Audi aim to hit back at Peugeot at Le Mans this year

We’re all F1 fanatics here but even with a biggest-ever calendar of 19 races this year that still leaves 33 F1-free weekends.

So what’s the other must-see racing action in 2010 this year? Here’s my top ten picks – name yours below.

British Formula Three, Oulton Park

Rounds one, two and three – 3rd & 5th April

The traditional Easter weekend race at Oulton Park is a must-see for me – the first chance to see the new crop of young drivers fighting it out for honours in the British Formula Three championship.

Two years ago Jaime Alguersuari and team mate Brendon Hartley tangled at the hairpin, leaving Oliver Turvey to win.

Last year got off to an amusing start as Max Chilton jumped the start by a good five seconds and passed my position halfway down the start straight while the rest of the field were still waiting for the green light. Have a look at the video from the race below:

The 2010 British F3 season kicks off the day after the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Formula Two, Silverstone

Rounds one and two, April 16th-18th

The Formula Two championship was re-formed last year and for its second season the cars are being given more power and more grip.

Will this be enough to make a series an essential step on the path to F1 – which it really should be, given its name? We’ll get our first look at the 2010 contenders at Silverstone in May.

Indy Racing League, Indianapolis 500

Round four, May 30th

The Indy Racing League continues to get back on its feet in its third year of re-unification. This year Takuma Sato joins the sport’s former F1 contenders such as Robert Doornbos and Justin Wilson.

The centrepiece Indy 500, held the same day as the Turkish Grand Prix, is essential viewing. Also keep an eye out for the classic Long Beach street race, formerly on the F1 calendar, and the series first visit to the streets of Sao Paolo and Barber Motorsports Park.

Last year’s Indy 500 wasn’t a vintage race but it was a result to remember. Helio Castroneves won the race for the third time having returned to the championship having been investigated for tax evasion:

Le Mans 24 Hours, Circuit de la Sarthe

12th-13th June

Like the Indy 500, a historic race which gets on this list by default. This year’s race is an especially tantalising prospect as Audi prepare to hit back at Peugeot, who finally defeated them last year.

Former F1 champion Nigel Mansell will make his long-overdue first appearance in the race (he originally tried to contend it in the early eighties). And Aston Martin will enter a pair of their gorgeous V12 coupes once again.

Here’s a video of last year’s race getting started. Anyone fancy a 24-hour live blog for this year’s Le Mans?

GP2, Algarve

Rounds seven and eight, 19th-20th June

This year’s GP2 line-up is already looking exciting. iSport duo Davide Valsecchi and Oliver Turvey have shown good form in the Asia series, ART boast Ferrari-backed Jules Bianchi and there’s plenty of promising talent like Sergio Perez and Alexander Rossi elsewhere on the grid.

The championship’s sole foray away from the F1 support schedule takes them back to the fantastic Algarve circuit in Portugal where the series concluded last year. It’s a pity the track hasn’t got an F1 deal, but watching the Formula 1 drivers of tomorrow slug it out over its crests and swoops is the next best thing.

Goodwood Festival of Speed

Goodwood Festival of Speed
2009 pictures

2nd-4th July

Yes, yes, it’s not really a race – but with an entry list the likes of which Goodwood attracts, who’s complaining?

Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button both appeared last year and hopefully they’ll turn up again for McLaren in 2010.

Hamilton’s hopes of driving Ayrton Senna’s 1988 McLaren up the hill last year were dashed – will he get the chance this year?

