Old-school F3 plan takes step forward

The current Formula 3 cars are looking more likely to race on as part of the DTM undercard next season after positive developments at the Hungaroring round of the category’s European championship.

The Euro F3 teams met last Saturday with DTM boss Gerhard Berger and F3V chief Walter Mertes – whose company is a subsidiary of the Dtm-promoting ITR and has organised the FIA’S F3 European Championship since 2013 – as well as engine suppliers Mercedes and Spiess. Autosport understands that Spiess is happy to continue supplying its F3 powerplants regardless of the pullout from customer motorsport programmes of Volkswagen, which currently badges the Spiess engine.

Both Berger and Mertes have expressed a wish to revive the name of the F3 Euro Series – which ran from 2003-12 before effectively becoming the FIA F3 European Championship – while the FIA introduces its new single-spec International F3 in

2019 as a replacement for GP3 on the Formula 1 support bill.

The prospect has taken a further step forward in the light of Germany’s Formula 4 series continuing with its existing cars for 2019 rather than adopting a new chassis with a halo. The existing F3 would therefore not suffer from the image problem of being the only significant step on the singleseater ladder without the safety measure.

“I do everything for F3 if I can,” Berger (right) told Autosport. “I just need to know that the teams want it. All that I have is a platform, and I love F3. You can see the way how I position them [in the paddock and the timetable] – it’s always favourable because I think this is one of the cores of our business. It’s where the young guys really develop themselves, so F3 is always going to have my support. If they would like something and they are looking to it, and I can help, I will do. Wally [Mertes] and myself are discussing it and we are fine to have them on our platform.”

An announcement could be made as early as this month’s Norisring round, with a hope for at least 18 cars on the grid should the series get the go-ahead.