Formula Ford GB 2014

[Flavio Galtieri]

That's a surprise. Anyone know why the Championship holders would pull out after a season like that?

Where are Century getting their chassis from?

[EastonNeston]

It is a series in terminal decline, so why waste resources and rick putting yourself out of business when there are options to run in other series with a better return on investment?

[Deemun]

Quite.

But I think the more pertinent issue is how can the technical regulations of a championship be so lax as to afford one particular team & engine supplier combination such a huge performance advantage? This is enough to put off other teams and drivers from entering the championship knowing that it is not a level playing field.

Could this be the reason for JTR's alleged withdrwal for the 2014 season? The fact that there driver Sam Brabham was testing for two other teams at the sampler day, including Jamun, is surely not co-incidental?

If true it also devalues JTR's record breaking achievements for Formula Ford ths year. I'd really like to see Ford come out with statement clarifying this situation before it has a detremental affect on a championship with a fine heritage and adversely affects their bid to win the FIA F4 permit.

[EastonNeston]

Surely having lax regulations reflects on the competence of the organisation of the series.
If FIA F4 is to succeed in the UK, and ideally it uses a car & engine combination that is also used in Europe, the contract for the series has to be given to a professional & competitor focused organising team.
Ideally the RenaultSportUk/Grovewood team are successful as they have shown the most initiative in maintaining and developing their series, for competitors and teams.

[jobdone]

Originally Posted by Deemun

Quite.

But I think the more pertinent issue is how can the technical regulations of a championship be so lax as to afford one particular team & engine supplier combination such a huge performance advantage? This is enough to put off other teams and drivers from entering the championship knowing that it is not a level playing field.

Could this be the reason for JTR's alleged withdrwal for the 2014 season? The fact that there driver Sam Brabham was testing for two other teams at the sampler day, including Jamun, is surely not co-incidental?

If true it also devalues JTR's record breaking achievements for Formula Ford ths year. I'd really like to see Ford come out with statement clarifying this situation before it has a detremental affect on a championship with a fine heritage and adversely affects their bid to win the FIA F4 permit.

I think the pertinent issue is not so much lax regulations but the basic unsuitability of Ford’s ecoboost turbo engine in Formula Ford. It is well known that turbo engines provide a big extra dimension for performance gain from, shall we say, cunning development. Control of power equivalence is far more difficult than with a non turbo engine, which is one reason why GP3 dumped the Renault 2 litre turbo for an normally aspirated V6 - and is much the better for it.

The Ecoboost engine might suit Ford’s marketing purposes but it’s not a good race engine. And of course the proposed Ford powered MSA F4 championship will suffer from the same problems.

[EastonNeston]

Surely that is yet another good reason to reject Ford/racing line in favour of a promotors that will be using a car and engine more compatible with F4 series in the rest of Europe.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Meanwhile, Richardson Motorsport are being pushed to run a 3-car team for 2014...

[EastonNeston]

Hardly a sensible move as they struggled to run just one car reliably this year.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Running a car in this series doesn't seem too sensible...

[BtccLee]

So 2014. JTR haven't officially said yes or no, I don't believe anyway, and the same can be said of most speculated entries.

I do hope things are better behind the scenes, I do feel with a possible (probable) FIA F4 transformation the future of the series is good.


But that does avoid the elephant in the room... 2014!

[BtccLee]

So 2014. JTR haven't officially said yes or no, I don't believe anyway, and the same can be said of most speculated entries.

I do hope things are better behind the scenes, I do feel with a possible (probable) FIA F4 transformation the long term future of the series is good.

Short term though...

[kipper]

So far four drivers have been announce for 2014. Harrison Scott returns to drive for Falcon and is joined by former SaxMax driver Chris Mealin. Meanwhile, Meridian motorsport will run karting graduate Connor Mills and former Formula Vee driver, Ashley Sutton.

