To listen to the interview, click the play button below.

This episode is also avaliable on iTunes on “The Feeder Series (mp3)” podcast.

Image Copyright: Jon Waldock

Image Copyright: Alastair Staley/GP2 Media Service

A quick visit to the GP3 website leaves no doubt over the aim of the series;

The goal of the new GP3 Series is to give young upcoming drivers a chance to develop their driving skills and jump to the next step: GP2.

The GP3 series supports all of the European rounds of the Formula One World Championship except Monaco, and building on the sucess of the GP2 series it’s clear that this alone is a huge draw for many drivers. When it was announced in October 2008, the series had a mixed reaction from both fans and industry professionals alike who were concerned that it would add to an already flodded market, but as soon as the details of the series became clear it was obvious to all that it wouldn’t be another one of the many failed international series. In its first season it’s had full 30 car grids and with popularity growing you wouldn’t bet against 30 more in 2011.

The appeal of the series is clear; relatively cheap racing on European Grand Prix circuits supporting Formula 1, something that no other series can boast and whilst the Formula 3 Euro series used to be known as the championship which visited the circuits that everyone wanted to race on, this hasn’t been the case in the last few years meaning that GP3 is the popular new kid that everyone wants to talk to, leaving the Euro series with grids of around 14, half of GP3′s.

In 2010, the 8 round GP3 series is visiting Barcelona, Istanbul, Valencia, Silverstone, Hockenheim, Hungary, Spa-Francorchamps and Monza, racing on the same weekends as Formula 1 with a format that takes a very similar structure to it’s bigger brother GP2. With a 30 minute practice session on Friday with a 30 minute qualifying session and a 30 minute race on Saturday and a 30 minute race on Sunday with the grid being the finishing positions of Saturdays race with the top 8 reversed.

The Dallara designed and built car boasts Formula 1 safety with better than Formula 3 performance and utilising on Dallara’s experience with the GP2 series car, the car was built for overtaking and for keeping costs low. Each car has 3 sets of dry tyres and 2 sets of wet tyres supplied to it for each event by tyre provider Pirelli to keep a level playing field along with many other regulations that mean the driver and engineer can get a car working to a drivers liking whilst keeping the costs down and the competition high. The 2 litre, 4 cylinder turbo charged engine is designed by Renault to give 280 brake horse power and unlike other series GP3 cars have no overboost meaning that it’s driver skill that causes the overtaking.

GP3 took the decision early on to insist that all teams run 3 cars and as 10 teams signed up are all of a high calibre the decision payed off. With more cars per team the theory suggests that costs will be less per driver and with season budgets rumoured to be between £1,000,000 and £400,000 depending on when a driver signed for a team, the theory seems to have been proven correct.

GP2 and GP3, along with the other Formula 1 support series Formula BMW Europe seem to be taking a lead in international single seater racing and given that 2010 is GP3′s first year, the series will likely only go from strength to strength, removing some of the older, lesser series on it’s way.

Image Copyright: Drew Gibson/GP3 Media Service

After a tough qualifying Michael managed to gain 7 positions finishing in 9th in the first race and after being hit by his team mate in the second race he finished down in 15th. Michael explained that he was working on his 1 lap pace which he’d often struggle with, we talked about his big european move, his career aspirations and he explained just what Midget racing is.

To listen to the full interview, Click the play button below.

This episode is also avaliable on iTunes on “The Feeder Series (mp3)” podcast.

I had come to London to meet one of the most well known sports car drivers in the world; Allan McNish.

Allan is a two times Le Mans winner and a really genuine guy, during the interview it was really clear that not only does he love his job but that he believes it’s really important to put something back into the sport which is often rare with professional racing drivers. I got to spend a very interesting 30 minutes with him, in what was the most enjoyable and fun interviews I have done this year, I hope you enjoy it too.

To listen, Click the play button below.

Image Credit: Audi Sport UK

Teixeira said; “It was just an unbelievably strange feeling,” he explained – “it’s hard to describe, but it just felt wrong you know? It was like it was in slow motion, and I was aware of everything – I had my eyes open and I was like ‘sky, floor, sky, oh cars!’ I just thought ‘this is going to hurt’, but I was never scared – it was too quick I think, so it was just a weird sort of feeling.” He walked away unhurt from the crash.

Title Photo Credit: Adam Matthews Photography

Over the past few years, with the invention of IFM in 2007, Formula Two last year and GP3 this year, there has been an increase in people in the motorsport community who say that there are too many single seater series. As they’ve given their reasons I’ve usually disagreed and then moved on only to find another series coming through only to have the same arguments all over again a year later. However I think GP3 has been the straw that’s broken this camels back (so to speak) but not necessarily in a bad way, it’s really made me wonder, are there too many single seater series?

