MARCUS SIMMONS
“F3 single-make accepted by current teams”
As we had all expected, Formula 3 is going single-spec for 2019, which means that the last bastion of singleseater racing outside Formula 1 to hold true to open competition has finally fallen.
For purists everywhere this is a sad time, but were we hanging onto a dream in changing times? Possibly. The teams are pretty much united in regarding this as something that had to happen. Yes, even when you speak to Trevor Carlin, Frits van Amersfoort and the Rosin family of Prema Powerteam – team chiefs who are so ingrained in F3 that they could easily have been born powered by two-litre engines with air restrictors – they accept that costs have become too great.
This was the perfect opportunity for the FIA to complete the F1 support ladder. And, although the World Council statement didn’t say that the new F3 International Championship would compete as an F1 support – it can’t yet, because the job of promoter is out to tender – it will almost certainly replace GP3 under F1 and Formula 2 (which was GP2 before this year). In all probability, it will be promoted by the F2/GP3 organisation run by Bruno Michel, which is now effectively a subsidiary of F1 rights holder Liberty Media.
What we don’t know yet is who will win the contract to supply chassis or engines. Engine-wise, it’s not such a big deal at the moment. But on the chassis side it must be Dallara. No one of the existing F3 teams wanted to say anything on the record, but the wish is universal that Dallara should produce the new car. This is a company that understands the DNA of F3, and what makes the category so special, having dominated it since the 1990s. The current machines are jewels, by far the best any driver races on their way to F1 or the wider professional racing ranks. Inevitably, the new chassis will be ‘dumbed down’ by having to carry a heavy 350bhp engine and, most likely, incorporate the rigidity necessary to carry the halo – more weight again. But Dallara is in by far the best position to produce a car that is as close to the philosophy of current F3 as possible.
The other thing the FIA must do is to ensure a better positioning for F3 on the F1 race-weekend timetable than GP3 currently occupies. GP3 drivers get nowhere near the mileage of their F3 equivalents, and in no other sport is practising your skill regulated out with such zealotry as motorsport.
The FIA rightly wants to limit testing, as that cuts costs, but it must be careful that drivers are being allowed to develop their talents during race weekends, otherwise they’ll be unprepared for F2, let alone for F1.
Robinson drove Turkington’s Mini