Nelsinho Piquet in F3

[NaBUru38]

http://www.racer.com/international-r...e-and-macau-gp

Nelson Piquet Jr. believes the FIA is the main barrier blocking his return to Formula 3's Macau Grand Prix showpiece.

Piquet was blocked from making a shock comeback in F3 last month in the European series' round at Pau because the FIA deemed his participation would be "against the spirit of the championship."



Piquet is concerned by the FIA's admission it could veto entries for the Far East classic.

I think that F3 is a junior formula. Piquet is 30 years old, he doesn't belong there.

If he wants to race in Macau, there's the FIA GT3 race.

[pirenzo]

On the contrary, I think it's good for young drivers to compete against more experienced drivers. It's also good for sponsors and TV people to have a well-known name. And better for me as a fan. I'd like to see how Piquet fares in F3 now.

The junior categories have just become a machine which churns out drivers year after year, and we don't really have any real idea how good they are until they are fortunate enough to reach F1 or WEC. We need to stop treating it like some kind of 'education': it should be a proving ground where the next generation go up against some known quantity and show their worth.

[S griffin]

Piquet said in his interview with Autosport that he wants be like an online racer, he wants to have a go at everything and I applaud him for that, it's a rare sight a driver trying all different forms

And Pirenzo you're right. Back in the day a lot of F1 drivers competed in F2 at the same time and that's how a lot of drivers got discovered. If James Hunt hadn't competed in that F.Atlantic race, we might never have had Gilles Villeneuve in F1

[jodi]

i think macau is better than pau, because to be fair it would of been unfair on the championship if he came in at pau, it would make the race interesting for sure!

[Adam43]

Not allowed to change your helmet design when you want. Not allowed to race in a race if you want. I'm not for this.

Let the rest race against him. It's a shame for the others too.

[Mekola]

It's a shame that junior formulae could be only for young people.
That stigma affects almost all junior formulae in the world.

[chunterer]

Experienced drivers always used to do Macau in the 80'same so there's no problem.

Remember Lammers and Arnoux?!

[Mekola]

Lammers raced in F3000 even as late as 1995.
Also Apicella did a comeback there in late 1999.

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Experienced drivers always used to do Macau in the 80'same so there's no problem.

That was before the FIA stuck their noses in

[Mekola]

Originally Posted by peebee2

That was before the FIA stuck their noses in

This is like the limits that ban any GP2 champion and F1 regulars to be in GP2/GP3. Do they want "fresh meat" only for these series. I'm sad that this is discrimination for old people.

[S griffin]

I also seem to remember Nelson Sr wanting to compete alongside his son in the first ever season of GP2, with Piquet Sports

[Paradise City]

Originally Posted by pirenzo

On the contrary, I think it's good for young drivers to compete against more experienced drivers. It's also good for sponsors and TV people to have a well-known name. And better for me as a fan. I'd like to see how Piquet fares in F3 now.

The junior categories have just become a machine which churns out drivers year after year, and we don't really have any real idea how good they are until they are fortunate enough to reach F1 or WEC. We need to stop treating it like some kind of 'education': it should be a proving ground where the next generation go up against some known quantity and show their worth.

Yes. Maybe you could have some wildcard entries where an age limit is waived so you could have that formal guarantee that it will always be slanted towards up-and-coming drivers. But having some experienced drivers brings a little extra star quality to these events that could only be a benefit.

[Alessio]

I don't understand why there should be a problem with an older driver competing, especially when 'junior' formulae is teeming with near-gentleman pay drivers as Cecotto and co..

[Roninho]

Originally Posted by Mekola

This is like the limits that ban any GP2 champion and F1 regulars to be in GP2/GP3. Do they want "fresh meat" only for these series. I'm sad that this is discrimination for old people.

It also neglects that every year in junior formula the new "fresh meat" includes a couple ride buyers without much talent. Doesnt make much sense to ban a driver with more talent than most in the F3 field just because he's experienced when at the same time you have talentless drivers at the back of the grid.

[Roninho]

To further add to this: I've always found it a shame that they didnt work on establishing GP2 as a class that mixes talents with ''career drivers'' like Nascar Xfinity is for Cup.
In the current top 20 standings of the Xfinity series you have 5 guys that have raced 50 or more Cup races, and another 2 that have race 15 or more in Cup. The remaining drivers out of top 20 are all young talents.

Imo it would have been great if you would mix todays GP2 talent with ex f1 drivers like Kovalainen, Sutil, Bourdais, di Resta, etc. , where the ex f1 drivers actually get paid to race instead of having to move to DTM or japanese GT to get a pay check.

Obviously for that to happen the GP2 serie would have to offer much more commercial value to sponsors, but that could be arranged.
Not sure if people remember this but in the first season of GP2 (2004 or something like that) Bernie actually had arranged that some (all?) networks that broadcasted F1 had to broadcast the Sunday morning GP2 race live as well. The demand was quickly dropped during the season (He probably felt it only cost him money), but ratings at RTL (Germany) for the GP2 races were over 1.5 million viewers per race. Do that for the 5 main markets (in size) in Europe and you have a very valuable serie for sponsors.

If you add some recognizable names (ex-f1), get the races on tv before the GP's and promote the serie a bit imo within 5 years you have a serie in which the teams have the money to sign talent and experienced drivers based on merit and not on cash needs.

Ok ok daydreaming is over

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by Roninho

To further add to this: I've always found it a shame that they didnt work on establishing GP2 as a class that mixes talents with ''career drivers'' like Nascar Xfinity is for Cup.
In the current top 20 standings of the Xfinity series you have 5 guys that have raced 50 or more Cup races, and another 2 that have race 15 or more in Cup. The remaining drivers out of top 20 are all young talents.

Imo it would have been great if you would mix todays GP2 talent with ex f1 drivers like Kovalainen, Sutil, Bourdais, di Resta, etc. , where the ex f1 drivers actually get paid to race instead of having to move to DTM or japanese GT to get a pay check.

Obviously for that to happen the GP2 serie would have to offer much more commercial value to sponsors, but that could be arranged.
Not sure if people remember this but in the first season of GP2 (2004 or something like that) Bernie actually had arranged that some (all?) networks that broadcasted F1 had to broadcast the Sunday morning GP2 race live as well. The demand was quickly dropped during the season (He probably felt it only cost him money), but ratings at RTL (Germany) for the GP2 races were over 1.5 million viewers per race. Do that for the 5 main markets (in size) in Europe and you have a very valuable serie for sponsors.

If you add some recognizable names (ex-f1), get the races on tv before the GP's and promote the serie a bit imo within 5 years you have a serie in which the teams have the money to sign talent and experienced drivers based on merit and not on cash needs.

Ok ok daydreaming is over

Maybe they should bring back F5000!

[Roninho]

Well we kind of have that already with bossgp. Older F1, f3000, gp2 and world series cars Racing each other. Just without the professional drivers.