2011 British F3 off Season/Silly season news etc (merge)

[ivanalesi]

Now some of the last testing show moves to Barcelona, many teams traveled today to Barcelona, does anyone know any live-timing link or at least for overall classification?
Seems like Carlin will stay for all 5 days at Valencia.

[alias99]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

alias99, so you mean Continental Europe. I usually consider the British Isles as part of Europe.

As I am British I mean continental Europe when i say Europe

[Valker]

Originally Posted by Mr Pink

Also Marcus Ericsson is going to drive for Double R Thursday and Friday to help them set the car up.

Pipo Derani and Richard Bradley driving for Double-R today.

Originally Posted by ivanalesi

Now some of the last testing show moves to Barcelona, many teams traveled today to Barcelona, does anyone know any live-timing link or at least for overall classification?

No official timing AFAIK. Italiaracing has some (but not all) times from first two days: http://italiaracing.net/notizia.asp?id=29923&cat=9

As we know, teams' clocks tend to show better times than circuit's timing... Especially Italian teams'

[ivanalesi]

Not as good times as driver's family clocks :P
Alkamel have disconnected the live-timing & there was actually no timing today!?
In Valencia, Nasr was fastest & I think Magnussen broke down, didn't take part in the last session.

[Mr Pink]

Originally Posted by Valker

Pipo Derani and Richard Bradley driving for Double-R today.

I think Marcus was supposed to drive in the afternoon but maybe I'm wrong.

[strider]

Originally Posted by Valker

Pipo Derani tweets Carlin was testing experimental tires for 2012 that were more than 1 second faster.

I believe this is correct and is just about the most stupid thing Cooper/Avon could have done. What makes it worse is that they have done it before, which caused a big upset and they should have learnt their lesson.

If you have a new tyre available for testing, you do not give it to just one team and in particular you do not give it to the team that is already dominant. If there are three teams still out there testing then you give some of the new tyres to all of them. It's very simple.

[strider]

For anyone who thinks that I have a connection with British Formula 3, I do not and what I am about to say will probably ensure that I do not in the future either.

Last season the idea of pit stops (or rather a compulsory stop/go for every car) was introduced. It was part of race 2, the one with the partly reversed grid and reduced points. This was because the teams did not want any driver to lose points in the main races by screwing up something as simple as a stop/go.

This rather went against the philosophy that the idea of introducing 'pit stops' was to train drivers for having to make them in the future in the likes of FRenault 3.5, GP2 and even F1, but never mind, it worked out alright and was a harmless piece of fun.

This year those stop/go pit stops are going to held again in certain races, but there are also going to be some serious pit-stops requiring the two front wheels to be changed. It's a good idea and much better training for the future than the stop/go alternative.

It's obvious isn't it that these serious pit-stops will form part part of the serious feature race and bring some excitement to what is otherwise a 40-minute yawn, unless weather conditions happen to intervene, as they did in the last race of the season just ended.

But no, someone has decided in their infinite wisdom the these proper pit stops will also form part of the sprint 20-minute sprint race. The reason is still that they are worried that drivers might lose points if the team screws up the pit-stop.

Very true, but isn't that also the case in FRenault 3.5, GP2 and F1? Come on guys, wake up and smell the coffee. You're throwing away a brilliant opportunity to make the feature race interesting to the spectators and provide pit-stops that will genuinely train the drivers.

Rant over now, but I shall be interested to hear what others think.

[runshaw]

Charlie Kimball has signed to drive with Chip Ganassi in Indycar in 2011. Another to add to the list of Carlin British F3 graduates in recent years.

[Mr Motorvator]

Originally Posted by strider

For anyone who thinks that I have a connection with British Formula 3, I do not and what I am about to say will probably ensure that I do not in the future either.

Last season the idea of pit stops (or rather a compulsory stop/go for every car) was introduced. It was part of race 2, the one with the partly reversed grid and reduced points. This was because the teams did not want any driver to lose points in the main races by screwing up something as simple as a stop/go.

This rather went against the philosophy that the idea of introducing 'pit stops' was to train drivers for having to make them in the future in the likes of FRenault 3.5, GP2 and even F1, but never mind, it worked out alright and was a harmless piece of fun.

This year those stop/go pit stops are going to held again in certain races, but there are also going to be some serious pit-stops requiring the two front wheels to be changed. It's a good idea and much better training for the future than the stop/go alternative.

It's obvious isn't it that these serious pit-stops will form part part of the serious feature race and bring some excitement to what is otherwise a 40-minute yawn, unless weather conditions happen to intervene, as they did in the last race of the season just ended.

But no, someone has decided in their infinite wisdom the these proper pit stops will also form part of the sprint 20-minute sprint race. The reason is still that they are worried that drivers might lose points if the team screws up the pit-stop.

