bit of a swear word?

[Richard B]

Originally Posted by GroupOfOne

Motorsport News today says that four of the ten rounds will be overseas next season, with the calendar to be announced in the next couple of weeks.

Paul Ricard is the likely fourth venue, joining Hockenheim, Spa and the Algarve which will all stay on.

So which British track will be dropped, will they have just one round at Silverstone, or will the Donington chaos solve the problem nicely for them?

Is it a suprise that "British"F3 has seen a decline in spectators over the years with 40% of the races now abroad. I recall "as a boy" along with countless others attending virtually every round of Britain's premier single seater championship. A young Brazillian chap called Ayrton Senna da Silva won the championship and did a reasonable job in later years despite having only raced F3 on UK tracks.

[strider]

Originally Posted by alias99

Çole and Boyd, to my knowledge are managed by Coles father. They both have very similar sponsors, so that might be what your looking for Strider

Yes, it was exactly, thanks, and in that case you should know that James Cole did a fair amount of F3 testing with T-Sport this time a year ago. He was deemed not quite ready to move up to F3 then, but now maybe he is.

* I've just remembered the father's name. It's Chas Cole, isn't it? A musical entrepreneur kind of guy.

[strider]

Originally Posted by Richard B

Is it a suprise that "British"F3 has seen a decline in spectators over the years with 40% of the races now abroad. I recall "as a boy" along with countless others attending virtually every round of Britain's premier single seater championship. A young Brazilian chap called Ayrton Senna da Silva won the championship and did a reasonable job in later years despite having only raced F3 on UK tracks.

We've had this debate before.

The first question is: how many of the British F3 races in the UK did you go and watch this year?

[runshaw]

Originally Posted by strider

Yes, it was exactly, thanks, and in that case you should know that James Cole did a fair amount of F3 testing with T-Sport this time a year ago. He was deemed not quite ready to move up to F3 then, but now maybe he is.

* I've just remembered the father's name. It's Chas Cole, isn't it? A musical entrepreneur kind of guy.

Thats the guy who sponsored (or managed) Dan Clarke all the way up to Champ Car, isn't it? I thought it was 2 years ago that James Cole tested with T-Sport, after winning the North West FF1600 championship.

[strider]

Originally Posted by runshaw

Thats the guy who sponsored (or managed) Dan Clarke all the way up to Champ Car, isn't it? I thought it was 2 years ago that James Cole tested with T-Sport, after winning the North West FF1600 championship.

Yes, it is. James Cole may well have tested F3 a couple of years ago as well. He's done quite a bit.

[EastonNeston]

I only attended F3 at 3 British tracks, 2 times at Silverstone, this year, plus Hockenheim. I would of atteneded other rounds but SRO have a policy of deliberately chosing to clash with other UK events, 4 or 5 times with BTCC and once with WSR.

Most people realise that its not a good idea to promote an event or series when there are clashes with a similar event. Do you see Liverpool and Everton playing at home at the same time? or Wimbledon and the British Open Golf on the same weekend?
As promotors SRO have shown very little respect to their audience or their competitors. It seems that BGT competitor numbers are down, mainly because SRO have failed to provide a product that is worth taking part in. The whole package around F3 is a very pale shadow of what it was during the 'powertour' days, but that was when the series was run by promors who understood racing and wanted to provide a good value entertaining day out for spectators and an efficiently run race meeting to cometitors visiting all of the circuits capable of hosting such an event.

[Go_For_Pole]

Ahhh Powertour. I was in uk for a year and I remember attending a few Powertour meetings, it was something really worth going. Big Gt grid, F3, national touring cars, minis, tvrs. How hard is it to have two properly promoted packages of racing in uk?