Expect plenty of other appearances from contemporary F1 drivers and teams plus loads of classic Grand Prix cars and racers. If you’ve never been to this before, you really are missing something special. Take a look at F1 Fanatic’s coverage from last year:

Goodwood Festival of Speed 2009

• My top 40 pictures from the Goodwood Festival of Speed 2009
• F1 cars, post-1980 (Goodwood Festival of Speed pictures)
• Williams F1 cars collection (Goodwood Festival of Speed 2009 pictures)
• F1 cars, pre-1980 (Goodwood Festival of Speed 2009 pictures)
• Life L190 – the worst F1 car ever – to run at Goodwood Festival of Speed
• Non-F1 cars at the Goodwood Festival
• 100+ pictures of F1 drivers and cars at the Goodwood Festival of Speed

American Le Mans Series, Petit Le Mans, Road Atlanta

Round nine, 29th September – 2nd October

One of few opportunities to see the best LMP1 racers in action next year. The 1,000 mile/ten-hour race around the challenging Road Atlanta circuit is also one of the rounds which comprise the new Intercontinental Cup for Le Mans prototypes, the precursor to a new world championship for the cars starting next year:

Le Mans Intercontinental Cup

• Could the new world championship for Le Mans cars be a future rival to F1?

DTM, Shanghai

Round ten, 30th-31st October

Increasingly, the DTM is the only touring car championship I bother to follow very closely. The WTCC put me off long ago with its ridiculously short races, poor choice of circuits and success ballasting. I still have a soft spot for the BTCC but there’s no denying the championship is a shadow of what it what in its mid-nineties heyday.

It may only boast Mercedes and Audi as manufacturer entrants but DTM’s cars are more dramatic and they race on some great tracks.

This year the championship is heading out to China once again, to a street circuit in Shanghai. Could this new venue be the future for F1′s presence in China, which has struggled to draw a crowd to the remote Shanghai International Circuit?

Hopefully the DTM won’t suffer a repeat of the loose manhole covers that plagued their 2004 visit to the country, as well as A1 Grand Prix’s attempt at holding a street race in Beijing in 2006.

Macau Grand Prix, Guia circuit

20th-21st November

The most coveted of the big F3 races, drawing the cream of the crop from the British, European, Japanese and other championships. This is a proper street circuit, mixing fast straights, tight corners and unforgiving walls.

GT1, San Luis

Round 19 and 20, 5th December

The entry list for the new FIA GT1 world championship reads like a Top Gear episode: Aston Martin DB9, Lamborghini Murcielago R-SV, Maserati MC-12, Nissan GT-R, Ford GT…

The supercar fun gets started at Abu Dhabi in two months’ time and the season wraps up at the gorgeous Potrero de los Funes lakeside circuit in San Luis, Argentina in December.

Have a look at the gorgeous circuit in this video:

Any more?

These are the ten races outside of the F1 championship I most want to see in 2010. But what other events do you think I should make time for? What are you going to be watching this year?

Should I be getting up at midnight to watch Australian Touring Cars? Which races on NASCAR’s mammoth schedule are most worthy of our attention? Is it time I broadened out from four-wheel circuit racing to take in Moto GP and rallying?

Or maybe for you F1 is number one and nothing else will do. Make your case in the comments for which are the must-watch races this year.

Read more: Watch more than just F1 races in 2010

Few motor sports are covered anything like as well as F1

BBC F1 are doing a marvellous job in their first year back as F1′s broadcasters in Britain. That much is clear on the live blogs whenever fans outside Britain get a glimpse of BBC’s work and comment on how good it is.

But although it’s great to finally see some improvement in Formula 1 broadcasting, it’s getting harder to watch other quality racing series in Britain.

GP2

Before 2009, GP2 spent three years on mainstream satellite channel Eurosport and one year on major British broadcaster ITV.

However BBC elected not to pick up the GP2 broadcast rights, which were instead acquired by subscription service Setanta.

Setanta’s subscription costs are steep, and they aren’t committed to showing all the races live.

But that pales into insignificance given that the company is now teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. If that happens, will anyone sweep in to pick it up? Or will the most popular feeder series for F1 be without a broadcaster?

Indy Racing League

Sky Sports’ commitment to its Indy Car contract has noticeably waned since it started broadcasting NASCAR.

Fewer races are now broadcast live, and those which are shown are often missing replays and other video elements, making following the races much more difficult. This was even the case for the Indianapolis 500.

