2007 British F3 International Series silly season

[strider]

Originally Posted by Daisy

I still have my doubts about Engel. I saw him in the Euroseries 2/3 years ago and he couldn't impress me at all. Winning at Spa is always good but I wanna see him racing in a stronger field with not just 3/4, but more guys who are quick enough to fight for the title. I don't see him being the next German F1 star.

Right now, Nico Hulkenberg is looking to be the next German F1 star, depending on how seriously you take A1GP. Strange, considering that he didn't even win the Recaro F3 Cup...

The problem for Engel is that until this year he hasn't really done a full season in anything; just a few races here and a few races there. This year he did a full season of British F3, which was a challenge in itself, because unlike almost everyone else, he hadn't raced on any of the circuits before. And don't forget that he was using the Mugen-Honda engine, which most Europeans would say is not in the same league as the Mercedes. Not that I agree, but that's another story...

[Go_For_Pole]

Originally Posted by strider

Strange, considering that he didn't even win the Recaro F3 Cup...

But then again he was forced to drive a Ligier chassis so..

[strider]

Sam Bird has won the British Club Driver of the Year award at the Autosport Awards, saying that he hopes to race in British F3 next season. Link: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/55877

[Lightning Bug]

Originally Posted by Go_For_Pole

But then again he was forced to drive a Ligier chassis so..

Hulkenberg wasn't forced to race the Ligier. He tested it back to back with the Dallara, went quicker in the Ligier, and chose to race it. The team gave him the choice.

[Go_For_Pole]

Didn't know that, thx! So you reckon the Ligier is on par with the Dallara?

[lauder]

At certain tracks the Ligier was better suited than the Dallara, and in Recaro they were using the harder Hancooks tyres, which are about 1.5s a lap slower than the regular euro series rubber. Lolas performed well on those set ups too.

[strider]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Anyone got any further news on these guys?

I didn't quote your post in full, chunterer, but nice idea to bring those other posts back in here.

I don't think Double R wold run two Finns and it's looking as though Atte Mustonen is the favourite. He's testing with them at Monza this week alongside Stephen Jelley. Shame in a way. Mika Mäki is a great name. Finns seem to be like Brazilians, they're all bloody quick, even the ones you've not heard of before! T-Sport and Carlin are also testing at Monza.

Fortec and Hitech are testing in Spain, although separately. Fortec have the Mansells and Hitech a young Spanish driver, with James Walker in attendance.

[Bezzen]

Originally Posted by strider

I don't think Double R wold run two Finns and it's looking as though Atte Mustonen is the favourite. He's testing with them at Monza this week alongside Stephen Jelley. Shame in a way. Mika Mäki is a great name. Finns seem to be like Brazilians, they're all bloody quick, even the ones you've not heard of before! T-Sport and Carlin are also testing at Monza.

I believe Mäki has close connections to Kimi so him being in a Double R car wouldn't be unlikely. When Mäki did a one-off appearance in Formula Renault NEC at Anderstorp this year Räikkönen took his chopper from Finland to Sweden to watch him race. I think the Swedish press called it that Raikkonen flew in "to say hi to his friend", or something.

[chunterer]

Good stuff all round.

So we may not see 2 Finns in the same team (good possible trivia question When have 2 Finns driven in the same team in single seaters sort of thing there I reckon?) but we may well see them driving for different teams.

Could it be another Hakkinen v Salo type season all over again in '07?!

[davyboy]

Can somebody put me straight on something that's perplexed me for years. Everyone in the current F3 series is young with a background of F-BMW, F-Renault etc..., but it wasn't always like that. Until relatively recently you had older guys like Warren Carway in the mix, and back in the 1970s and 1980s [and even 1990s] people like Nigel Smith were there as well. Was there an upper age limit introduced at some point along the way that I missed ?

[strider]

No, there is no upper age limit. I think it's just a situation that has evolved over the last decade or so. People like Nigel Smith never thought they were going to become F1 drivers, they just wanted to drive the best single seater available to them and have some some fun while they were doing it.

Nowadays everyone sees F1 stars in their eyes and is in a great hurry to go as far as they can as soon as they can. What they don't seem to realise is that this creates a huge log jam of talent just underneath F1. It's just as well that GP2 and WSR (even Champ Car) exist to cope with this.

Even less do they realise that very few of them are going to reach that ultimate goal, but I don't suppose one should criticise them for trying.

[davyboy]

Its interesting to know that. Its funny when you look at FPA for example, there seems to be a real mix in the age-spread, and so too the BTCC. It would do no harm for F3 or GP2 to have a few very quick 'trolls' who remain there year in year out as a benchmark if you will to determine how good the up and coming talent really is. This has traditionally happened in karting with people like Gianluca Beggio, Davide Fore and even the Barnselyman from Italy himself Mike Wilson in the past. I'm sure the teams would benefit greatly too from at least one driver who perpetuates continuity and really knows how to set a car up.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by davyboy

It would do no harm for F3 or GP2 to have a few very quick 'trolls' who remain there year in year out as a benchmark if you will to determine how good the up and coming talent really is. I'm sure the teams would benefit greatly too from at least one driver who perpetuates continuity and really knows how to set a car up.

