British F3 Nurburgring: Walker wins!!

runshaw · 3 Sep 2005, 13:57 (Ref:1397954)

James Walker won the first race at the Nurburgring from 6th on the grid, quite a surprise! Conway was second with Parente third. If i remember correctly, that is Walker's first actual outright race victory, not just in F3, but his career. Obviously he had 11 class wins in FF Scholarship in 2003, but has never taken outright honours. Well done to him!!

Suze · 3 Sep 2005, 15:25 (Ref:1397997)

And Parente is now champion I believe, so congratulations to him as well.

Bruno Senna was on pole for race two, with Dan Clarke alongside him which is good for Double R. Race two should've now finished but haven't heard result yet.

Suze · 3 Sep 2005, 15:30 (Ref:1397999)

Second race: Parente from Bruno and then Dan Clarke, Parente led lights to finish as got both the Double R guys at the start. Good to see both Dan and Bruno on the podium.

runshaw · 3 Sep 2005, 16:24 (Ref:1398041)

Yeah it is good to see them both on the podium. Bruno is rapidly improving, this is the second weekend in a row he has been on the podium. He must have bags of natural talent and raw speed considering this is just his first full year in cars.

jondownunder · 3 Sep 2005, 16:30 (Ref:1398044)

Look forward to seeing this on TV - well done to Alvaro, James and Bruno.

runshaw · 3 Sep 2005, 16:30 (Ref:1398045)

O yeah and well done to champion Parente, he has been mind blowing this season after missing the Donny opener.

flexible-flyer · 3 Sep 2005, 17:38 (Ref:1398080)

congrats to alvaro. to walker too.

senna looks to be improving every race too.

**bella** · 4 Sep 2005, 01:04 (Ref:1398262)

definite congratulations due to parente, he has been superb, but mindblowing? hmm...

bruno did well to be challenging parente, even if the latter did have a tyre thingy issue. only a matter of time before he gets a win, i feel...

runshaw · 4 Sep 2005, 10:00 (Ref:1398425)

Quote:

Originally Posted by bella

definite congratulations due to parente, he has been superb, but mindblowing? hmm...

Yes, mind blowing, thats what I said. I think someone who misses the pre-season testing, the first round, then wraps up one of the most prestigious junior single-seater championships with 2 venues and 4 races still to go is pretty mind blowing. A feat any racing driver would want I think. I know it was his 5th year in F3, but he has definately showed what he is capable of this year.

Russfeld · 4 Sep 2005, 10:07 (Ref:1398428)

I think the 'prestige' of the Brit F3 championship is wearing thin. Any championship ebbs and flows, but I dont see a single F1 capable driver amongst the current lot. Hell even the Euroseries is a bit thin on ones-to-watch.

runshaw · 4 Sep 2005, 10:18 (Ref:1398442)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Russfeld

I think the 'prestige' of the Brit F3 championship is wearing thin. Any championship ebbs and flows, but I dont see a single F1 capable driver amongst the current lot.

I bet at least 1 or 2 from this years field will make it to F1. Senna looks awesome if you consider his experience to everyone else's. But I still think the British F3 title is very prestigious.

runshaw · 4 Sep 2005, 10:48 (Ref:1398461)

Bit off topic here, but its interesting. Team-SWR national class competitor Nick Jones holds the record for doing the FASTEST EVER standing start in a Formula 3 car, by 0.0001 secs at Donington Park this year.

**bella** · 4 Sep 2005, 11:00 (Ref:1398470)

what's the definition of "prestigious" then?

re: parente. close examination of the qualifying times (at silverstone on the gp layout) show that while everyone else in their second year improved, parente gained nothing apart from the standard amount gained by the new chassis. i'm not saying he's not a worthy champion, i think he's done a fantastic job this year. but having done alot of research, he's not the fastest we've ever seen. and i have to agree with russfeld, i don't see a capable f1 driver there either. yet. there's one or two i'll be interested to watch progress as drivers though.

AMT · 4 Sep 2005, 13:10 (Ref:1398545)

Not sure, Bella, how your Silverstone analysis works. Alvaro was more competitive relative to the others, including other second-year drivers, than he was last year, surely meaning that he improved more than them. Maybe I've misunderstood your argument. In any case, it's dangerous to make an assessment of a driver from one meeting, particularly comparing one year to another and one car to another. And it is pretty mind-blowing to win the Championship with six races uncontested, when the scoring system is designed to avoid such domination.