[jab]

Last time I went to an F3 meeting was in 1998 at Pembrey

How I'd actually love for some racing series to actually not just come to Wales but to the south west in general - I doubt Thruxton will return to the F3 calendar if they're taking away a British round, and I don't see a return to Castle Combe any time soon either

That said, I'm in the Midlands now so no excuse for not going to race meetings

[strider]

Originally Posted by EastonNeston

Most people realise that its not a good idea to promote an event or series when there are clashes with a similar event. Do you see Liverpool and Everton playing at home at the same time? or Wimbledon and the British Open Golf on the same weekend?
As promotors SRO have shown very little respect to their audience or their competitors. It seems that BGT competitor numbers are down, mainly because SRO have failed to provide a product that is worth taking part in. The whole package around F3 is a very pale shadow of what it was during the 'powertour' days, but that was when the series was run by promors who understood racing and wanted to provide a good value entertaining day out for spectators and an efficiently run race meeting to cometitors visiting all of the circuits capable of hosting such an event.

SRO have issued a Press Release about British GT today. They seem finally to have taken on board the need to avoid clashes with TOCA, which is a major step forward. The venues they have mentioned, which will presumably be the same for BF3 since there are six of them, are, in no particular order:

Oulton Park
Brands Hatch Grand Prix
Snetterton
Silverstone International
Donington Park
Rockingham

Originally Posted by jab

How I'd actually love for some racing series to actually not just come to Wales but to the south west in general - I doubt Thruxton will return to the F3 calendar if they're taking away a British round, and I don't see a return to Castle Combe any time soon either.

That said, I'm in the Midlands now so no excuse for not going to race meetings

It's a travesty that BF3/BGT don't race at Thruxton, because it offers a unique challenge that every driver should have to face, but I think there are some politics involved there. The same goes for Croft, which is such a friendly circuit.

Castle Combe was great but the noise limits the circuit imposes now have ruled it out.

The facilities at Pembrey aren't really up to scratch, even though they keep improving them within their budget. Anyway, I think they make more money out of testing than they would from having a race meeting.

[runshaw]

Its ashame they don't visit Knockhill either anymore, F3 cars look awesome round there.

[EastonNeston]

The Renault meeting at Knockhill about 3 years ago, after the track was resurfaced probably killed off the chances of fast single seaters racing there again. The F Renault cars were so fast through the first half of the lap the track was at the margins of safety, F3 has even higher cornering speeds.

[HCForums]

Just a general thought. We saw ART, Fortec and Manor add some cars to the lineup when they raced abroad. I know that these were off weekends for the Euroseries cars but doesn't that say something about these races and isn't that the reason why British F3 is moving away to the other countries. Like someone said earlier; you need to offer them a good package. It was lovely to see these open wheelers go round Pembrey or Castle Combe but young drivers don't want to go there anymore. They rather race on F1 test tracks (Algarve) or GP tracks (Hockenheim/Spa). Its them who bring the huge budget that allow the teams to run. I think BritF3/SRO needs to do this now before they turn into something like German F3 (good series though) and lose all their international flavour.

But seeing Alguersuari go into F1, Asmer testing in F1, Turvery doing GP2 I don't think they have anything to worry about just yet.

How are the chances of Euroseries teams actually doing more rounds next year? I would love to see ART with one or two cars.

[Richard B]

Originally Posted by strider

We've had this debate before.

The first question is: how many of the British F3 races in the UK did you go and watch this year?

I have attended every F3 race in the UK for the past 4 years, plus Bucharest twice and Algarve this year.
I would have been to every round if so many of them didn't involve overseas travel!

[HCForums]

That's impressive, I only did Oulton and Spa this year.

[strider]

Originally Posted by Richard B

I have attended every F3 race in the UK for the past 4 years, plus Bucharest twice and Algarve this year.
I would have been to every round if so many of them didn't involve overseas travel!

That's a very good reply, in fact I think I'll for forget that line of questioning.

But if you'll forgive what is really just personal curiosity, why Bucharest? I can understand the wish to explore the unknown in 2007, but wouldn't it have been less expensive to go to Monza and Spa in 2008?

Getting back to the original question and being totally serious, the reason for the number of overseas rounds is that is what the drivers want and therefore what the teams want, because then they stand a better chance of getting the drivers to come and race with them. The split between the UK and Europe was specifically agreed between the teams and SRO.