Given how many British drivers are in Indy Car this year, and how much closer the sport is much to European-style racing than NASCAR, I think Sky have their priorities wrong.

DTM

The German Touring Car Championship, home of some of Britain’s most promising up-and-coming talent like Paul di Resta and Oliver Jarvis, is also lost in the GP2 wasteland.

It was poached off Motors TV, which had a great community following for its slightly eccentric style of coverage.

Formula Three

Motors TV’s loss of the DTM to Setanta has also led to the disappearance of the Formula Three Euro Series from our screens.

This has sent many drivers in the direction of F1, including Lewis Hamilton, Robert Kubica and Adrian Sutil.

Britain’s F3 championship has not been broadcast live in a long time, though bizarrely I managed to stumble across an old race from 2006 being broadcast on Channel 4 a few weeks ago.

World Series by Renault

Renault’s major single-seater championship, which promoted the likes of Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel, was on Setanta last year.

It has now moved to Eurosport where it may be exposed to a bigger audience, but there’s little point if they aren’t showing the all races live.

What’s next?

Britain is not completely bereft of motor racing coverage beyond Formula 1. ITV’s comprehensive British Touring Car Championship coverage is very good, and Sky do a much better job with A1 Grand Prix than they do with the IRL.

Eurosport are broadcasting all of the increasingly turgid World Touring Car Championship live. More interestingly they’ve also picked up the rights to the nascent Formula 2 championship, which is definitely worth keeping an eye on. And we will be able to see much of the Le Mans 24 Hours this weekend.

But if it weren’t for BBC’s exemplary F1 broadcasts, British motor sport fans would be much worse off in 2009 than 2008. If these championships want their races to be seen by British viewers, they need to start broadcasting them live online.

Is motor racing coverage any better where you are? What other motor sports besides F1 do you follow?

Read more

• BBC F1 coverage: your verdict
• What do US F1 fans think of Speed?
• The F1 coverage debates: What do Asian fans think of ESPN Star Sports?

Hülkenberg won the championship in the Le Mans round driving for the ART team, which in its earlier guise as ASM steered Lewis Hamilton to the 2005 title.

Hülkenberg has tested for Williams on several occasions this year and was recently confirmed as the team’s test driver for 2009.

Expect to see Hulkenberg in a GP2 seat next year, although competition for a drive with the ART squad will be fierce.

Read more about Nico Hülkenberg: Nico Hülkenberg (Meet the rookies)

FOTA are looking at how to improve the action at F1 weekends

The Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) is looking at making radical changes to how Grand Prix weekends are structured.

So far they’ve come up with the oddball of idea of having a million-dollar prize for fastest lap on a Friday, which seems a bit… irrelevant. Ollie’s comment that it’s “just plain silly” is about the nicest reaction to it I’ve read.

The team bosses should exercise caution if they’re going to start tampering with the DNA of Formula 1. Here are four ideas, which have been tried in other championships to make racing more entertaining, that don’t belong in F1.

Success ballast

Success ballasting makes political lobbying more important than car development

Series: World Touring Car Championship, British Touring Car Championship, German Touring Car Championship

‘Success ballasting’ is a polite way of saying ‘handicapping the winner’. It is anathema to anyone who wants Grand Prix racing to be about the fastest driver/car combination winning.

My concern that such a lousy idea might be given serious consideration in F1 is that it is often popular with car manufacturers. In touring car series, where the cars are based on stock shells, it is used to ‘help’ carmakers whose creations are less suited to racing to win races.

Thus halfway through a season the championship leaders are ballasted up to their eyeballs, struggling to pick up the odd point here and squabbling over the minor placings instead of fighting for race wins. The effects are particularly strong in the FIA-administered World Touring Car Championship, where the weight penalties are the most swingeing.

I can’t imagine the likes of McLaren and Ferrari giving serious consideration to performance handicapping just so Honda and Force India can win the odd race.

