British Formula 3

This race is not part for the British F3 International Series. It’s a stand-alone event that in its prime was regarded as something like the European Championship in the same way that Macau is regarded as the World Championship for Formula 3. It was started withcomplete backing from Marlboro and was then known as the Marlboro Masters of Formula 3. The F3 Euro Series didn’t exist, because Germany and France had separate national championships and the Italians joined in as well. Thanks to Marlboro there was a barbecue on the Friday evening, which acted as a great opportunity for all the teams to mix and mingle and create a good atmosphere for the rest of the weekend. Somehow Marlboro made it work for them on the basis that everyone was allowed free admission and they used their influence to get the teams they sponsored in various forms of motorsport to come along and give spectacular demonstrations. So we had Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello and others in Ferraris, the likes of Troy Bayliss and Max Biaggi on Yamahas (plus Randy Mamola scaring the wits out of celebrities by giving them rides on the two-seater) and Tommi Mäkinen in a Mitsubishi Evo rally car. There were marching bands and more grid girls than you could count. The Dutch fans are always fantastic, but this event seemed to bring out the best in them, particularly as admission was free! Great days and great memories.

From a competition point of view, you never knew, from year to year, which national championship was going to provide the winner, which is how it should be. The only driver ever to achieve the hat-trick of winning a national championship, Zandvoort and Macau in the same year is Takuma Sato for Carlin Motorsport in 2001, but here’s a list of the first three in every event to date.

I doubt if there are many names in the list that you have not heard of, although in some cases you may be wondering whatever happened to some of them. Lack of funds to progress any further is the likely answer. Just for interest, I have put the names of the drivers from British F3 in bold.

Since the golden days of the Marlboro era a number of things have happened that in my personal opinion have detracted from the value of the Masters. Not everyone will agree, but this is my blog, so I get to voice my opinions!

The first was that in 2003 the German and French F3 Championships were combined to form the Formula 3 Euro Series. This did not affect things immediately, but the next two definitely did. The first of these was that the F3ES began to have an additional, separate race meeting of its own at Zandvoort in company with the DTM, which was a distinct advantage for its teams and drivers. The second, which was even more of an advantage, was that the organisers signed a long-term control tyre deal with Kumho, the Korean company that also supplies control tyres for the F3ES. Kumho will say that they make a separate tyre for the Masters and I’m not going to deny that, but the fact is that a Kumho is a Kumho and if you have been racing on Kumhos all season you have a head start over those who have not. The first deal was for five years and it has since been renewed, so nothing’s going to change (or improve) in the short term. In Macau a neutral Yokohama tyre is used and it’s a level playing field. At Zandvoort it is not.

Off-track, the biggest blow came in 2005 when tobacco advertising was banned in the EU, so Marlboro was obliged to pull out completely and a large part of the magic of the event went away. The organisers did well in 2006 to bring in BP as event sponsors and the new title of the BP Ultimate Masters of Formula 3 had a certain ring to it, but sadly it was to be a one-off event.

Even worse, the question of noise reared its ugly head. At the Masters the F3 cars run with open exhausts and sound like real racing cars, but this was too much for the good people of Zandvoort, which is a seaside resort on the North sea coast and much favoured by Germans. Even on a sunny day the wind usually blows quite strongly off the sea and it’s not the sort of place where I would choose to spend a holiday, but for an international F3 race it was great, particularly in my first year there when they also had a jazz festival in the town.

The circuit is allowed only a limited number of ‘noisy’ days and in 2007 and 2008 it was decided that these would not include the Masters. The event was moved to Zolder in Belgium, although run by the same people and to the same format. It’s probably unfair of me to say that it was just not the same, because I didn’t go to either event, but there was great rejoicing earlier this year when it was confirmed that the event would return to its spiritual home in Zandvoort. A1GP had decided to take itself to Assen and that freed up a couple of days.

So on Saturday the fun commences. Now sponsored by Tango, the timetable in GMT is:

Saturday, June 13th
08:00 to 08:30 Free practice
10:35 to 11:05 Qualifying 1 for odd-numbered cars
11:15 to 11:45 Qualifying 1 for even-numbered cars
14:05 to 14:25 Qualifying for Group B
14:35 to 14:55 Qualifying for Group A

Sunday, June 14th
12:30 to 13:00 Start procedure for the Tango Masters
13:00 Tango Masters of Formula 3 (25 laps or one hour maximum)

At the last check there were some 36 cars were on the entry list, which means, I think, that they will all be allowed to take the start. In the days when there were 40 or more cars entered a handful or so had to go home after qualifying because they had not made the cut, which always struck me as very harsh, but I suppose they knew the rules.

Remembering that this website is about British F3, this year there are 3 cars from Carlin Motorsport for Daniel Ricciardo, Henry Arundel and Max Chilton, 2 from Fortec Motorsport for Victor Garcia and Riki Christodoulou, 2 from Hitech Racing for Renger van der Zande and Walter Grubmüller and 2 from Räikkönen Robertson Racing for Daisuke Nakajima and Carlos Huertas. I wish them all the very best of luck. It’s about time a British team overcame the odds and won the Masters again and where better than on its return to Zandvoort?

PS Well, that wish turned out to be a forlorn hope! Renger van der Zande went very well for Hitech Racing in free practice and the first stages of qualifying, but in the all-important final session the ART team managed to slow him down on his best lap so he was only 9th. The principal villain was demoted five places on the grid from his provisional pole, but it was not enough. Renger fought back well in the race and made it up to 6th. Daniel Ricciado was the only other BF3 driver to show some pace and qualified 13th, but for some reason didn’t even make the start of the race and the car was wheeled back into the garage. Just for the record I’ve added the results to the list above, even though they make depressing reading.