Drivers with serious career ambitions want to race on circuits that they will race on in the future. Other drivers, who have spent a couple of years pounding round the circuits in the UK with other single-seaters in the TOCA package are pleased to have a change and a different challenge.

There's your answer. I agree it's not good news for BF3 fans who want to go to every round, but at least you have six in this country at decent circuits.

[Richard B]

Just to finish off our personal conversation, I went to Bucharest since I'd never been to a street race and the prospect of seeing f3 cars (and FIA GT) 2" from the concrete walls seemed interesting, I enjoyed it so much I went back again!.
As for Moza and Spa, love them both but I've been to F1 races at each and the budget stretched to only 1 overseas race so...Bucharest it was. This year Alagarve was a new track so...
But back to the point in question it's the drivers who want to go to exotic circuits? the F3 ones or the "supporting" GT's? All F3 drivers want to win the British F3 championship, surely the choice of circuit UK or foreign is a secondary issue to them. As I stated earlier in this thread many have won the British F3 championship purely on UK tracks and done very well out of it.
As a secondary point I worked for a car dealership that sponsored a British F3 team/driver a few years ago. We invited customers/potential customers/staff to races it was a differant approach to marketing and worked quite well. Did it sell any cars for us? yes a few, was it a good staff incentive? yes did fleet customers enjoy it? yes. Did we sell any cars in Belgium, Italy, Romanaia, Germany? No.
Were we going to commit to supporting a sponsorship venture that spent 40% of it's time abroad? No. Is the dealership still involved? no (Fortunately I still am).
UK companies may support UK drivers or UK teams in a UK championship, but not a European one.

[strider]

The reasons for going to Bucharest are understood, Richard B. I went there twice as well and thought it was a great adventure. The F3 cars were much better suited to the circuit than the GTs, however.

However, if you missed Monza, you missed the best F3 racing I've ever see. I remember Alvaro Parente winning three races in 2005, each one in a different way, and Sergio Lopez winning both races in 2008, both starting from 14th on the grid. The slipstreaming and the overtaking were something that you just don't see anywhere else.

I'll come to your specific point about sponsorship in a moment, but it's important to understand that the whole map of Formula 3 in Europe has changed since the Formula 3 Euro Series started in 2003. Before then there were separate British, German and French Championships and they ran very well as separate entities, each mostly within their own borders, although BF3 had an annual trip to Spa.

Then the German and the French Championships combined to form the F3ES and the F3 world as we knew it changed overnight. It wasn't just the Championships, they had the full backing of the French and German ASNs and the DTM, with whom they ran as a support race.

British F3 then had a choice. It either had to widen its horizons or become a second-tier Championship, simple as that. You say that drivers want to be British F3 Champion and at the moment they still do, hence the likes of Jaime Alguersuari, Brendon Hartley and Daniel Ricciardo. Would Red Bull have sponsored those drivers to race in the equivalent German F3 Championship? No, they wouldn't.

It's a shame if that means that some British sponsors, such as your own, fell by the wayside as a result, but sadly that's a price that had to be paid.

This year BF3 has stayed reasonably strong, despite the economic recession, and as you saw in the Algarve the best team in Europe joined in for a couple of races. I wasn't there, but from all accounts they really enjoyed the experience and I expect to see them and others coming back for more next year. That has to be good.

[Richard B]

Motors TV are showing highlights of the 2009 season...

31st October 2009 1905 Season Review Motors TV UK
1st November 2009 0405 Season Review Motors TV UK
2nd November 2009 2220 Season Review Motors TV UK
3rd November 2009 1500 Season Review Motors TV UK
4th November 2009 0405 Season Review Motors TV UK
5th November 2009 1100 Season Review Motors TV UK
10th November 2009 1000 Season Review Motors TV UK
11th November 2009 0103 Season Review Motors TV UK
15th November 2009 0135 Season Review Motors TV UK