[ScoMi]

Ford's grids should grow this year. Last year was a big change, going onto a bigger package and also introducing a new car. It was a lot for organisers and teams to get on top of.

If they average 15 cars this season it will be good. Should be plenty of returnees from 2013, and some new additions as ever, so I'd expect FFord to surpass FR BARC in terms of numbers.

[the insider]

Originally Posted by BtccLee

So 2014. JTR haven't officially said yes or no, I don't believe anyway, and the same can be said of most speculated entries.

I do hope things are better behind the scenes, I do feel with a possible (probable) FIA F4 transformation the future of the series is good.


But that does avoid the elephant in the room... 2014!

Your not wrong with JTR they are trying to establish themselves in formula renault NEC. Unfortunately national single seaters series are really dying off.

[EastonNeston]

We are now several weeks into the 'testing season' & only six (6) ffords have been seen testing, whilst entry levels for both Protyre F Renault & BRDC F4 are looking strong.

1) is FFord viable with less than ten entries?
2) is competing in a series with such small grids helpful to a driver?

[deley]

Originally Posted by EastonNeston

1) is FFord viable with less than ten entries?
2) is competing in a series with such small grids helpful to a driver?

1) no
2) no

[BtccLee]

Originally Posted by EastonNeston

We are now several weeks into the 'testing season' & only six (6) ffords have been seen testing, whilst entry levels for both Protyre F Renault & BRDC F4 are looking strong.

1) is FFord viable with less than ten entries?
2) is competing in a series with such small grids helpful to a driver?

1)Is FFord going to have less than 10 entries? : No. Realistically 10-15
2) Is competing in a series where media interaction is so critical helpful to a driver? : Most definately yes.

I will update this thread with all the latest news within the next week.

[kipper]

Originally Posted by BtccLee

2) Is competing in a series where mediaW interaction is so critical helpful to a driver? : Most definately yes

Whilst the media side of things is a plus, I'm not convinced that the current state of Formula Ford is necessarily that helpful to young drivers. The reason for this is that there is not currently the quantity and depth of field to allow for all drivers (regardless of their level) to hone their skills through racing one another. On a more basic level, the lack of cars means that drivers don't need to worry significantly about enhancing their skills in dealing with traffic in races or finding a clear lap in qualifying.

[EastonNeston]

Apart from live tv, the value of which is debatable at this level, the media support in both Protyre F Renault & BRDC F4 is at least equal, & in most cases superior, to that from FFord.

Where are the "10-15" entries claimed by Lee coming from? Last year the grid barely made double figures, and the number of cars seen so far suggests a probable grid size of 6-8 cars. Reminiscent of the final days of FRUK.
In my opinion the series is in the final stages of a terminal decline.

[kipper]

Originally Posted by EastonNeston

Where are the "10-15" entries claimed by Lee coming from? Last year the grid barely made double figures

By my reckoning there are about 15 cars in existence so a grid of this size is theoretically possible. I do have significant doubts that there are 15 drivers with budgets that want to do Formula Ford. It is perhaps worth noting that confirmed entries for Formulae 4 and Renault BARC are currently around the 12 car level, which is far above the confirmed entries for Ford (which is borne out by how many cars are currently out testing).

[Deemun]

Originally Posted by kipper

By my reckoning there are about 15 cars in existence so a grid of this size is theoretically possible. I do have significant doubts that there are 15 drivers with budgets that want to do Formula Ford. It is perhaps worth noting that confirmed entries for Formulae 4 and Renault BARC are currently around the 12 car level, which is far above the confirmed entries for Ford (which is borne out by how many cars are currently out testing).

There is exactly the same amount of cars in existence as there was last year so that is the capacity of the grid. There has been some general trading between teams for cars & drivers but realistically we are looking at no more than a 12 car grid again likely to be 2 or 3 x JTR, 2 x Jamun, 3 x Falcon, 1 or 2 x Radical, plus an assortment from Meridian, Enigma & Century.

