Quote:
Originally Posted by SS Supporter
I think there are 4 main reasons for a driver who has done F3 to move and do GP3
1. F1 teams watch GP3 races , they don't watch F3 races .
2. GP3 races on Pirelli tyres . If you want to move up to GP2 and eventually F1 , you need to know these tyres .
3. The move from F3 straight to GP2 is getting harder to do and unless you have really unlimited budgets , you want to arrive in GP2 as prepared as possible .
4. You need to get used to series with limited testing and set up time because that is the reality further up the ladder in GP2 and F1 .
Having said all that , when you talk to F1 teams , they all still believe in F3 because they think that is where the drivers learn the most about setting up a car . So , I think in the future you will see ( as you did this year ) many drivers moving from F3 to GP3 seeing this as the right intermediate step on the way to GP2 .
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this is all good stuff and i want to address it point by point.
i'd argue that gp3 makes gp2 redundant, not f3, for your point 1. if you wait till gp2 to be spotted by a f1 team, it's too late. unless you have a huge wad of cash in which case, gp2 is where you belong anyway.
re: point 2, perhaps the tyre changes in gp2 for next year might reinforce this. i'm not convinced of that until presented with evidence that gp3-gp2-f1 tyres all behave similarly purely because they're pirellis.
point 3, this is why people do at least a year of fr3.5 now instead of 2 years of gp2. much more tracktime to get used to the big noisy cars, easier to bring guests, good circuits, etc etc. i'm not sure why it's an arguement for gp3 though?
point 4, well... i guess if a driver is still learning, they want as much tracktime as possible to test as many variants as they can. if you think about how red bull manage their juniors, they're getting as much tracktime as they can. which is perhaps why they avoid gp2 now. surely you want loads of tracktime and experience before f1 rather than restricting yourself?