Euro 3000 Jerez: Alex Lloyd makes debut!

[Daisy]

And how!

1 - Alex Lloyd - Village - 1'35"304
2 - Bernhard Auinger - Euronova - 1'35"682
3 - Fausto Ippoliti - Draco - 1'35"806
4 - Norbert Siedler - ADM - 1'35"857
5 - Mathias Lauda - Traini - 1'36"149
6 - Fabrizio Del Monte - GP Racing - 1'36"358
7 - Maxime Hodencq - GP Racing - 1'36"718
8 - Allam Khodair - ADM - 1'36"980
9 - Jonathan Reid - Village - 1'36"988
10 - Nicky Pastorelli - Draco - 1'37"097
11 - Tuka Rocha - Zele - 1'37"187
12 - Babalus - Traini - 1'37"211
13 - Tor Graves - GP Racing - 1'38"082
14 - Giacomo Ricci - Power Tech - 1'38"525
15 - Loic Deman - FamÃ* - 1'38"878
16 - Rafael Sarandeses - Power Tech - 1'39"792

[Kicking-back]

Good to see Alex back on the track - but he'll need to dominate these races because there's no-one else of much ability in the field.

[Paul Rayner]

What is that? Test? Qualifying? Is there an official site?

[Daisy]

http://www.superfundeuro3000.com/

and it was free practice, today qualifying, tomorrow the race.

[carbontub]

Lloyd will blow them away but where will it take him not
very far i expect the guy is worthy of a better championship than this waste of money to me.

[BootsOntheSide]

The only major talent in this series is Auinger, who did so well when he stepped in at the Red Bull F3000 team 2 years ago. Lauda doens't live up to his name, and most of these are journeymen who are probably headed for sportscars. All the same, beating them all ar toue first attempt is quite something.

[Daisy]

Mmm... Lloyd seems to have dissapeared in the saturday results.

FREE PRACTICE
1 - Norbert Siedler - ADM - 1'35"398
2 - Nicky Pastorelli - Draco - 1'35"550
3 - Fabrizio Del Monte - GP Racing - 1'35"562
4 - Babalus - Traini - 1'35"579
5 - Mathias Lauda - Traini - 1'35"651
6 - Jonathan Reid - Village - 1'35"838
7 - Tuka Rocha - Zele - 1'36"043
8 - Fausto Ippoliti - Draco - 1'36"236
9 - Maxime Hodencq - GP Racing - 1'36"256
10 - Allam Khodair - ADM - 1'36"256
11 - Bernhard Auinger - Euronova - 1'37"111
12 - Tor Graves - GP Racing - 1'37"504
13 - Loic Deman - FamÃ* - 1'37"528
14 - Giacomo Ricci - Power Tech - 1'37"598
15 - Rafael Sarandeses - Power Tech - 1'37"926
16 - Edoardo Bisconcin - Euronova - 1'44"447

QUALIFYING
1 - Norbert Siedler - ADM - 1'33"533
2 - Bernhard Auinger - Euronova - 1'34"000
3 - Fabrizio Del Monte - GP Racing - 1'34"101
4 - Mathias Lauda - Traini - 1'34"267
5 - Nicky Pastorelli - Draco - 1'34"431
6 - Maxime Hodencq - GP Racing - 1'34"504
7 - Jonathan Reid - Village - 1'34"609
8 - Allam Khodair - ADM - 1'34"818
9 - Fausto Ippoliti - Draco - 1'34"901
10 - Giacomo Ricci - Power Tech - 1'35"325
11 - Babalus - Traini - 1'35"350
12 - Tuka Rocha - Zele - 1'35"445
13 - Rafael Sarandeses - Power Tech - 1'35"918
14 - Tor Graves - GP Racing - 1'36"153
15 - Loic Deman - FamÃ* - 1'36"883
16 - Edoardo Bisconcin - Euronova - 1'43"258
That Mathias Lauda is 4th on the grid says enough about the quality on the grid...

Bisconcin ... how the hell can somebody like him on the grid, I know he only drove 5 laps, but around 10 seconds off the pace...