Good point.

There were people like Welsman, Tim Davies, who was a little bit older than some of his contemporaries in the early 80's but just as good in Super Ford and F3 for example.

Other drivers such as Richard Morgan? (might have muddled up a name there mid to late '85) who had a few outings and stunned the Class B regulars and Alistair Lyall were very quick 'older' drivers in Class B in the late 80's and it would have been interesting to see how Alistair had gone in with a full budget in a Class A car.

Frank Bradley, Rick Morris, John Village and John's 'Brolly' and 'Butcher' Booth are other fine examples of such drivers, although that was in FF1600.

[Lightning Bug]

Originally Posted by davyboy

It would do no harm for F3 or GP2 to have a few very quick 'trolls' who remain there year in year out as a benchmark if you will to determine how good the up and coming talent really is.

Fabio Carbone in Japan, Richard Antinucci in Euroseries, Danny Watts in UK!!

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by Lightning Bug

Fabio Carbone in Japan, Richard Antinucci in Euroseries, Danny Watts in UK!!

Carbone and Antinucci have been driving in various F3 championships since 2002 - 5 seasons total - while Danny Watts was in F3 from 2003-2005 and is now racing Porsches. They've not really stuck to one series throughout and haven't been there for the equivalent 'troll-time' of other series' like touring cars, sports cars or even F1 itself which has had drivers there for 10 seasons and more. This is what I had in mind.

[Lightning Bug]

I know, was just being cheeky! Going back to your earlier point about young drivers, Tor Graves and Justin Sherwood were both regulars in British F3 two or three years ago while in their thirties.

[strider]

If you stay too long in F3, you get mocked around these parts. The prime example of that is Alvaro Parente. He did F3 for five seasons, two in Spanish F3, one messing about with a couple of races in the Italian, a few in the Euroseries and a couple in the British. Then he had two serious seasons in British F3, dominating in 2005 and winning the title.

People here seemed reluctant to give him any credit for that on the basis that he had been in F3 for so long, but the point they missed is that he had not raced cars in any other formula at all. No F-Ford, no F-BMW, no F-Renault. It was a different route from the conventional one, but it worked for him.

Since then, he has gone well in A1GP for Team Portugal and in this year's WSR, so I'd say he has proved himself.

[chunterer]

Angelelli was another seasoned F3 regular in Italy and Germany and possibly Japan as well?

But back to topic!!!!

[Bezzen]

Ok, I'll get it back on topic.

The Swedish motorsport news site sportinformation.com is reporting that Alexander Storckenfeldt is aiming to continue in STCC for Volvo but said that he has an offer to drive in British F3. He will make his decision before the new year apparently.

Storckenfeldt has driven a couple of years in Britain in Formula Renault 2.0 with some sporadic wins now and then. This year he debuted in the Swedish Touring Car Championship for the Polestar Volvo team where he had the unfortunate pleasure of teaming up with Robert Dahlgren. Storckenfeldt did have a pretty tough time trying to run in the same league as Dahlgren. But perhaps Polestar has faith in him for another season.

Before this year I remember Storckenfeldt saying that his touring car move was to be able to get closer to his sponsors to try and raise funds for more international single seater racing later on.

[cds_uk]

I would like to see Niall Breen in a F3 car next year, any hope do you think?

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by cds_uk

I would like to see Niall Breen in a F3 car next year, any hope do you think?

Doesn't he play for Sunderland?

[davyboy]

Ya it would be good to see him and Paddy Hogan in the championship alright. I was told Paddy Hogan's pretty well heeled [of course I stand corrected on that], so I imagine there's a good chance he'll be there at some stage.

[Lightning Bug]

Could be wrong, but I would guess Niall Breen is doing Formula Renault, otherwise there wouldn't have been much point doing the Renault Winter Series. If he was doing F3 wouldn't he have done some F3 testing instead?

[strider]

The guys testing at Monza today are not very happy - it's been raining and more of the same is forecast for tomorrow.

However, Rodolfo Gonzalez, who is there with T-Sport, has had some news to cheer him up. He's been voted Inter-American Racing Driver of 2006, ahead of the likes of Sebastian Bourdais and Felipe Massa! Full story: http://www.parcferme.com/content/view/1985/2/

Don't ask me how it happened, but it will look good on his CV...

[runshaw]

Haha how strange. The national class only had 6 cars in it. Gonzalez hasn't even won an outright race in his career yet has he? The best he did in FR was only a 3rd place.