European F3 Open 2012

[peebee2]

West-Tec have confirmed Alex Lynn and Luca Orlandi for the winter series races.

[kerrmanningjarv]

Originally Posted by peebee2

West-Tec have confirmed Alex Lynn and Luca Orlandi for the winter series races.

Am I right in thinking Orlandi is the rather old chap (by racing driver standards I mean) who drove in FPA a few years ago? Fashion designer or something?

[Alex K]

Yeah him.

[youngoldy]

Hes no slouch. Keeps those young boys on their toes. Finished last and was a long away behind the guy in front of him at the first round in Valencia, but improved hugely through the season. Finished 12th out of 18 at the last round at Barcelona. Went much quicker than expected in his first test in the '08 Copa car in December. I dont think there is a more dedicated, commited and passionate driver on the grid. He always gives as much as he can.

[Alex K]

Do anybody has schedule for that winter series? First heard.

[JohnMiller]

16-17 February PORTIMAO

2-3 March PAUL RICARD

[Alex K]

Ta.

[tbz]

Portimao time schedule
http://www.gtsport.es/resources/uplo...eam%20circ.pdf

[E46]

Denis Nagulin and Michela Cerruti are last week´s additions, with Campos Racing and RP Motorsport respectively. It means there are already 14 drivers confirmed so far.
It´s certain that Nagulin is going to drive a new F312, unlike Cerruti is still unclear which Dallara will use.

[META4]

Problem is when you look at the pedrigree of the 14 drivers on the entry list so far , it is just a joke. There is not much talent. This championship is getting closer to club racing than proper Junior Formula serie.

Sorry to be rude but i think this is a reality

Could anybody tell me who won this Championship in 2011 without googling it? i guess nobody...

[cappra250]

Originally Posted by META4

Problem is when you look at the pedrigree of the 14 drivers on the entry list so far , it is just a joke. There is not much talent. This championship is getting closer to club racing than proper Junior Formula serie.

Sorry to be rude but i think this is a reality

Could anybody tell me who won this Championship in 2011 without googling it? i guess nobody...

David Fumanelli won.

Alex Lynn who I rated very high did the Winter Series event at Portimao last week and he was not P1. It is always difficult to win, whichever the championship.
But yes, nothing exceptional untill now on the grid. It is the only F3 championship that gets better every year.

[META4]

Originally Posted by cappra250

David Fumanelli won.

Wrong the 2011 Champion is called Alex Fontana ....

for your info last week at Portimao was only testing , press release mention that "Winter Serie" has been cancelled at Portimao due to technical problems and races will be held now at Paul Ricard in 1 week time

[ivanalesi]

I think that the moment some good drivers start to sign up, many others will follow suit. It offers a very good package.

[META4]

Originally Posted by ivanalesi

I think that the moment some good drivers start to sign up, many others will follow suit. It offers a very good package.

I hardly believe that some good drivers will be added to the grid. Most of the teams are already full with 2-3 cars

In which way does this Euro Open F3 offers a very good package???

[kotkot]

Who do you expect to be here? In series like this, the biggest part of the grid have always been weak... I think from last year Fumanelli and Fontana can have a good future, and this year Sancinéna or Sistos can shine his talent...

I don't say it's a Formula Renault 2.0... but this series has already nine teams and there'll be a great deal of drivers. So it's better than the German or the Italian version.

[META4]

German F3 will probably have over 20 cars... and the overall level will be far better than Euro Open F3

[tristancliffe]

So?

Regardless of whether there is or isn't talent in the championship, does it matter? The point is that it's quite healthy, attracts teams, sponsors and drivers, races on some nice tracks, and is quite close a lot of the time.

Does it have to be "The Best" to justify its place in the world? Maybe it's perfect for the drivers that race in it that perhaps can't afford to race in another one etc etc etc.

And if you don't like it, you don't have to follow it, watch it, or lose sleep over it.

[ivanalesi]

They got also a good weekend package, great calender, great TV coverage and some interesting variety with the cars. You can take wins even with F306, so this attracts drivers with less budget. I think they should ditch the restrictor as in Brazil and make the cars a bit faster w/ better tires as well. Along with the German F3 it's the only championship who can get into the 20s in grid numbers and that's no small achievement in this economic situation! But yeah, I agree that so far German F3 attracts better drivers. Magnussen in particular proved this.

[META4]

My point is just to mention that the Level of this championship came from good at the beginning when the Champion was offered a Toyota F1 test to a Club F3 championship now

[petergriffin]

hopefully this championship will give those with talent and some money to show their stuff because most other series favour those with no talent but lots of money. it has attracted your attention and comment met4 so it already has done its job.

[JohnMiller]

I am quite sure the level is as good as other F3 series. Clearly Meta4 has some angle of his own.

All of the F3 series really have a handful of top drivers each year with the others a step or two behind.

I am sure that some good drivers have already been announced, some more will surprise and also several more championship protaganists have yet to be unveiled.

All of the five main European F3 series have good and bad points but to claim that the Formel 3 has more strength in depth is laughable.

The budgets are well controlled by the rules. And the European F3 Open has the best calendar, the best worldwide TV coverage AND more than one team is capable of winning.

[META4]

Mr John Miller the level in Euro F3 Open is not as good as in the other F3 series.

To give you an image look at the Top 3 drivers from the last 3 seasons

2011: Fontana - Fumanelli - Gamberini
2010: Barba - McLeod - Fumanelli
2009: Mendez - Miguez - Bizzari

Can you tell me what are these drivers doing now ? most of them have been dropped from the motorsport radar.

If you take the Top 3 Drivers from either British F3,F3 Euroseries or German ATS the result is completly different (Mortara,Wittmann,Mehri,Stanaway...)


My opinion is that this championship is getting year after year a new Formula Palmer Audi.

[JohnMiller]

Sorry Meta4, you are right. Fontana, Fumanelli and Gamberini have done so little with their careers - since last season! Give them a chance.

Soem other good drivers you mentioned. If budget is a problem I can't necessarily help that.

But you gave it away when you said like FPA - which shows you have clearly never actually seen it.

[bella]

how do we know what the driver talent is like, i mean genuinely? john quite rightly mentions budget - if you end up in f3 open then there's a fair chance you don't have the budget for one of the more expensive and widely recognised championships. so of course a driver isn't going to end up in the same places. but they're still going to be able to learn the principles of driving a f3 car on decent circuits on a decent budget.

are recognised names better talents than unrecognised names? are the recognised names who *didn't* win championship titles any worse than the guys who won lower profile f3 titles in italy and (what used to be) spain? who knows.

[remdev]

A 3rd french driver for TOP F3, Vincent Fraisse joins Cougnaud and Sancinena.