F.3000 Rubbish??

[Conrod]

Now that he has an F1 drive, Mark Webber has seen fit to brand F.300o as 'rubbish'. Surely this must be some kind of smokescreen in an attempt to justify some of his miserable performances last season. On his day he was the class of the field, but those days didn't come along too often. Driver error got him demoted in Brazil, hefty qualifying crashes in Spain and Monaco, and five accidents in 12 races, adds up to a pretty poor effort from a driver of his supposed calibre. If he replicates that form this year his Grand Prix career will be pretty short! Dont rubbish the formula Mark - look in the mirror, the problem is there!

[Marcel ten Caat]

well...he's partly right. F3000 is only available for drivers with big money, good talent isn't really needed anymore if you have money.

But hey...how did he get so far...via the same F3000 and in F1 via the same money. Just because he f*cked up and didn't win the title now it's rubbish?

tsk tsk tsk

[DanFlag]

Originally posted by Conrod
If he replicates that form this year his Grand Prix career will be pretty short! Dont rubbish the formula Mark

I find that pretty hard to swallow from him. This is not very gentleman. At least it looks like he has had a good comment towards Justin Wilson.

[sceptic]

The thing is, what he says is true - if you want to be a successful F1 driver, then you should avoid F3000.

It was a great feeder series until about 1994, producing Hill, Coulthard, Panis, Frentzen, Herbert and Alesi among others.

But then it started to go wrong as F1 teams started signing drivers well before they reached F3000 (this happened to a small extent before, but there are very few such drivers who were in any way successful...Schumacher and Hakkinen are the only ones I can think of.)

Think about the long and successful F1 careers of Sospiri, Muller and Boullion - all F3000 champions who also had test contracts with big F1 teams.

The only problem with what Webber is saying is that it completely contradicts what he said 12 months ago, when everybody (including himself) thought he'd win the title...

[mac]

I haven't heard what he said, but knowing the way Mark behaves, I dare say that Mark would never speak out without giving rational reasons or explanations.

I think we could see F3000 returning to the status of feeder category. We have Mark and Massa entering F1 this year as well as Williams and Toyota contracted drivers in Pizzonia and Briscoe.

As for Mark's inconsistency, he was remarkably consistent in the Benetton, and didn't put a scratch on that car all year.

[DanFlag]

Minardi are supposed to be a lot better this year in F1, lets see how it goes!!

[bart_jacobs]

F3000 rubbish?NO

[Rob29]

I thimk there needs to be a serious investigation into what has gone wrong with F3000.F2 then F3000 have been the main feeder series to F1 since 1964.Now it has become so expensive that only 20 cars are entered this season.Beats me how the winner of the EuroF3000 series is in F1,but the winner of the International series is not.Maybe the time of the races is wrong? Do the F1 managers not watch them as they are still debreifing after F1 qualifying?

[Popas]

The problem in F3000 , is the competion without tech evolution. You have one chassis, one engine and one tyre!
F3 is becoming more close to F1 because there are Opel, Renault, Honda, bulding engines even better. F3000 must have more constructeurs fighting for the better engine, the better chassis!!

[Rob29]

That's the reason one make series have evolved,Popas,if we went down that road,it would cost as much as F1.No one can afford a technology war.

[DanFlag]

Originally posted by DanFlag
Minardi are supposed to be a lot better this year in F1, lets see how it goes!!

I think 5th place qualifies has a lot better :-)

[sceptic]

But Webber finished two laps down in a race with considerable use of the safety car - unless Minardi spend lots of money developing the car this season (and they won't) they will be much further back by the team we reach the European races.

[mac]

Webber also raced the entire race with a busted differential, no traction control and no launch control. Not to mention a 35 second pitstop. All of which cost him significant speed and time. Wonderful performance Mark!