The last good year for this championship was 2011 which was the final season of the Duratec era. Since then I'm sad to say it has, despite its place on the TOCA package, lost its credibility. Ford didn't listen to customer opinion about moving to EcoBoost and therefore saw their grid sizes halved from one season to the next and great ideas like the Euro Cup which allowed Dutch and Benelux teams to enter were scrapped.

In 2010 there was a 38 car grid for the Dutch Masters event at Zandvoort of which 24 were British Championship cars. Sad that a great championship has been ruined!

The only credible Formula Ford now is the legacy FF1600 (Kent) class which continues to thrive in club racing and through great events like The Walter Hayes Trophy which attracted an incredible entry of almost 120 cars last season and top drivers like Nick Tandy, Peter Dempsey & Joey Foster. Unsurprisingly Ford themselves were not in attendance. Says it all really about their attitude!

[kipper]

Originally Posted by Deemun

Unsurprisingly Ford themselves were not in attendance. Says it all really about their attitude!

Quite.

[Flavio Galtieri]

Ford's involvement unsurprising revolves around selling cars.

Hence this ad:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8MbwKeSu5Y where an Ecoboost FF morphs into a Focus.

When you consider Ford also has cars in the main event, the BTCC, then I can see why having a series, albeit with low grids on the same televised bill makes some sort of sense.

Does it help young drivers in their careers? Probably not, I think F4 (ironically with the obsolete Ford Duratec engine) is a far better bet.

FF1600 is basically a historic series now, I can't see them taking any strategic interest in that even if it does provide the best racing of the lot!!

[FaCr]

Dear God enough already.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, especially on a discussion forum such as this.
But for the past 2 years all I've read is negative and Patronising comments aimed at Ford, aimed at the championship etc etc.

I don't post very regularly (Very rarely actually) but there is a reason that Ten Tenths is a laughing stock amongst teams in the paddock. And it's mainly down to comments posted in threads like these. Yes, it's great that you think BARC Renault or F4 are the better championship, better longevity etc etc but it's a broken record. Always the same nonsense spewing out onto these pages time and time again. If you have nothing new or positive to add to the thread, then may I suggest you add nothing at all? Because at the minute, we are simply moving round in circles.

Formula Renault - If you want a boring/bland Formula Follow the leader club championship, then yes feel free to continually show your support for such a ground breaking series.

Formula 4 - If you are a fan of simple/backwards farmyard engineering spruced over with shiny bullsh*t boards, a big shiny television program, problem filled engines that were kept hush hush about and yet again boring bland racing, then yes feel free to show your support.


Otherwise in future, could we simply see informative posts to the championship please?

[BtccLee]

I agree with all of the above, aside from the sniping at other series, although that is a matter of personal opinion.

Now thus far we have had 7 officially confirmed drivers, however, I have just viewed the Ford website and another 3 have appeared who have not officially been announced yet.

There are another 6 entries from teams with no drivers signed yet.

The 7 confirmed with news are:

Ricky Collard - Falcon

James Abott - Radical

Chris Mealin - JTR

Conor Mills - Meridian

Harrison Scott - Falcon

Ashely Sutton - Meridian

Jayde Krugar - JTR

However, also listed on the website, I believe this is only as of today are:

Greg Holloway - ???

Max Marshall - Probably JTR

Bobby Thompson - ???

Then we have the 6 other entries:

Falcon's fourth car - Likely, in discussions with a driver, close to deal.

JTR's 3rd - Maybe Sam Brabham???

Both of the Jamun's - No clue???

A Richardson entry - Andy Richardson

And an SWB entry - Again ???

Now those last two have not been officially announced or even discussed yet.

On top of this we have two works Sinter entries and Century Motorsport who have both shown a desire to enter.

I am sure Mygale will build more cars for demand.

Remember this will probably be the last year of Formula Ford GB if it morphs it FIA F4. So I politely ask people to allow the series fans to enjoy the racing.