The scholarship class

[Lee Purnell]

Bit of a joke isn't it?
One year old F3 cars running alongside the current spec cars, providing a stepping stone for a full championship challenge. The thing is, Gary Paffet is absolutly ****ing it, there is no real challenge for him, so how is he getting the vital experience he needs to do well? He turns up, and wins. Obviously it isn't quite like that, he is a good driver, but the other drivers are evenly matched and seem to be having a good little scrap, which is how it was probally imagened it would be like. Not one driver walking away with it all!

[RIKB]

Lets face it, Gary Paffet didn't win the McLaren young driver award by not being any good!

He's very good indeed and is doing the very best he can with the equipment he has got, and is regularly beating a lot of the championship class drivers.

I think the class is a good idea because if a young driver hasn't got the budget to do a full F3 drive, then this route still gives him the chance to gain experience at this level and get himself noticed by the team bosses.

With his performance this year, you can bet that young Paffet won't be in the scholarship class next year.

[fatbloke]

With the Zip bandwagon behind him, he's hardly going to mess around. As soon as he's tied up the Scholarship class (i've missed a couple of rounds - he may have done already ?) he is going to move up and try his luck in the championship round for the rest of the year - watch out for him picking up a win or two at the end of the year.

Since he moved into cars, it has always been the plan to spend a year learning a category and then have a full crack at it in the second. So far he's done pretty well - two titles so far, and the third a formality. If he continues this way, he'll be in F3000 in 2002 and looking for a CART or even F1 drive in 2003 or 2004.

I personally don't like the bloke, but I didn't like Jenson Button either. Good luck to them both, I say, at least they've been and done what they boasted they could do as youngsters.

[Dan Friel]

Of course you shouldn't forget that Mr Paffett does have a works Renualt engine and bags of money...

So whilst all the others in that class are saving stuff, like their tyres - the guys with the money can simply spend..

Typical motor racing problem... so is Paffett really that good?? I don't think he should be compared with the scholarship runners...