I think he certainly is a potential F1 driver. He definitely has the ability to be one of the best (and I should know, I'm his race engineer), but there's more to making it in F1 than that.

runshaw · 4 Sep 2005, 17:23 (Ref:1398792)

Quote:

Originally Posted by bella

what's the definition of "prestigious" then?

re: parente. close examination of the qualifying times (at silverstone on the gp layout) show that while everyone else in their second year improved, parente gained nothing apart from the standard amount gained by the new chassis. i'm not saying he's not a worthy champion, i think he's done a fantastic job this year. but having done alot of research, he's not the fastest we've ever seen.

The definition of 'prestigious' is: having an illustrious reputation; respected. Which the British F3 championship has.

I think there is little point in examining Parente at 1 meeting this year as AMT said. Even if he aparently didn't gain anything at Silverstone, the truth of the matter is, is that he missed the pre-season testing, the first round, and has wrapped the title up with 2 rounds remaining.

**bella** · 4 Sep 2005, 17:39 (Ref:1398797)

i was trying to prove something entirely different with the analysis of times, but ended up with a whole load of conclusions i wasn't expecting. parente not being any faster being one of them.

anyway, if no-one's going to get it i'll leave it. its just a great way of showing that he's not a potential f1 driver in terms of speed.

AMT · 4 Sep 2005, 20:26 (Ref:1398977)

I'm intrigued by your research Bella. Alvaro qualified second to Charlie for one race, and was on pole for the other. Both of his qualifying times were quicker than his 2004 times. He also won both races (and finished second in the deferred Spa round, starting sixth on the grid). He therefore beat the other second-year drivers like Asmer and Dirani, and by most reckonings had a very impressive weekend. He also set fastest qualifying lap and fastest race lap of the weekend. I wasn't his engineer last year, and I wasn't working in British F3, so I don't know the 2004 details. Please enlighten me.

**bella** · 4 Sep 2005, 20:52 (Ref:1398999)

i believe the cars are half a second faster this year than last before we've even started looking at individual cases. parente was 2 10ths faster on the gp track (a lap of 1m43s?), which equates to a pretty tiny difference over the course of a full lap.

the two relevant timesheets are:
http://www.msttiming.com/singlesessi...nd=round08.gif
for 2005
http://www.msttiming.com/singlesessi...verstonegp.gif
for 2004.

**bella** · 4 Sep 2005, 20:55 (Ref:1399000)

in addition i'd like to point out i'm not biased either way or in any way over britishf3. i'm looking at it from a completely impartial point of view with similar knowledge of both years competitors at qualifying sessions with similar temperature and track conditions.

runshaw · 4 Sep 2005, 23:32 (Ref:1399106)

Quote:

Originally Posted by bella

anyway, if no-one's going to get it i'll leave it. its just a great way of showing that he's not a potential f1 driver in terms of speed.

Yes but your only talking about 1 meeting still. You can't base all your research on Parente on just one meeting, champions always have good and bad days, meaning you should look at the whole picture, not just one track.

Russfeld · 5 Sep 2005, 06:19 (Ref:1399219)

If you look at the whole picture you wont be terribly impressed.

**bella** · 5 Sep 2005, 09:46 (Ref:1399353)

i'm just looking at thruxton, and in race 1 qualifying, 04 pole was faster (in changeable conditions) than 05 (in sunny/dry conditions). parente was also slower. in race 2 qualifying, pole was quicker in 05, but parente was slower in 05.
i'm looking for similar weather conditions at the moment for sessions to compare with; thruxton should have been in the favour of 05 at least in the first session, but it doesn't seem so.

strider · 5 Sep 2005, 09:53 (Ref:1399364)

As I've just said elsewhere, Parente missed the Thruxton test, thus went into qualifying stone cold, so that's not the best comparison.

**bella** · 5 Sep 2005, 10:06 (Ref:1399378)

what about croft, then? the pace there was significantly slower in 05 than 04.

http://www.msttiming.com/singlesessi...nd=round03.gif
04
http://www.msttiming.com/singlesessi...nd=round03.gif
05

same applies for the first sessions of both, but the weather conditions were significantly different so i didn't count them.

strider · 5 Sep 2005, 10:27 (Ref:1399391)

I'll have to think about that one.

There are other variables such as wind strength and whether or not the track's dirty because they had a rallycross there the previous weekend. It could be something like that.

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