But when it comes to Formula 1 you must never to be too quick to say, “they’d never be stupid enough to do that.” Pitpass raised the spectre of performance handicapping in this article.

Mandatory pit stop windows

A1 cars must make two pit stops per feature race whether they need to or not

Series: A1 Grand Prix, German Touring Car Championship

It’s bad enough F1 has de facto mandatory pit stops in dry weather conditions because of the rule forcing each driver to use two different compounds of tyre during the race.

In A1 and the DTM, for reasons I cannot fathom, someone decided it would be good to force all the cars to make pit stops within a set time frame (‘window’) during each race.

For pity’s sake, why? All it does is give all the disadvantages of pit stops (drivers waiting until the pit stops instead of passing on track) and none of the benefits (drivers using alternative strategies to move up the field).

Unless you get your thrills sat outside Kwik-Fit watching people change tyres on cars, this is a dismal spectacle that ruins real racing.

Reverse grids

The F3 Euroseries uses reverse grids on Sundays

Series: GP2, F3 Euroseries, World Touring Car Championship

Reverse grids are fine for lower category series which hold multiple races at one event. But do we really want something as artificial as this in Formula 1?

Some of the best races I’ve seen have been ones where the top drivers have found themselves stuck at the back of the grid – think Suzuka 2005 and Hungary 2006. But if we had this every race weekend the drama would wear off very quickly.

Motor sport is exciting when it’s unpredictable. Reversing the grid all the time would make the unpredictable predictable, and it would stop being entertaining.

Points for pole position and fastest lap

Lewis Hamilton won his GP2 title after a fastest lap mix-up

Series: GP2

A classic “nice in theory, flawed in practice” idea.

I doubt Bernie Ecclestone would approve of it: Firstly because he’s in favour of getting rid of points and awarding the championship to whoever wins the most races (which is an excellent idea); Second, because he wouldn’t want the world championship to be decided during a qualifying session.

Giving a point for fastest lap would also be fraught with problems: a driver needing only one point to win the championship could use a low-fuel qualifying setup in the race to bag the point he needs and then park up.

Lewis Hamilton won his GP2 title in 2006 by gaining a point for fastest lap after Giorgio Pantano was stripped of his having passed another car under yellow flags at the time. It would be a shame to see an F1 title decided in the same way.

Better ideas

Of course, all this doesn’t mean F1 has nothing to learn from other championships – far from it. Here are five things F1 can learn from other racing series and what F1 can learn (and forget) from NASCAR.

Sebastien Buemi - surely he must be better than Deletraz?

Sebastien Buemi will drive for Toro Rosso during their three-day test in September as the team decide whether to give him an F1 seat for 2009.

If he gets in, he’ll be the first Swiss driver to start a Grand Prix since Jean-Denis Deletraz at the Nürburgring in 1995 – when Buemi was five years old.

Now 19, he is racing in GP2 and has won twice this year. Here’s a few details on his career to date.

Buemi started in karts aged five and made the step up to racing cars in 2004. He raced in the German Formula BMW championship and finished a creditable third overall in his rookie season – the same year Sebastian Vettel won 18 of the 20 races.

He also had his first taste of F1 machinery in 2004, driving a 1999-specification Arrows at the Luc track in France, in a session arranged by sponsors TAG Heuer.

Buemi returned to Formula BMW in 2005 and narrowly missed out on the title to Nico Hülkenberg by 287 points to 282. He was second in the world final event to Marco Holzer.

Buemi also dipped his toe into F3 that year, making a one-off appearance in the Spanish championship round at Valencia. The following year he raced in the F3 Euro Series for Mücke, won the reverse-grid race at Oschersleben, and ended the year 12th overall.

In his second season of F3 last year Buemi went head-to-head with Romain Grosjean for the Euro Series title. Grosjean had the benefit of racing for ASM – champions in the previous two seasons with Lewis Hamilton and Paul di Resta – and Grosjean beat him to the title, Buemi scoring three wins.

