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British F3 Oulton Park Preview: Grid Full of Cars for Season Opener |
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Tuesday, 03 April 2007 |
With the start of the 2007 Lloyds TSB Insurance British F3 International Series this weekend at Oulton Park in Cheshire, the number of entries for this year’s championship has grown to 33, a 40% increase on 2006.
The British F3 Series will also live up to its 'International' title, with 20 countries from six regions across the globe represented within the 33 entries. The array of international drivers have come to the UK to further their motor racing careers because they know that if they do well in British F3 doors will open as they progress towards the ultimate goal of a seat in Formula One.
To emphasis the importance of British F3, reigning champion Mike Conway
has moved up to compete in the GP2 series this season, which races at
all of the European F1 Grand Prix. He has also just announced that he
has signed up with the Honda F1 race team as an official test driver.
2006 championship runner up Oliver Jarvis has just become the first
driver to win an A1GP race for Team GB in Mexico and Bruno Senna,
nephew of the late Ayrton Senna, will also compete in the 2007 GP2
series. Since 1964 drivers from British F3 have won 18 Formula One
World driver titles and 13 of the current crop of drivers employed by
the F1 teams have British F3 on their CV.
The Lloyds TSB Insurance British F3 International Series is divided
into two classes. The leading Championship Class will feature 22 of
the latest Formula 3 cars from Dallara, Mygale and Lola and will be
powered by a two litre Mercedes or Mugen-Honda engine. There will be
20 cars in the class for the opening two races at Oulton Park this
weekend.
15-year-old Max Chilton will have to watch from the sidelines as the
2006 T Car championship runner up has to wait for his 16th birthday on
the 21st April to be eligible for his International C race licence.
However he is due to join the grid for rounds 3 & 4 at the
Leicestershire circuit on April 22nd. The other absentee will be
Cristiano Morgado as the South African National Class graduate has only
had one test in his Fluid Motorsport Lola and will also join the 2007
grid at Donington later this month.
The championship appears to be wide open with Marko Asmer and Stephen
Jelley taking the lead in pre season testing. However they will face
stiff opposition from reigning Formula Renault Champion Sebastian
Hohenthal, 2004 FPA Champion Jonathan Kennard and 2006 British F3 race
winner Maro Engel who will test at Oulton Park for the first time in
his Carlin Motorsport prepared Dallara Mercedes.
Other notable challengers for the 2007 title will be the 2006 British
F3 National Class Champion Rodolfo Gonzalez, McLaren Autosport Award
nominee Sam Bird, reigning Formula BMW champion Niall Breen, 2005 South
American F3 Champion Alberto Valerio and last, but not least, the two
Mansell brothers, Leo and Greg, who both impressed at the final two
races of last season at Thruxton and have been quick in pre season
testing. Such is the depth of talent in this field that 2007 promises
to be one of the most closely fought championships in years.
The National Class, which is run for older F3 cars and are all powered
by the same 2 litre Mugen Honda engine, has been boosted to 11 cars for
2007, an 85% increase on last season. Chinese driver 'Frankie' Cheng
and Bahraini Salman Al Khalifa signed on the eve of the official launch
of the championship to drive for Performance Racing and Promatecme
respectively. The National Class is a proving ground for graduates to
British F3 from the lower racing formula and is often seen as a
stepping stone to the more powerful Championship cars the following
season.
In the recent 2-day test at Croft Cheng was the fastest National class
driver, with Mexican Sergio Perez, Northern Ireland’s Alistair Jackson,
Formula BMW graduate Michael Meadow, who topped the class time in the
last 4 hour test at Oulton Park, and Formula Palmer Audi Championship
runner up Viktor Jensen all posting times that suggest a closely fought
championship in 2007. However 16-year-old Spaniard Albert Costa,
Britain’s Alex Waters and the two Bahraini drivers Hamad Al Fardan and
2005 Formula BMW Asia Champion Salman Al Khalifa will all be there once
the green flag signals the start of the season at Oulton Park on Easter
Monday.
The 22 round series kicks off at Oulton Park on Easter Monday (9th
April) and will visit the major circuits in the UK. Three European
destinations are included in the schedule with a street race in the
Romanian capital city of Bucharest and races on the GP circuits of
Monza and Spa.
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