[sceptic]

Bisconcin didn't go out at all in yesterday's sessions, so having 90 minutes less track time probably didn't help.

On the other hand even Sarandeses, was doing 1:38s in the first session.

[carbontub]

dont tell me alex has run out of money before qualifying or has he just come to his senses.

[Bobie]

From reading the Euro3000 website there is no mention of him signing up to the series just that he was testing and was quickest. However, there is a quote from Lloyd saying that he hopes that his performance will enable him to get a drive in the series, so he is obviosly planning to do this rather than British or European F3. Time will tell.

[105octane]

Must have more money than sense.

[Kicking-back]

Just watched the race live.

Mildly entertaining, but only through the totally amateur nature of it all - and the lack of driving talent on show.

A fair few incidents, but I can't see this really helping anyone's career.

Mattias Lauda finished second, for god's sake!

And Fabrizio del Monte won by a country mile again.

[Tweed]

I'd give it a go though! How low a level are we talking here? I thought FRV6 was quite low, but not as low as this

[bella]

i think it's a bit of a second chance series...

[Tweed]

a few years ago it wasn't though, was it? Massa, Melo and even Biagi were there, still nowhere near Int. F3000 though I know....

[sceptic]

There are a few talented drivers there.

Ippoliti is reigning Italian F3 champion, for example.
Siedler seems to be quite good, as does Reid.
Auinger's reputation is probably better than he is.
Maxime Hodencq is far too young to be in cars this big - if he'd waited a couple of years he would probably have developed into a good race driver.
Christiano Tuka Rocha has some raw talent too - again he'd probably have been better off learning the European circuits in something less powerful before doing this.

[105octane]

Looks to me like there is only one guy really any good and thats the guy del monte, to be leading by 30 seconds up until the safety car period doesnt say much for the rest does it.

[strider]

All I'll say is that it is NOT where the guy who last year's McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award should be even be thinking of racing.

[foreversideways]

All the above comments are correct in one way or another however as far as i can see this was a test and a great performance by Alex whatever you may think of the opposition. New car, new circuit, not driven for some time, goes out and is fastest. Give him a break, how many people can do that.

[diz]

Originally posted by foreversideways
[/B]

You took your time Ray.

[105octane]

No ones getting at the guy foreversideways, he has run these sort of cars before i believe in other tests pre season, and i wouldnt of expected anything else coming from alex, who is obviously a very talented driver. People here are just saying it wouldnt be the best option in furthering his career path.

[foreversideways]

I was not saying anyboby was getting at him, only that sometimes its very easy to underestimate an achievement from the comfort of your armchair. I really am not qualified to judge the value of that championship although the race on Sunday was not the most exciting i have ever seen. Not a patch on a NW FF1600 race Diz !!.

[Mathias]

Just out of interest, just what the french connection is Euro3000?

How does it relate to F3000? What? Who? Why?

[Kicking-back]

Mathias - Euro 3000 is a series using the old (1999-2001) spec F3000 chassis.

[Mr Jinxx]

I suppose I'd better fill in a couple of gaps, and maybe answer a couple of queries.

Euro F3000 is like scholarship F3 - the older F3000 chassis. They are rapid cars (having 470HP, compared to F3 220Hp or Formula Renault 180HP) with a grip level that matches the car - well balanced - neither under nor overpowered for the tyres/grip.

As you are probably aware, we have been unable to raise support from anyone for Alex to do British F3, and it isn't really surprising in many ways - Snetterton and Knockhill etc are hardly glamour ventures for sponsors to do their corporate entertaining, and the quality of the show, or lack of it, has been talked about elsewhere. F3 is a sort of purist class, not much beyond FRenault, which is a good step up to the bigger faster cars, and theoretically good for a driver in learning to develop a car. Alex certainly gained experience in F3 testing, particularly in helping develop the Fortec car from the Renault to the Opel engine.

There is no racing as such - top level single seater motor racing is basically about qualifying, as we all know.