Bruemi’s efforts were perhaps also hampered by his activities in other racing series. He made 11 starts in GP2 as a substitute and despite his inexperience set fastest lap three times. He also raced in A1 Grand Prix.

He was signed by Arden and raced in the GP2 Asia series last winter, winning once at Sentul, though it was inherited following Luca Filippi’s disqualification. However Buemi scored points consistently throughout the season and finished second in the championship, though some way behind Grosjean.

Buemi stayed with Arden for the GP2 main series this year and has won twice in the Sunday sprint races. His feature race performances on Saturday have occasionally been hindered by poor qualifying, though as the season has gone on he seems to have got on top of that problem.

His win at Magny-Cours in tricky wet conditions – including a carefully-judged pass on team mate Yelmer Buurman – was excellent. But for a clutch failure on the grid last Sunday he might have scored a third win.

Buemi is one of many young drivers backed by Red Bull and he became the test driver for the team at the start of the year having tested for them previously. Unlike some drivers in the same position at other teams he’s actually had an appreciable amount of running, including tests at Barcelona, Jerez and Paul Ricard.

Now Red Bull’s junior team Toro Rosso is to test him with an eye to placing him alongside Sebastien Bourdais for 2009 – and continue their unofficial policy of only employing drivers called Sebastien/an.

F1 2009 season
F1 2009 drivers and teams

After announcing his retirement from Formula 1 at the British Grand Prix this weekend, David Coulthard heaped praise on up and coming Toro Rosso driver Sebastian Vettel saying he, “has everything a future F1 winner needs.”

Vettel has long been tipped to take Coulthard’s seat at Red Bull. Coulthard’s words of praise probably were a realistic indication of where Vettel will be driving next year, rather than a guilty act of charity towards the driver he took out of the race at Silverstone.

If Vettel does leave Toro Rosso, who will fill the gap he leaves at the team in 2009?

Bruno Senna

Bruno Senna, nephew of the late Ayrton Senna and scourge of the Istanbul canine population, is second in the GP2 championship for iSport. He won at Silverstone in heavy wet conditions last weekend and also triumphed at Monte-Carlo, both of which attracted inevitable comparisons with his uncle.

Senna has been linked with Toro Rosso before. Team boss Gerhard Berger has said of him:

With his victory in Monaco, Senna moved into the field of vision, but a driver from the Red Bull sphere would be logical.

So who are the other drivers from the Red Bull stable who could take the seat?

Neel Jani

Jani is a Red Bull man and was test driver for the team for a while. After racing in Champ Car last year he switched to A1 Grand Prix and almost single-handedly won the title for Switzerland.

But he’s been on the outskirts of Formula 1 for a while and his chance of getting a seat may have passed. But if one of the bigger teams gets Senna’s name on a contract first he has a chance of landing the Toro Rosso drive.

Other Red Bull junior drivers

Red Bull has an enormous driver development schemes with talent in GP2, World Series by Renault, various Formula Three and Formula Renault championships, and more besides.

Portuguese Filipe Albuquerque impressed in A1 Grand Prix over the winter. He’s already confirmed to do another year in 2008/09, but the overlap with a Formula 1 campaign would be minimal. The next season’s A1 cars, based on the 2004 Ferrari, wil be much closer to F1 performance than their predecessors.

Another Red Bull-backed A1 star is Canadian Robert Wickens. The 19 year-old won his ninth race in the category, and is currently in World Series by Renault where he has also won this year. He has made some errors of inexperience, however – such as causing a crash at the A1 Durban round by driving against the flow of traffic!

Other Red Bull drivers linked with the seat are Karun Chandhok, who has also been linked to Force India but has had a poor season in GP2 so far this year, and Red Bull test driver Sebastien Buemi.

Is Romain Grosjean a candidate?

A Renault Driver Development graduate with Formula Three Euroseries and GP2 Asia titles to his name. Grosjean probably has a decent chance of landing a Renault drive next year, perhaps replacing the unimpressive Nelson Piquet Jnr.

