“A Grand Portimão Cop-Out”

Of the drivers competing at this weekend's Portuguese Grand Prix, Lance Stroll, Antonio Giovinazzi, Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Alex Albon all raced there in F3 in early September 2015. Yet despite the nods to it in various record books and websites, none of the above group managed to race on the Grand Prix layout … Continue reading “A Grand Portimão Cop-Out”

FIA EUROPEAN FORMULA 3 TECH UPDATE

This piece was initially written in May for a run in a print magazine; however unfortunately was not published at the time. While things have moved on slightly as teams have gathered greater understanding of the aero updates, much of it is still relevant and worthwhile. Without wishing to get too far ahead, I may … Continue reading FIA EUROPEAN FORMULA 3 TECH UPDATE

“Thoughts on Pascal Wehrlein, the Norisring and Weird Regulations”

Pascal Wehrlein is a reasonably tall chap. Maybe not overly so in the grand scheme of the human race, but in the realm of racing drivers, he is quite tall. Upon meeting, he would stand not too far shy of my 6’1” frame, whereas a great many racers fall somewhere in the 5’6”-5’8” region. And … Continue reading “Thoughts on Pascal Wehrlein, the Norisring and Weird Regulations”

“Rewriting the Formula 3 Concept”

Last July, at a small press conference at Spa-Francorchamps, the Director of Racing Activities for the FIA revealed several measures designed to tackle the increasingly thorny issue of rising costs and a perception of a lack of competitiveness in the European Formula 3 Championship

“Costing a Season of European Formula 3”

Something came up during the week that at first I assumed would be pretty simple to throw together. A conversation on Twitter between Sam Collins of Racecar Engineering Magazine and fellow user Davin Sturdivant was brought to my attention when it turned to costs and the nature of the regulations and how their framework affects engineers – or potential engineers. The latter will be addressed in another post, but touch on the former. Admittedly the more I thought about it, the more I realised that I either did not have the answer or did not have up-to-date answers.

“The Little Things”

One of Formula 3's biggest selling points is that its rulebook is one of the few to still possess "open" technical regulations. Although what one can do with the cars is highly restricted, that does not mean the teams are wholly bound following the final chassis homologation, unlike in GP2 or Renault World Series for example.

“Ocon joins Race of Champions field”

FIA European Formula 3 champion Esteban Ocon has become the first junior-series level champion to join the field for the Race Of Champions in Barbados this year. Ocon joins a whole host of other champions on the grid, which includes multiple Le Mans 24 Hour race and 2013 WEC titleholder Tom Kristensen; Lotus F1 racer … Continue reading “Ocon joins Race of Champions field”