Mercedes engines in BF3

[flor]

In 2006 three teams will run with Merc engines, one of them will be RRR

[Russfeld]

Great, this is exactly what British F3 needs.

[Kicking-back]

Originally Posted by Russfeld

Great, this is exactly what British F3 needs.

What it needs to kill it, you mean?

[moggie]

Hmm Euro F3 Deja Vu?!

[bella]

i'm not going to pass judgement on this, i don't think. i doubt very much it'll come over all eurof3 (remember they don't have the mugen honda engine over there, and thats better than the opel engine but slower than the mercedes), but at the same time i don't quite know what's going to happen.

[Daisy]

I really hope Opel and Mugen will do a better job with their engines next year than this year, because the Euro F3 isn't one of the most exiting championship (to be honest, pretty boring).

[bella]

heh you're missing a lot then. the battle for 3rd is epic.

[Alex K]

I thought BF3 will be free of AMG Merc's engine, I was wrong. Sad to hear, if Hitech or DoubleR pic good drivers they will fight for Champinship. I doubt Mugen or Opel will build engines as good as Merc.

[bella]

Originally Posted by Alex K

Sad to hear, if Hitech or DoubleR pic good drivers they will fight for Champinship.

that's true now though, if they had decent drivers who were consistent then they'd be fighting for the title...

[Gaz]

Originally Posted by bella

heh you're missing a lot then. the battle for 3rd is epic.

A battle for third is hardly the most gripping of storylines to be fair though is it!

The Euroseries is beginning to get found out. Numbers are dropping and teams are beginning to think about switching back over here again, note the latest being Midland F3. No one can compete with ASM and so whats the point in taking part unless your in one of their motors?

I do worry about the effect having Mercedes over here will have but I can only hope that Mugen will be able to keep up. Whatever I think it will be good from the point of view of keeping some of our top drivers in our series. Recent seasons have seen some of our top drivers go over to Euroseries on the whole (one/two exceptions i.e. Rossiter) due to the Mercedes influences.

[Go_For_Pole]

Interestingly Manor is not the BF3 list, along with Hitech they will be with Mercedes engines in Euro F3.

And a sidenote, what has T Sport ever done to deserve a top engine?

[Gaz]

As far as I'm aware Hitech will be racing in Brit F3 next year unless you have a confirmed source to tell you different? Certainly the Autosport report suggests that they will race in Britain next year.

Never expected Manor back to be honest and I don't see where you coming from with the T-Sport comment. I think for their first season running in the Championship Class they haven't done too badly this year...there's certainly worse teams out there!

[Kicking-back]

Gaz, I think the previous poster put the comma in the wrong place.

He meant "Interestingly Manor is not on the BF3 list along with Hitech, they will be with Mercedes engines in Euro F3."

[Go_For_Pole]

Actually the comma is in the right place as I have read in italiaracing that Hitech wants to do both championships. However, you guys are pretty closer to Hitech so I guess I will have to take your word.

Anyway, my comment was mostly about Manor and BF3. If they were to back to the British championship with their Euro cars and Mercedes engines they would dominate easily. Good for BF3 that they decided against it.

Regarding T-Sport, well they are hardly on the same level as Hitech and RRR.

[Chucky]

I thnk if you were a front running BF3 team that was on Mr Brown's valued customer list then you wouldn't be worrying about engines at the moment.

[bella]

Originally Posted by Gaz

A battle for third is hardly the most gripping of storylines to be fair though is it!

The Euroseries is beginning to get found out.

actually, it's a very good battle, because you've got the two manor drivers, who are bothering hamilton at the front, and the odd random duval/rossiter appearance as and when the music stops. it *is* a gripping storyline, but if all you get to see of the races is the autosport articles/euroseries press releases then you're gonna miss out on a heck of a lot. the manor drivers in particular are evenly matched overall, so it's going to be a very close run thing.

and the euroseries isn't being "found out" at all. the teams are having to consider shifting markets because the drivers don't want to drive for you if you're not asm over there at the moment. i don't consider that as being "found out", and as i say, behind asm it's considerably more competitive than it looks. there's nothing to be found out.

in other news, to mr go_for_pole, i'm not sure manor would have dominated bf3 if they did enter a round. who says their car is more sorted than the british ones, and who says their engine is better than the nbe ones over here... it's all circumstantial evidence.