But Renault have proved reluctant to put rookies in their cars straight out of GP2 (where Grosjean currently races). Instead of leaving him to test for a year, which seemed to instil a race-rustiness in Heikki Kovalainen and Piquet Jnr, perhaps they could place him with a junior team? Toro Rosso is Red Bull’s junior team, and Red Bull use Renault engines.

Who do you think should or would get the Toro Rosso seat next year?

2009 F1 season

A surprise announcement from today’s FIA World Motor Sports Council today revealed the FIA wishes to set up a new feeder series to Formula 1.

It will be called Formula 2, reviving the name used for a similar series until 1984, before it was replaced by Formula 3000 and, later, GP2.

But why is the FIA proposing to create yet another F1 feeder series when there are already so many? Is this a further sign of a developing was between FIA president Max Mosley and F1 commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone over control of the sport?

A new entrant in a crowded market

The new F2 seems to be a direct competitor to GP2, which was formed in 2005. In just three seasons it has brought seven new drivers into Formula 1: Lewis Hamilton, Heikki Kovalainen, Nico Rosberg, Timo Glock, Kazuki Nakajima, Nelson Piquet Jnr and Scott Speed.

Not only is it clearly succeeding as a route into F1 it’s very popular with fans as well, providing close and entertaining racing that regularly puts F1 to shame.

If F1 sits at the top of the single-seater motor sports pyramid, GP2 is one of several categories beneath it that form a path to the sport. Any new entrant into this arena would be challenging many established championships, many backed by major car manufacturers.

Renault has the Renault World Series, which Fernando Alonso used en route to F1 (when it was called the Nissan World Series) and which Robert Kubica won in 2005 before being pinched from Renault by BMW’s Mario Theissen. Renault also supplies engines for GP2.

At a lower level BMW runs the Formula BMW series with championships operating in several countries. The new European Formula BMW championship joined GP2 as one of F1′s regular support events at European rounds this year. Timo Glock and Sebastian Vettel are among the graduates of the German series.

Mercedes, Toyota and Volkswagen build engines Formula Three which has long been one of the best routes to F1. Formula Master was started last year plus there are various Formula Renault championships, thew new Superleague Formula, a series for old F3000 cars and more. Even A1 Grand Prix can be considered an F1 feeder championship.

So why does the FIA think this busy market for driver and team talent needs yet another entrant?

The new Formula Two

Although the FIA is supposed to be the regulatory body for world motor racing I doubt they are proposing the creation of Formula Two for the better of the sport.

I think this is a ploy to undermine the GP2 series. Like F1, GP2 is owned by CVC, who purchased it in August last year. Since the revelation of his involvement in a sadomasochistic sex orgy Mosley has accused Ecclestone of attempting to wrest control of the sport from the FIA. Earlier this week Ecclestone denied he was responsible for leaking the details of Mosley’s sordid activities to the press in an attempt to discredit the FIA President.

Rumours abound that Ecclestone may try to lure the manufacturers away from Formula 1 to a new series of his creation, potentially called GP1, according to a rumour on Pitpass. In preparation Mosley is creating Formula 2 as a counterpart to GP2.

According to the FIA F2 will allow teams to compete “within a budget of around €200,000 a car per season.” This seems unfeasibly cheap – GP2 cars cost €1.5m per season to run and even Formula BMW costs 50% more than the proposed F2.

A split?

So what we have here is a proposal that seems completely unrealistic and completely unnecessary.

It seems to have been designed simply to provoke a reaction from Ecclestone. But the longer the FIA goes on making moves like this, the more realistic the prospect of F1 splitting into two becomes.

That would be disastrous for Formula 1. Those who are pushing for a fight with Ecclestone should heed the lesson of the CART/IRL split that left open wheel racing in America almost mortally weakened. Anyone who would risk such a thing happening to F1 clearly is too preoccupied with their own selfish ends to be bothered about the consequences for sport.