So our question was whether Alex should look to fastrack F3 and move straight up to one of the big boys classes next year - if we can't get sponsorship for F3 this year, why would it be different next year? British F3 is on the slide as it is.

If we are to choose this route, and look at the Dallara/V6 thingie or GP2 or whatever next year - glamour classes with more sponsor-pulling power -then how best to see if Alex could adapt fairly quickly to the European circuits (Monza, Spa, Estoril, Jerez, Hungaroring, etc) and a much more powerful car?

Plenty of drivers who can live with low powered cars like the F3, with tons of grip, have struggled with much faster cars with more grip than power, and you wouldn't want to fall into that trap.

EuroF3000 is a big step up from F3 in terms of the circuits and the car itself, hence we went to Jerez to do the official test, not so much to compare times with the experienced drivers there (Lauda, for example, is running in Euro F3000 and International F3000 this year, Ippoliti as has been said, is reigning Italian F3 champion) but to get an idea if Alex felt he would be able to get on the pace by the end of the year if we finished this year in F3000 - just to learn the car. He did a handful of laps at a damp Donington in an F3000 car, just for a run out, last year, but has never tested one, nor ever seen Jerez before.

There were only 2 test sessions of 45 minutes each (which actually ended up being 20 laps in the morning and 10 laps in the afternoon) so there wasn't going to be any time to learn the circuit nor learn the car properly, and certainly not to change the car setup ... it was just to be an evaluation for Alex to judge how long he felt it would take him to get comfortable in the F3000

He was quickest in the first session (20 laps) on old tyres, but only just, and that was a great surprise, not knowing the track. It is also true to say that we were slightly underweight in the morning, although not much. Jerez isn't difficult to learn, nor particularly technical, just some long very fast corners. He said it took him half a lap to know that he could muscle the car round quickly, and John Village (with whom he did the test) have got a damn good car.

In the afternoon, he was running at full weight, but they only did 10 laps. However they all did do a new tyre run.

You get one lap only at Jerez, the first one, and Alex did a good lap, putting him quickest by around 4/10ths. Not understanding the new tyres was a bit of a problem for him, as it took him 2 corners to work out the anticipated grip level for the rest of the lap, and the tyres were gone by the end of the lap, but it was enough for us to complete an evaluation, which was what this was all about.

We have enough money to complete this year, that's all, and we can do that in F3, F3000, whatever. Our focus is on next year, and how best to raise sponsorship for whatever we do next year. To that end, we need to look closely at how and where we finish this year.

Looking at the overall picture, we have to ask ourselves, is Alex a quick driver? Clearly he is. What about his feedback and car development, etc? So far so good - I think all the engineers with whom he has worked and/or tested will attest to his quality of feedback. What about racecraft? Very good. He thinks, and is calm and analytical. He has had racing experience in cars and karts and cars since he was 9 and tends not to make mistakes. What about the level of competition? Again he has been measured against the good guys since he started racing.

So what he wants is experience in quicker cars and the European circuits, not hacking around Snetterton, I reasoned.

We haven't made any decisions yet, but it seems to me that, as much as you might rubbish the EuroF3000 as a championship (and it clearly doesn't have the overall highest calibre drivers) there are always some really good drivers at the fore of any chamionship. Some 3rd year drivers in there too - Mr Del Monte he say yes to this 3rd year in the class - but Alex's aim is just getting the most out of the high-powered machinery and learning some new circuits, in preparation for next year.

There is almost no testing in F3000, that is a problem if you enter the championship with a view to winning it. For example, the next race is Monza. There is one 30 minute test session, then straight into qualifying. If you don't know the circuit (nor the car) then you are at a great disadvantage, but as I've said before, not knowing the circuit doesn't seem to be the great handicap that many think it is for these top drivers - they learn quickly. Getting a good car setup is more important, and I think John Village Automotive have some good setups.

But we are already into the championship, and if we were to go this route, we would use it as a chance to learn. It will not be in existence next year. And if we can get a few podiums during this learning period, well that's nice, and a 10,000 euros cheque for every race win is not a bad goal either.