F3 Euroseries-GP3 Merger
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I don’t know how many of you pay attention to junior formulae, but if you do, you know that the Formula 3 Euroseries is suffering, demonstrated by an average 12-car grid. On the other hand, GP3 has a full grid of 30, as GP3 offers a better route and stronger preperation for GP2 than the F3 Euroseries (but British F3 has a healthier grid due to Formula Renault 3.5 links to teams like Carlin and Fortec). Ironically, the new F3 Euroseries started off as a merger between French and German F3 (the latter is still alive). So, how should the F3 Euro problem be solved? I say that the Euro teams (Signature, Motopark, Prema, and possibly Zeller) should join GP3, but all GP3 teams should have two-car squads instead of three-car squads, to avoid over-congestion. As for another F3 Euroseries, Euro F3 Open (Spanish F3) and German F3 should merge for a category below GP3. Thoughts?
I think it would be good if the paths to F1 were more streamlined, like with Moto GP’s junior series. GP2 could also merge with F2, so drivers could go from F3-F2-F1.
It is difficult to follow with so many routes to F1, but I also like that diversity of series Any that still get a healthy grid are fine as they are. What sort of performance do F2 cars have? And does that series tend to feed drivers into GP2 or somewhere else?
I think F3 Euroseries and British F3 should merge as BF3 has european rounds anyway.
@matt90 – F2 performnce is similar to F3 i think. Last years Champ Dean Stoneman was meant to drive in FR3.5 this year but for health problems, runner up Jolyon Palmer is in GP2 with no points so far.2009-present’s F2 was designed to be a cost-efficient series below GP2 and Formula Renault 3.5. The drivers usually stay there or disappear from racing entirely. The only exceptions are Wickens, Aleshin, and Stoneman.
As Zadak once said…
Anyone remember that seldom seen American feeder series, Indycar?
Since none of the Indycar drivers graduate to F1 anymore, they are trying to become a proper racing series, with more than one make of car.
Oh the Whimsy.
Weren’t they always a standalone series? It just so happened that some drivers moved from Indycar to F1. Just because it was a one-make formula doesn’t mean it’s a feeder.
that seldom seen American feeder series, Indycar?
Since none of the Indycar drivers graduate to F1 anymore, they are trying to become a proper racing series, with more than one make of car.
Oh the Whimsy.
Patronising rubbish.
Ha! Since when was Indycar a feeder series?! By your logic, Porsche Supercup is a feeder series, one make of car…
As Zadak once said…
I shall elaborate, Indycar is a single make series (they have used the same car for ages now), much the same as a feeder series.
Indycar has a way lower entry cost than F1, or any other top flight motorsport.
What european who enters indycar has their ambition to stay there? No european driver dreams of racing in American series, they all want to get through to F1 surely.
Only the prestige of the Indy 500 keeps Indycar from becoming just a stepping stone into other series, like NASCAR.
Indycar is not what it once was, it used to be the American F1 but it’s just not any more.
Surely most forms of motorsport, especially circuit racing, are some sort of stepping stone into F1 as F1 is the most popular form of motor racing and seem by most who race in it to be the pinnacle of their careers. But to say it is a feeder series is completely wrong. Indycar in my opinion quite happily stands up as it’s own form of racing and does not act in anyway as a feeder series.
p.s. please stop writing “As Zadak once said” as we know who is writing the response
(this phrase being used correctly in this situation) As Zadak once said…
I shall elaborate, Indycar is a single make series (they have used the same car for ages now), much the same as a feeder series.
Because they use a similar format to a feeder series in one single respect (and one that is changing over the cource of the next 2 years anyway with the introduction of aero kits and multiple engine suppliers), that doesn’t make IndyCar a feeder series. IndyCar is the top level of American open-wheel motorsport. We all know the US likes to keep its sports to itself, which means that IndyCar isn’t a feeder series to anything. It’s not a way into F1, it’s an alternative to F1 of American origin, and one that has seen many international races around the world including long-term hosts Canada and Brazil, along with Japan, Germany and the UK amongst others.
IndyCar also has it’s own ladder beneath it. Indy Lights, Formula Atlantic, Star Mazda, the Skip Barber 2000’s…
Indycar has a way lower entry cost than F1, or any other top flight motorsport.
So? Good for it. That’ll explain the many teams, sponsors and full set of drivers, far more than have entered F1 this year, even with Renault and HRT doing their best to let evertone under the sun have a drive. May it contine in the right direction rather than pricing teams, venues, and eventually fans out of interest.
What european who enters indycar has their ambition to stay there? No european driver dreams of racing in American series, they all want to get through to F1 surely.
You’ll have to ask the Scot who’s leading the way in the current season and has been champion for the past 4 years running, having first raced in the top flight of American single seaters in 1997, and the many other Europeans (and South Americans, Asians and Australasians) who call the series home, producing good drives on interesting courses, rather than wanting to end up at the tail end of an F1 field in a crap car.
Only the prestige of the Indy 500 keeps Indycar from becoming just a stepping stone into other series, like NASCAR.
So you’re saying that IndyCar would completely cease to be if the Indy 500 was knocked off the calendar? I find that hard to believe.
Indycar is not what it once was, it used to be the American F1 but it’s just not any more.
But it is. It’s the top tier of American open wheeled motorsport, and the US being what it is, that makes it far more important than, say the top tier of British open wheeled motorsport, which would be the British F3 championship, which is at least 2 steps away from F1 in the pecking order. IndyCar is the top of its ladder, rather than being below F1 on the same ladder Many drivers have switched ladders in both directions with varying degrees of success, as we know, but to say that IndyCar is or have ever been merely an American feeder series to F1 just isn’t true.
I’m not sure if you guys are aware, but here in the US it’s rare to find anyone who watches F1. Everyone watches NASCAR and Indy; and you can probably easily count the number of people who watch F1.
In fact those who watch Indy/NASCAR, or even race in them, I can confidently say 99% of them despise F1.
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