A Formula 3 European Championship in 2003

[Shunt the Hunt]

Hello, I'm a new guy there.

Just to tell you that French sport newspaper, L'Equipe, announced today that the French and German F3 championships may make one next year. This new championship will be called "FIA European F3 Championship", there would be 8 races. Drivers from the Italian and British championship could be allowed to run some races.

This is a very good thing for French F3 teams, because the French championship was going down (only 13 cars in Championship class this year, 2 in Scholarship class). For the Germans, it's a way to use some more interesting circuits (like Dijon, Lédenon, Pau...).

What do you think about that ?

[Sato san]

I think is sounds like a great idea. The french championship isnt really up to much anyway , so that would help it .

[NME]

Good and Bad.
Good ... cause it will allow drivers and teams to learn new tracks probably the ones they use in F1. More experience is always welcome.
Bad ... what will be the budget required to race it properly ???!!! EUR€ 500.000 ???!!! Germany F3 costs around € 450.000 and British €600.000, so what is the purpose of having an European series?

There is Formula Renault Eurocup ... and they say that a V6 version is on the way for 03.
There is Formula Nissan V6 World Series. Great cars. Great Drivers. Budget €450.000.
There is European F3000, for around €400.000.

And by the way, why would German F3 split from their packed grandstanded program with the DTM?

Honestly i dont see any reason to go ahead with this specially with at least 2 new chassis makers (Lola/Dome and Ralt) on the way, and at least 6 engine brands.
Costs wise ... this would become a mini-F1 with budgets around €1.000.000 ... Remember Pre-96 F3000 ???

If ... they want to do it Spanish way (onemake chassis/engine/tyres) maybe ???

See ya at the races ...

[Shunt the Hunt]

We'll get more news about this European Championship after the next round of the French Championship and the next FIA World Council.

[stirlingmoss7]

I think there are too many racing formulas in Europe below F1. Ok, this is mixing the French and German F3 series and that is fine but if it grows too quickly to become yet another mega expensive pan European series all other F3 series (UK, Spain, Italy) will suffer as they will be diluted. It will then collapse as many other series do when they expand too far (ITC for example)
Perhaps it would be simpler if this new championship had a different name other than 'European' to keep it just French/German.

[Shunt the Hunt]

You're right Stirling... but don't forget that a European F3 championship once existed between 1976 and 1984, without disturbing the British one. The British championship is basically high-rated, because the UK is the country of motor-racing.

It would be good to have a strong British championship, AND a strong Continental one. Because, today only the German championship is high-rated on the continent. The French one has good drivers (Derlot, Besson, Hayes) and good teams (Signature, ASM, Saulnier), but not enough competitors to make a really good championship. So, to win races in French Formula 3 today doesn't mean anything for the Formula 1 bosses... look at Bourdais : he won the French title in 1999 and nobody cared. People just talk about him now because he's leading the Formula 3000 championship (and has David Sears to promote him), but the few people who follows Formula 3 racing in France knows he's a good driver for many years. Bourdais never drove a Formula 1 car, even in practice, whereas many young drivers had a try when they were running in the British (or the German) championship(Pizzonia, Davidson, Sato, Scheckter, Lasée, Lotterer, Courtney...). In a way, the drivers who run in French Formula 3 seem to spend their money for nothing, because nobody cares about this serie. The only means for a French driver to show his ability is to run in the UK (like Minassian and Jouanny) - which is quite expensive, isn't it - or to win an international race, like Zandvoort or Macao.

I think it's the same problem for the Italian F3 Championship, which is strongly contested by Italian Formula Renault and Euro F3000. If we are very attached to Formula 3, because of its story, its past, the drivers it revealed, this European championship is maybe the best thing that can happen. In a French point of view, of course...

[Francesca]

Very interesting arguments here. I'm not sure how I feel about the subject but if combining the two raises the drivers profiles then it's a good thing.
However if other European series suffer then that would be awful.

Over in the UK, none of the Euro F3 championships get much coverage, well none really, apart from the results and a tiny race review in Autosport. I think this is sad, though I'm thinking about devoting a page on my website, covering all the F3 championships and picking out drivers to watch for the future and hopefully even some interviews. Could be a lot of extra work but I'll give it a try!

At the end of the day what's the point of drivers spending time and money on a series that gets ignored by the F1 teams (assuming most drivers are aiming for F1). If a combined series has a much higher profile and becomes a respected route to F1 then I'm all for it, even if it means the demise of a series or two.

[Shunt the Hunt]

Francesca, if you need some news about French Formula 3, you can click here to reach the federal official site : http://ffsa.turbo.m6.fr/home_rubrique.php?theme=f3

[Shunt the Hunt]

This one is for next week-end's round at Dijon :

http://ffsa.turbo.m6.fr/circuit.php?id=36

[Russfeld]

I would love to see a European wide F3 championship in the mold of F3000 that would support the Euro F1 races. At the very least get them back to Monaco.

[Shunt the Hunt]

This is the provisionnal calendar for the 2003 European F3 Championship :

* 27th april : Hockenheim (with DTM)
* 8th june : Pau (with French Super Série)
* 22th june : Norisring (with DTM)
* 13th july : Le Mans (with French Super Série)
* 27th july : Dijon DTM (with DTM)
* 10th august : Nurburgring (with DTM)
* 7th september : Zandvort (with DTM)
* 21st september : Monza (with DTM)
* 19th October : Magny-Cours (with French Super Série)

[*formula3*]

well, i don´t think that it would be a good idea, okay, probably the number of audience would rise and the f1 team-chiefs would have a closer look on f3, but i think there´s enough european series and national racing has advantages, too
i thin the way it is done at the moment it is best, national series with international off-races
the problem of euro-racing is, that the budget is much higher, that means that espeacially the little teams have to retire and the problem with sponsorship will rise, even german F3-leader gary paffett doesn´t have the budget to do macau or zandvoort
furthermore there would be less races in germany (i´m german) and with the calendar that shunt posted there won´t be any races at the sachsenring (one of the best tracks in the calendar i think)
okay, many arguments that speak against it but most important: they will not come to any circuit where i can travel to and that´s UNFAIR, when i go to DTM i want to see F3 but they will neither come to Sachsenring nor to the Eurosppedway

[cheesey]

From what i've heard is that there may still be a domestic German champion series, with some of the bigger teams leaving to do the EF3 series or running a seperate team to do this. The big French teams are more in favour as they can see their series folding without more support. As for British teams only Carlin has made any moves publicly about EF3 and thats only looking at the possabilitiy of doing it, i don't think any British team would leave totally to do EF3

[*formula3*]

but then it will be splitted "the big names" will leave and german f3 will not be as competitive asd it is at the moment and I think tv will concentrate on eurof3 and germanf3 will not have many viewers any more