About
What is Formula 3?
A Formula 3 car looks exactly like a scaled-down Grand Prix racer because that’s exactly what it is. A precision-built single-seater powered by a two-litre race engine. Designed by computer and redefined in a wind tunnel. Capable of 165 mph. Demanding a clean, precise, committed driving style.
A serious race car with a serious objective. Close, hard, give-no-quarter competition. Short, sharp sprint races where young drivers with serious career ambitions pay their dues.
Why is the British Championship so highly regarded?
Win in British Formula 3 and you’re marked as a man-to-watch. Around the world, no other race series has produced as many Grand Prix winners and World Champions as British Formula 3. If a race driver matches intention with achievement in this championship, what may have started as a passion becomes a career.
Ayrton Senna, the man who redefined Grand Prix speed in the late Eighties and early Nineties, made his name in British Formula 3. Senna won twelve F3 races in 1983. He moved straight to Formula 1 and in 1988, 1990 and 1991 was crowned World Champion. Mika Häkkinen did the same after winning the F3 Championship in 1990. He was Formula 1 World Champion in 1998 and 1999.
The cornerstones of good, crowd-pleasing racing are simple enough. All cars should feature similar technical specifications. Engines that produce around the same amount of power, now 210 bhp plus. Cars which offer limited aerodynamic downforce, so that winning comes from a combination of the skill of the designer, the skill of the driver and the expertise and professionalism of the team. Rules that make the use of one make of tyre mandatory, to stop teams working independently with manufacturers to eke out a grip advantage.
These are the ingredients of Formula 3, but ultimately races are won by attention to detail. Cars are adjusted in millimetres; tenths, often hundredths of a second are vital. Top teams spend a month testing through the season. Twenty five days and thousands of miles pounding round the circuits to shave fractions off a lap time, just to stay competitive. Drivers are coached in the subtleties of car set-up and taught the wisdom of racecraft, so the better to prepare them for Formula 1.
Young race drivers come to this country from all over the world each spring to race in British Formula 3. The rewards are obvious.It’s quite common to find that 50% of the drivers on an F1 starting grid will have raced in British Formula 3. All the British drivers, naturally, including current favourite, Jenson Button, but also the likes of Mark Webber, Rubens Barrichello, Heikki Kovalainen, and Nelson Piquet Jr. amongst them, with others such as Robert Kubica, Giancarlo Fisichella and Jarno Trulli having dropped by for a race or two.
This series is the ultimate stepping stone in motor racing, the final confirmation that a driver has what it takes to succeed in the zero-defect world of Formula 1.