Formula 3000

[marcus]

just wondering what people thought about F3000..when i first got into watching F1 back in the mid 80's..f3000 was the class that was raved about for the up and coming drivers and most of the champoins have ended up in the top level that is F1..but the early 90's and mid 90's seemed to be a bit different ..the class seemed to have lost its way and wasnt regarded in as high esteem as it was..for reasons i know not why ???

but the last 2 years at least there seems to be a resurgence in the class ..with F1 team managers takeing great interest in whats going on..maybe its because of the junior team thing i dont know..but do you feel that it is getting back to the way that it should be by being a great feeding ground for F1 or is it there already or has it totally fallen in a hole and may never be looked upon as a place for drivers to hone their skills..or possibly am I just making all this up by thinking to much at work when I should be concentrating on the task at hand ???? :confused:

[Dan Friel]

F3000 is a great series... close racing and usually exciting.

However, I have a major problem with it all. How come a driver like Kevin Maccarity can really do very well, but the F3 champions from all over europe can't even qualify for the race!!! Something doesn't add up!

The cars don't do anthing like a F3 car, not do they resemble a F1 car either... So you have drivers in F3 which have to complelety change their driving style, but to graduate up to F1, it all has to change again.. But by then, your career could be totally ruined.

Does that make sense??

[marcus]

it sort of does Dan..but i think the basics of driving all three cars are the same just as you get higher you have to learn new tricks. I dont know why some F3 guys struggle maybe the jump from F3 is too great and there needs to be one more step in between the two..but this would glog the world with more racing series and i guess Palmer audi is classed in between the 2 ...but then again guys like hakkinen,Senna,brundle,Brabham and now button have gone straight to F1 and gone well..so i guess if they are struggling in f3000 then they have to lift there game a bit more to cope with the new skills they need to drive them

[Dan Friel]

I watched the race highlights from the Nurburing at the weekend... They build those cars strong!!! Massive accidents all round the track!! Cars upside down, flying through the air, getting T-boned... every sort of accident possible. But not one injury.

The competition is just so good, I suppose that any Champion from F3 thinks he's going to breeze it - but then reality catchs up!!

I don't regard FPA as a rival to F3, I think it's somewhere between Formula Ford and F3, probably on a par with Formula Renualt....