Formula Renault 3.5 @ Motorland Aragon

[skells22]

forgot to do a race thread for this weekends WSBR Formula Reanult 3.5. 21 cars still meaning still no Carlin and also 3 teams with one car

[ivanalesi]

I saw Martsenko 3rd on the grid and couldn't believe it, then he finished 2nd behind the dominant Sainz and he's 2nd in the championship!
Actually the field is pretty competitive, 20 cars in 1.2 sec for a long lap like Aragon is pretty good.

[Formulahistory]

Yeah, Martsenko really is very surprising.

[W.A Trichlorostyrene]

Should be an interesting race 2. Quite an unexpected grid upfront with Rowland, Fantin, Gasly and Stevens. Will be interesting to see what Sainz does from 5th, first time of the season he'll have to work his way through.

[p-matt]

Doesn't Martsenko's success not scream that the grid isn't very good this year, besides Sainz of course. Equally, I can't understand why Stockinger, Amberg and Fantin are at the sharp end, when there are better drivers, albeit not superstars like Buller, Sorensen and Sirotkin, struggling.

It's sadly not looking very good for the series. I'm surprised that none of the vacant seats from Monza weren't filled in Aragon. Is it realistic that drivers like Oli Webb and Roberto Merhi could do the full season? I'm not sure.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Rowland-Fantin front row. My day is perfect.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Rowland dominates???

[W.A Trichlorostyrene]

Tough season start for Marco Sorensen. Hard to see him bridging the gap to the championship leaders now.

[ivanalesi]

Originally Posted by p-matt

Doesn't Martsenko's success not scream that the grid isn't very good this year, besides Sainz of course. Equally, I can't understand why Stockinger, Amberg and Fantin are at the sharp end, when there are better drivers, albeit not superstars like Buller, Sorensen and Sirotkin, struggling.

It's sadly not looking very good for the series. I'm surprised that none of the vacant seats from Monza weren't filled in Aragon. Is it realistic that drivers like Oli Webb and Roberto Merhi could do the full season? I'm not sure.

So far everybody has been up and down besides the top 5. Martsenko's feisty start in race 1 was very good. Webb has been very disappointing, Merhi is nowhere in practice and suddenly finds pace for qualy. I think the grid is good, there are some experienced journey man, but equally there are some real talents like Rowland, Gasly and Sainz. I think Rowland and Gasly will give Sainz a proper run for his money after Monaco.
I think the field is good, we can't expect to have the same quality as in 2012/13 every year when there are less and less talented drivers in the lower categories.

[bella]

Originally Posted by p-matt

Is it realistic that drivers like Oli Webb and Roberto Merhi could do the full season? I'm not sure.

i know it's just an example but webb can't - he's got elms clashes for hungary and jerez, and has to do the le mans test day during the spa weekend too. as for him being a disappointment, my observations at monza were that he's in "bring it home in one bit" mode.

the field is what it is. there's no point in getting your coffin nails out because hey, in a season or two's time there's going to be the european f3 and eurocup guys looking at bigger cars. that's who the series should be marketing to next. i agree with ivanalesi - if there's less talent available on the market then of course it's not going to be a 2012-2013. that's not the series fault. but other stuff is.

hopefully this season will force them into addressing some of the things the teams have been whinging about (quite rightly) for a few years. they could get away with it for the past few years but now they need to sort it out and make sure they're offering a really refined product, in the same way the last few seasons with the old car/engine combo were.

i know people handbag martsenko, and there's obviously more to his championship position than meets the eye, but watching him trackside it has always struck me that he's got a decent amount of natural talent. i bet he'd make a righteous rally driver.

nothing about sainz' chop across the track and then back at the start of race 1, then?

[olev]

There's talent in this year's grid. Maybe not as much as in 2012/13, but teams need the money to cover the expenses and the talented/wealthy combination is not so usual in drivers these days.
However, I wonder if talent is in the right teams this year. Just look at Sorensen; give him a proper car and he can be there. He made it before with stronger rivals. Not saying that Tech1 is a bad team, but looks like they don't understand what Marco wants from the car (despite his not-so-smart crash in Monza).
Sirotkin was better last year as well, and Fortec had a strong car this weekend with Rowland but somehow disappointing with Sergey.