Read more about the F3000 champions

• The feeder formula champions part 1
• The feeder formula champions part 2
• The feeder formula champions part 3
• The feeder formula champions part 4

In the first of a two-part series F1 Fanatic columnist Ben Evans looks at two previous young McLaren drivers and asks why they never scaled the heights Lewis Hamiton has.

Watching Lewis Hamilton drive the race of his life on Sunday storming to victory in the Monaco Grand Prix, my mind couldn’t help wandering to the careers of two other McLaren development drivers, both arguably more talented than Hamilton, but equally neither anywhere near as successful.

Those two drivers were Allan McNish and Jan Magnussen.

In Formula Ford and Formula Three both McNish and Magnussen were once-in-a-generation fast. But after stunning debut seasons in F3, 1990 and 1994 respectively, neither’s career hit the heights they should have.

By the end of his debut season of Formula Ford in 1987 Allan McNish was a name hot on the lips of every self-respecting race fan. The cherubic looking young Scot looked devastatingly fast. This continued on into 1988 when, backed by Marlboro and teamed with Mika Hakkinen, the Dragon Motorsport team swept all before it in the British and European Formula Opel Championships.

It was no surprise when McNish moved on to F3 for 1989, again heavily backed by Marlboro and attracting serious McLaren interest. Although he ultimately finished runner-up and made several mistakes throughout the season, McNish was the star of the Championship. No mean feat in a year starring Hakkinen, David Brabham, Rickard Rydell, Derek Higgins, Otto Rensing and Paul Stewart.

By 1990 the McLaren link was firm, but the year started on the worst possible note when McNish was involved in an horrific accident at Donington Park where his car vaulted a barrier. He escaped uninjured, but a spectator was killed.

Although he won at Silverstone a few weeks later the momentum was lost and McNish did not have the year of success many had predicted. By this stage he was in possession of a McLaren test contract but thanks to the Ayrton Senna-Gerhard Berger partnership in the team had no immediate F1 openings. Several more seasons of F3000 saw mixed fortunes, the occasional win tempered with budget shortfalls and uncompetitive machinery.

A move to sportscars finally began to deliver the success he deserved, winning Le Mans for the first time in 1998. The ever-cheerful Scotsman finally got to F1 in 2002 with Toyota in their debut season of F1 and was unlucky to be dropped, together with Mika Salo, at the season’s end, a move which arguably set Toyota’s development back several years.

McNish spent a year as Renault’s third driver before returning to sports cars with Audi for whom he has been American Le Mans Series champion. He also drove for them in the DTM in 2005.

Tomorrow I’ll look at another driver whose pre-F1 career and ties with McLaren shared similarities with Hamilton – Jan Magnussen.

He had his first test in F1 machinery back in 2003, and is eyeing a full time Formula 1 test seat for 2008.

Does he have what it takes?

Marko Asmer broke new ground when he became the first Estonian to test for a Formula One team when he drove a Williams-BMW four years ago. Asmer was born in the Eastern European state in 1984 when it was still under Soviet control. His father Toivo was a racing driver before becoming Estonia’s minister of regional affairs from 1999-2003.

Asmer got into karting before pursuing a racing career in Britain. In 2003 he won the British Southern and Northern Formula Ford Championship, did a couple of Formula Renault V6 races and was second in the prestigious Formula Ford Festival. He got his first F1 test that year despite his relative lack of experience in race cars.

He began the first of what would be four years in Formula Three in 2004. The first two were in the British championship with Hitech Racing, for whom he delivered two fastest laps and tenth overall in 2004, then six podiums and two pole positions (but no wins) en route to fourth in the championship the next year. Asmer was also the highest-placed British F3 driver in the annual F3 Masters and Zandvoort (seventh overall).