[Gaz]

I've seen the races on live streaming but I'm afraid I'm not the type of person that gets excited over a battle for third place!

The Euroseries has been found out and if it continues is going to die as quickly as it came on the scene. Clearly ASM have some form of performance advantage, there's too many good teams in there and yet none of them can get near ASM. Manor I would agree are the second best team but they're nowhere near ASM, Hamilton just waltzes away with every race...if he doesn't get taken out by his team mate first!

I would imagine several teams will consider coming over here next season and I will be surprised if the Euroseries breaks the 20 car mark next year unless some radical change is made which can only be good for BF3. Whats the point in contesting the series unless your with ASM? You learn just as many GP circuits in BF3 and you have a damn site better chance of winning some races.

In my opinion, people's perceptions of James Rossiter have dipped quite considerably since he swapped over at the start of the season. I don't believe this is through any fault of his own but clearly he can't compete because his equipment just isn't up to it, if he'd stayed in BF3 he could probably have won the title and his star would shine a tad brighter than it is currently. He has the BAR contract but I'm not sure just how much he will get from that, they certainly are seeming to favour Adam Carroll slightly more at the moment.

[Kicking-back]

I don't think British F3 will have all those Grand Prix circuits next year - there's talk of a reunification with Jonathan Palmer

[Gaz]

Very true K-B, Castle Combe looks highly unlikely to be on the schedule next season though and that will open up one weekend for a race in Europe and the teams from what I've read around aren't too keen on Snetterton so it could be that we only have to lose one round somewhere in hthe schedule. Perhaps if the series made only one visit to Silverstone next year (LMES) then the schedule could work to include exactly the same amount of GP circuits next year and include Oulton and Brands as well?

[bella]

i don't think anyone's too keen on snetterton, gaz i'm not sure f3 should be at brands on the indy layout rather than somewhere like the nurburgring because much as we hate it, the foreign tracks do have more appeal. and i think it makes it a better series too. i think it might need a few more races - how many did it lose from last year? i'm sure there wasn't so few meetings.

i think the current british f3 should be a mix of the best of the british tracks (cause we've got some great ones), and some decent international ones too.

back to the euroseries for a second, last year asm had the same performance advantage, and this year it's just been the same. as others have said before, it's up to the others to raise their game. as for rossiter, i think this year has been the inevitable character building one. he's been as fast as duval most of the time, who has been working with the team for a year longer, and i think if you took away hamiltons advantages with mclaren support and so on, he'd certainly not have been able to do a better job.

[Gaz]

Agree, if F3 goes back to Brands next year it MUST be on the GP circuit, perhaps as a support to A1 GP if it returns again next year. It makes sense and would certainly mean the boys would be on the GP circuit and playing infront of a decent crowd.

I think we lost one meeting Bella although I'm not 100%

I'd go with -

British - Oulton Int, Donington National, Brands GP (A1GP), Knockhill, Croft, Silverstone GP (LMES), Thruxton, Snetterton

Away - Spa, Monza, Nurburgring (LMES Supporting)

That would be 22 rounds with maybe/hopefully a round at Castle Combe if the problems can be sorted. Forgot about Mondello, I don't believe F3 will go there next year though as already they're talking the circuit down before theyve even raced there.

[bella]

interesting that you don't put mondello on your list. i'm reserving judgement on the place too for the moment...

[littleman]

To try and off-set the ASM factor next year, the Euroseries will only have one qualifying session with the top eight in race one starting race two in reverse order - a bit GP2 like!

[Kicking-back]

One thing the Euroseries does better is that British F3 has a tendency to have races which are just a slight tad too short

[bella]

oh god no, on the once every 3rd race that's absolutely shockingly boring, i can assure you that they'd be much better being shorter..

i don't think length of races really matters. in terms of time scale, they're not too far off the length of a single stint between pitstops in f1.