Very true, but isn't that also the case in FRenault 3.5, GP2 and F1? Come on guys, wake up and smell the coffee. You're throwing away a brilliant opportunity to make the feature race interesting to the spectators and provide pit-stops that will genuinely train the drivers.

Rant over now, but I shall be interested to hear what others think.

Fair enough point but as others have pointed out on different threads, F3 isn't really much of a spectator sport and is more focused around team/drivers.

It may be a good point from a driver training point of view, but i get the impression that the fans who watch F3 at the moment are not doing so for exciting racing so i dont think it will have much of an impact from a spectator's point of view

[danoli]

I'm not sure the pit stops are a great idea as it can mix up the results so the best drivers don't necessarily win if they are let down by their team. Although from a spectators point of view this could be a good thing, F3 does not receive many spectators anyway, so the focus should be around a fair outcome.

[strider]

Thanks for your opinions. I can see the sense in them, but there all sorts of considerations behind most changes.

For instance, the idea behind the partly-reversed grid race 2 is that it might enable to drivers who would not otherwise get a win or make the podium to do just that.

[Richard B]

Since there is little activity on the rookie/scholarship/national/B class so far for next season the racing will be easier for the casual speactator to understand; so introducing more pitstops in more races will reinstall some of the missing confusion!

[Peter Cammish]

I thought the reverse grid idea was to make the racing more spectacular for the spectators who do go to F3 as the fastest guys move through, problem is that you have to have drivers who are fantastic on cold tyres if you cannot overtake on lap 1into 2 the race just becomes a procession again.I watched lots of F3 over last two years Vergne was teriffic on cold tyres and for me he will overtake Riccardio as the number 1 pick for Red Bull because of this. F3 needs less downforce, but it probably never will so expect loads of different ideas, maybe an old fashoined Le Mans start I really dont know?

[strider]

Vergne was the stand-out driver last season and I agree that he will overtake Ricciardo in the Red Bull stakes, but James Calado is something else in the wet. Quite remarkable.

[Vintage Aston]

Originally Posted by strider

But no, someone has decided in their infinite wisdom the these proper pit stops will also form part of the sprint 20-minute sprint race. The reason is still that they are worried that drivers might lose points if the team screws up the pit-stop.

Very true, but isn't that also the case in FRenault 3.5, GP2 and F1? Come on guys, wake up and smell the coffee. You're throwing away a brilliant opportunity to make the feature race interesting to the spectators and provide pit-stops that will genuinely train the drivers.

WHOLEHEARTEDLEY AGREE!

[Vintage Aston]

Originally Posted by Peter Cammish

I thought the reverse grid idea was to make the racing more spectacular for the spectators who do go to F3 as the fastest guys move through,

i think the reverse grids are good - it gives the opportunitiy to see if the guys who are usually up the front with no challenges doing fast laps, to see whether they have the moves to overtake, and also to see whether the mid fielders can keep the challenge - a la what we saw with Alonso and Petrov in F1 at Abu Dhabi. Sometimes, just because you're usually faster, doesnt mean youre better.

[strider]

That actually supports my theory. Leave the 20-minute reverse grid race as it is, so you do you do get some overtaking (Vergne won all three races a couple of times, I think, certainly at Spa) and put all the pit-stops in the feature race.

[chunterer]

Any more moves afoot on the driver front?

[strider]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Any more moves afoot on the driver front?

Well timed question!

Luis Felipe 'Pipo' Derani has signed for Double R and Harry Tincknell has signed for Fortec.

There may be some more announcements at the AIS. Double R certainly have one or two more and Fortec another to come - they have William Buller already.

[RF_Racer]

Just out of interest what are British F3 budgets these days? I remember a few years ago they were around £750k per season.

[strider]

I'm sure you could get a drive with anyone for £750k...

[tristancliffe]

I'll run two cars just for you for that much!

[Peat]

Tinknell confirmed at Fortec: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/88894

[Morris Dancer]

Originally Posted by Vintage Aston

i think the reverse grids are good - it gives the opportunitiy to see if the guys who are usually up the front with no challenges doing fast laps, to see whether they have the moves to overtake, and also to see whether the mid fielders can keep the challenge - a la what we saw with Alonso and Petrov in F1 at Abu Dhabi. Sometimes, just because you're usually faster, doesnt mean youre better.

The 'reverse grid' - like the performance weight penalty - is a perversion of all that motorsport stands for. The best driver/car/team should win on merit, not because of a handicap advantage.

Can you imagine the Olympics or any other major world sport adopting such a system? Of course not.

If you just want to see a motorsport 'show', go to dirt-track speedway.

[bella]

you make interesting points, but how about taking the angle that it keeps everyone on their toes? if you have 2 races of the same length with the same people at the front all the time does a driver learn as much about actually driving as they would do when the format is varied and when the length of the stints in the races on varying quality tyres is different each time?