For 2006 he tried his hand at the Japanese series and scored a single win. He planned a dual assault on the British and Japanese championships for 2007, but quickly elected to focus his energies on the British series. He dominated it, winning 11 of the 22 races and beating Maro Engel by 85 points. He also made his fourth appearance in the Macau F3 Grand Prix, finished a best-ever fourth, and scored fastest lap.

After winning the title Asmer set his sights on graduating to Formula 1:

My goal is to succeed in F1 one day and I suppose I feel more hopeful about that now than I did last year. I have met people informally in F1 and other series so I can start building contacts, but who knows what and when anything will come out of it.

Asmer has clearly mastered Formula Three – although some would point out that he’s had long enough to. Whether he’s quite ready yet to step up to more powerful machinery remains to be seen. He will test alongside Javier Villa at Jerez, and on paper the GP2 race-winning Spanish driver seems the more likely candidate.

Photos: British F3 Media

More about Marko Asmer at Maximum Motorsport

Also the new Ferrari boss has a few things to say about team orders, Cristiano da Matta looks to return to racing following his horror crash, and watch some classic motor racing action online for free.

Prodrive a no-go for 2008 – David Richards says there is no “realistic chance” for his team to be on the grid in 2008.

Luca: Ferrari’s driver policy always equal – New Ferrari boss Luca Baldisserri denies that Felipe Massa will have to play number two to world champion Kimi Raikkonen next year.

Da Matta eyes return to racing – The ex-Formula 1 driver who was badly injured in a collision with a deer while testing a Champ Car last year looks at racing in the Brazilian Stock Car series.

Toyota confirm Kobayashi as third driver – The F3 Euroseries driver will test for the team in 2008.

Singtel named as title sponsor for Singapore GP – Telecommunications company to sponsor F1′s first night race.

Lewis wins Autocar award – Lewis Hamilton receives the Autocar Motorsport Award. He was also voted most popular driver by ING.

San Michael misses the obvious – PlanetF1 editorial criticises the Williams technical director for his defence over the Brazilian Grand Prix fuel controversy.

Tost: No room for RBR refugees – Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost denies he will move either Sebastian Vettel or Sebastien Bourdais to accommodate Mark Webber or David Coulthard should Red Bull sign Fernando Alonso for 2008.

Toro Rosso to start 2008 with old car – The team will also begin 2008 with the STR2 chassis from 2007.

Ralf critical of Toyota’s approach to F1 – Former Toyota driver doesn’t think the Japanese manufacturer will succeed with its current approach.

Macau winner Jarvis seeks F1 test chance – Formula Three and A1 Grand Prix race winner Oliver Jarvis added the Macau Grand Prix to his roster of victories last weekend and now wants a crack at F1.

What would you pay to watch the Singapore GP? – Details on the support races and spectator enclosures at the inaugural event.

Could Fairuz Fauzy be bound for a Formula One race drive sooner than expected? – Malaysian government may back rookie who had a Spyker test contract this year.

Theissen: Tests will decide third driver – Christian Vietoris (F3), Adam Carroll (GP2) and Marko Asmer (2007 British F3 champion) to test for BMW.

Auto-history.tv – Sample free historical motor racing videos between now and the new year.

Schumacher to test again with Ferrari – Seven-times champion will attend the Jerez test, where the teams will be using slick tyres.

Evidence builds in Stepney sabotage case – Spygate fallout continues.

2008 Ferrari to debut in January – Italian team plans to have two cars ready for the first test. To keep track of all the test sessions, car launches, races and more in 2008 try the F1Fanatic.co.uk Formula 1 calendar for Google Calendar

McLaren favourite urged against switch- Former Michael Schumacher manager Willi Weber thinks joining McLaren would be “career suicide” for Nico Rosberg. So who’s Weber trying to place at McLaren? Nico Hülkenberg?

Photos: Prodrive | Toyota Media

Related links

• 2008 F1 calendar
• F1 teams to test slick tyres for possible 2009 return
• Poll: Who should be Lewis Hamilton’s team mate in 2008?
• F1 in the news archive