F3 Press Release: 2003 Championship

[Little]

2003 BRITISH F3 CHAMPIONSHIP PROVISIONAL CALENDAR

April 5/6 Donington Park National
April 20/21 Snetterton
May 3/4 Brands Hatch GP
May 10/11 Knockhill
May 25/26 Silverstone International + BTCC
June 21/22 Castle Combe
July 12/13 Oulton Park
July 26/27 Croft
August 9/10 Thruxton
August 30/31 Spa-Francorchamps
September 6/7 Donington Park GP (F3 Only) + BTCC
September 27/28 Rockingham
F3 – 12 rounds

BRITISH FORMULA 3 CHAMPIONSHIP – KEY POINTS
New three race format: Single Scholarship and Championship races + combined feature race at nine rounds.

Revised qualifying format. Morning sessions to decide grid for the single class races. Afternoon sessions to decide the grid for the feature race, Championship class to take priority on the feature race grid.

Increased International awareness by TV and Media is a priority.

Subject to agreement with the governing bodies and teams, to investigate the possibility of an F3 “Oval” race at Rockingham.

British F3 Championship prize fund in excess of £140,000.
A Scholarship award to continue, one of many examples of the BRDC’s continuing commitment to young driver discovery and development.

F3 Championship organised in association with the BARC.

BRITISH F3 TELEVISION
The Championship promoters and organisers are finalising the 2003 arrangements with the current broadcast and production partners; Channel 4 and BHP Sport.

-ENDS-

Full release on F3-GT.com

[AndyF]

Sounds good for 2003

[Ian Sowman]

Interesting that Silverstone has lost a race (thank the Lord! It's an awful place to watch) and also Brands Indy, the best spectating track of the lot. A round at Spa will add variety, as will an Oval race, should it go ahead.

On the down side we'll have to hope for good entries for each class with separate races at both meetings, and the fact that the B class cars won't get to mix it with the Championship class boys on the grid is a big shame.

[El_Gibleto]

Not having to endure Brands Indy is a good thing, the track is too short ofr good racing with modern single seaters.

The trip to should be a highlight of the season.

Other probable F3 dates

July 4-6 Int F3 Challenge Silverstone GP (F1 Support)

Aug 1-3 Marlboro Masters Zandvoort

June 1st approx Pau International race

[Francesca]

Originally posted by Ian Sowman
Interesting that Silverstone has lost a race (thank the Lord! It's an awful place to watch) A round at Spa will add variety, as will an Oval race, should it go ahead.
.

Come on Ian, Silverstone has some great places to watch from.

So glad they've put Spa back again.

[Sato san]

personally i love Silverstone !....good that Spa is back , but shame we dont get 2 rounds down here at Brands ...just being greedy i suppose . But at least there racing on the GP circuit at Brands .

[Daisy]

I just read on F1-live.com that Scott Speed (Red Bull Driver) will sign for Alan Docking Racing.

[Ian Sowman]

Okay maybe there are some okay places to watch at Silverstone, but it's a ***** of a place to work at (if you're reporting) if you need to get back to the paddock between races.

[Russfeld]

Im a little confused..

does this mean no more double header rounds? I cant imagine each series having two races a weekend, and then a combined event

[Ian Sowman]

Russfeld, I think the idea is one Scholarship race, one Championship race, and one Combined race. So double headers continue. Click on the link for details of the proposed race weekend timetable.

[Russfeld]

ah okay so each class gets 1 singular race, and 1 overall race. So 3 races a weekend, but any one driver will only run 2.

[Sato san]

That sounds a good idea !....it gets the thumbs up from me .

[Gaz]

Agree its great to be going back to Spa but one thing I'm bitterly dissapointed about is that the series clashes dates with TOCAtour on no more than 5 occasions.

2 clash with the TOCA qualifying days whilst 3 clash altogether with TOCA. Plus The Brands meeting clashes with both days of the CART race at Rockingham.

Just doesn't make sense to me. TOCAtour is 10 meetings whilst F3/GT is now 12 instead of 13 so why do so many meetings need to clash leaving huge weekend gaps between a meeting.

I like to attend both due to my website commitments and the fact I love the single seater racing on both packages but this is going to limit that next year for me and I'm sure many others. Crowds especially for the Brands rounds are going to be terrible with CART and TOCA both running the same weekend.

Perhaps clash 1-2 like Mondello did this year but 5

[Paul Rayner]

Putting rounds of Touring Cars, F3 AND CART all on the same weekend is just daft in my opinion. As someone once said to me, they're all fishing out of the same pond, so why try and clash?

[rick vaux]

God only knows.......

[Francesca]

I agree Paul - they should be sharing their fishing rods!

[Little]

I agree. Ill be at CART, but I'd love to see the F3s. There is talk of them racing on the oval... why not make them a support along with the ASCAR?

Little

[Ian Sowman]

This does seem to contradict the previous release a bit, but not to worry. Actually I think variation in the format from meeting to meeting is a good thing, and I look forward to seeing some innovations next year.


5 November 2002

For immediate release

Further changes in British F3 pipeline

Stand by for further changes to the presentation of the British F3 Championship. That’s the message from BRDC and F3/GT Series Director of Racing, Stuart Higgs.

"The calendar released on Friday seems to have put a smile on most peoples faces," he says, with teams and drivers welcoming, in particular, a return to Spa-Francorchamps.

"The proposed new three-race format has evoked many new ideas for the championship and it’s great that teams are taking a pro-active approach."

Higgs confirmed that the proposed three-race format would be used at the championship rounds held at venues where the expected number of starters would exceed the number on the track licence (Castle Combe, Croft and Knockhill), in order to guarantee all entrants at least one race. However, options remain open for the other rounds.

"The message is ‘lets consider everything and if it’s viable lets do it’. The championship must fulfill the wishes of trackside and television audiences as well as the drivers and sponsors who are contributing so much. I would love to have a series embracing the three-race format, double-headers, long races maybe with a pit stop and if we can pull the Rockingham oval race off, terrific! That makes a calendar with something for everyone as well as adding to the value of F3 in terms of preparing drivers for F1 or ChampCar racing," explained Higgs.

More news on the format of the 2003 BRDC British F3 Championship will be announced shortly.

-ends-

For more information contact Stuart Higgs, BRDC Director of Racing on 01327 320287.

Issued by David Addison, Cloverleaf Media, on 0161 953 4111.