New F1 support race for 2008

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European F1 rounds will benefit from an expanded support race package next year. Formula BMW, the championship BMW rookie Sebastian Vettel won in 2004, will join the bill.

Vettel won the German category, which is set to merge with its British equivalent, to create Formula BMW Europe. The sub-GP2 single seater category will have a maximum of 30 entrants.

It’s good news for F1 fans who will get more interesting support race action on weekends – although the little cars will take a long time to lap full size F1 venues.

It may create a clearer ladder into F1 – from Formula BMW to GP2 to Formula 1.

However it may also prove too expensive for those drivers that can only just afford the cost of the national championships.

I’m all in favour of improving F1 support races – GP2 is great but the Porsche Supercup is lamentably dull. Bring back the British Touring Car Championship I say!

NB. I don’t know what I like most about the picture above – young Vettel’s braces or Mario Theissen’s loving gaze…

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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4 comments on “New F1 support race for 2008”

  1. “although the little cars will take a long time to lap full size F1 venues.”
    but surely the total amount of laps for the race will then be reduced, so this is not an issue?

  2. Oh yes the races will be much shorter – what I mean is that for a spectator standing by the track the cars might only come past every two minutes.

  3. Where was the news announced about new support races for F1 and Formula BMW Europe?

    Many thanks.

  4. I drove in support races 1973 to 1981 …… at Watkins Glen and Montreal. Back then we were racing “vintage” cars, the races were only 10 laps at about 60% the speed of the F1 cars. The drivers armband was good for the paddock, the pits, the parties and the press. The memories last forever.

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