[Go_For_Pole]

Originally Posted by bella

nothing about sainz' chop across the track and then back at the start of race 1, then?

what's new about that then?

[chunterer]

Rowland looked absolutely mega all weekend tbh?

Qualified strongly for both rounds, fluffed the start on Saturday but nailed it on Sunday and was, just, gone.

So far the series seems to mirroring GP2 for random drivers getting into the mix which is very worrying. Some guys ought to be doing much better than they are..

I agree that generally there is a clutch of very strong drivers in it, as ever, but it's weak further down. But generally I still maintain that GP2 offers little more in the way of overall depth this season.

Sainz looked vulnerable on Sunday after not qualifying strongly although he did come back through a bit before ballsing it up at the hairpin.

He needs to be careful, Rowland looks like he's getting into his stride and looks like he could be a superstar in the making if he can keep it up?

Gasly is coming on nicely and then Stevens is always going to be there or thereabouts as will be Merhi and Sirotkin 9as long as he doesn't lose the SMP backing!!1).

I'll wait and see what Martsenko does in the next couple of races before calling him out as a talented!

[p-matt]

Originally Posted by bella

the field is what it is. there's no point in getting your coffin nails out because hey, in a season or two's time there's going to be the european f3 and eurocup guys looking at bigger cars. that's who the series should be marketing to next. i agree with ivanalesi - if there's less talent available on the market then of course it's not going to be a 2012-2013. that's not the series fault. but other stuff is.

I think that's far too simplistic. GP2 has a very strong grid this year, and the costs haven't dropped significantly there. I actually think the key is the F1 teams' junior driver programmes, as hardly any non-junior drivers have made it to F1 recently. McLaren, Ferrari, Williams and Caterham have their young drivers in GP2, Caterham has a team indeed, and Force India is very heavily involved in another. 3.5 has Red Bull, and a few Lotus and Sauber associated drivers (who probably don't realistically have a shot at an F1 seat anytime soon).

Why is that? I think it's a lot more to do with the product than anything else. 3.5 is a lot purer than F1 is these days, and doesn't really have much in the way of car/tyre management, whereas GP2 has. You mention Sainz - he's a great example. What he needs is to be able to harness his aggressive driving style a bit more. If he has Monza/Aragon race 1 weekends for the rest of the season, is he going to get much of a chance to do that? Magnussen has admitted himself that he's more used to being right at the sharp end rather than being in the midfield in wheel to wheel combat. Australia aside, you can see how he's struggling a bit with that, and the complexities of an F1 car.

All of this assumes that the point of any feeder series is to get to F1 though.

[Rf1 Fan]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Rowland looked absolutely mega all weekend tbh?

Qualified strongly for both rounds, fluffed the start on Saturday but nailed it on Sunday and was, just, gone.

So far the series seems to mirroring GP2 for random drivers getting into the mix which is very worrying. Some guys ought to be doing much better than they are..

I agree that generally there is a clutch of very strong drivers in it, as ever, but it's weak further down. But generally I still maintain that GP2 offers little more in the way of overall depth this season.

Sainz looked vulnerable on Sunday after not qualifying strongly although he did come back through a bit before ballsing it up at the hairpin.

He needs to be careful, Rowland looks like he's getting into his stride and looks like he could be a superstar in the making if he can keep it up?

Gasly is coming on nicely and then Stevens is always going to be there or thereabouts as will be Merhi and Sirotkin 9as long as he doesn't lose the SMP backing!!1).

I'll wait and see what Martsenko does in the next couple of races before calling him out as a talented!

Yes of course, Rowland is doing great. He has all the elements to shine. He is in Fortec car , he knows the team and he is mature.


Gasly is changing environnement constantly , also we must remember that Gasly is only 18 and that he is not for now a professional racing driver. He is doing his A level exam in France at this period. He will move to Milton Keynes on september. He is less mature than Rowland, Frinjs or Vandoorne.

I would not be surprised to see an evolution similar as Daniil Kvyaat in Gp3 last year for Gasly, i hope that will give him few outings in F3 in order to gain experience.

[olev]

Tunjo joins Pons from Spa onwards and also for the 2015 season.
It will be interesting to see what he can do, as Pons car is better than what the results showed so far. Tunjo definitely did a good job in the post season test in Barcelona with Lotus last year. Maybe not as good as Ocon did in Motorland the following test, but that's a different story.