Credit: Drew Gibson/GP3 Media Service

I think looking to Moto GP for the answer to this question is a good start, the guys and girls who are looking to move up to Moto GP almost always look to the 125cc class and then 250cc class and with good reasons; they follow the same circuits, the same bike-circus, they get used to how the meetings run and how Moto GP works. Not only this but in Britain atleast the television rights holders show these support races as well as the main Moto GP race, maybe not always on the main channels but it’s always there and always free. This is a bug bear of mine for the current crop of Formula 1 feeder series, every week I want to watch them and most weeks I struggle to find a feed on the internet that shows them, being one of the many people who dosen’t own a satellite or cable package I often miss seeing a race live. Credit where it’s due, Formula Two in the past 2 years have been very good, putting their Eurosport feed on their website along with live timing and this is to be applauded but when it comes to wanting to watch Renault 3.5, Formula 3 or even GP2 which is at the same events as Formula 1, well the series don’t do themselves any favours.

The more I think about this the more it makes sense, whilst yes there are places for alot of the series we currently see is it not just diluting the crop of drivers that one would race against on their way to Formula 1. It’s quite possible and not uncommon for a great driver to get from leaving karting to high level international motorsport or even Formula 1 without racing against some talent of equal measure. Not only does it make it incredibly hard for a driver to work out where the next step is, but for a driver who wants to have a learning year in a championship before making a title fight, especially in international series, it makes keeping your name above the rest almost impossible.

So the logical step is to say in a perfect world, what would the best thing be? The answer to my mind is to straight out copy Moto GP, GP2 and  GP3 do as they are and follow Formula 1 events with a slow reduction in other series of the same level. Now there is only one reason to my mind as to why this would never happen, naturally it’s money, the reason Formula Two came about was because it’s cheaper than GP2, GP3 is cheaper than Formula 3 and so on. Now following my slight jumping of the gun when F2 was announced, I’m going to reserve my judgement of GP3 until I see the field next year as certain series have grids that are lacking some decent talents after the initial buzz of a new series has warn off.

I believe that over the coming weeks and months you’ll see a change of focus here at TFS, towards the series that truly do follow and that do lead (and will lead) to Formula One. Dont’ worry if you’re a fan of other things, they won’t be completely forgotten, I’ll make sure of that, but I think with so many series out there it’s important to take a rain check every so often and think about where the drivers are head and why.

With Formula 1 becoming a series that lacks excitment unless it’s raining, Motorsport is looking to the series next door to see if they have what Formula 1 lacks, the question is; do too many series spoil the broth?

Time: 10.00 am.

Location: Thruxton Motorsport Centre, Andover.

I got asked the day before if I was nervous, I could honestly say no and even whilst travelling towards the fastest circuit in Britain I wasn’t nervous. However, as soon as I reached the circuit and signed on, oh how the nerves came.

I was part of a group of 11 taking the ARDS test that day and whilst we were told to relax and to take our seats in the briefing room, it was made clear to us that a spin of any kind would result in a failure. As part of the ARDS pack there was a DVD on racing, flags and the like which we were strongly advised to watch before we arrived, well I duly followed orders but when I got there, we watched it all again. As we watched the DVD as a group, one of our instructors paused it in various places to explain certain aspects in more detail, whilst it is mainly self explanitory it was good to go over certain things again. With part one of the DVD over, our group was split into two with one half watching the second half of the DVD and our half going out into the cold to the awaiting fleet of Mazda 3 MPS’s, well I say fleet, there was 3, but with only 3 instructors it worked out well enough.

Walking out into the cold we paired up and chose an instructor, I popped in the back behind the passenger seat with our instructor giving us a few laps of the circuit. He showed us the racing line, gears, where to brake and how to use the circuit markings and changes in tarmac as points of reference. After observing for a few laps I hopped out the car to let my pair take the wheel for a while, he and the instructor swapped and whilst they left the pitlane I sat outside shivering (from the cold and from nerves), 15 or so cold minutes later the car pulled in, it was my turn.

I slid myself into the car, adjusted my seat, put myself into gear and slowly pulled up the clutch. I was so aware that I didn’t want to stall it that it felt like learning to drive again being so careful to pull the clutch to the biting point, but once into third I gave it a boot of throttle and we were out the pitlane and heading towards the first braking point. Now Thruxton if you don’t know is fast, very fast, in fact you only brake twice in the lap and around 70% of the lap is spent at full throttle, but when it’s your first time on track the speed isn’t the thing that strikes you the most, its the sheer grip of a road car and having to believe that you can go into that corner at that speed and push the throttle there and you won’t end up upside down in the armco.

After  what felt like many laps my confidence grew and I was gaining speed and generally getting better lines. As we reached the last chicane for what was the penultimate time my instructor said to me; “Now do a perfect lap for me Jon”, so I tried my hardest, making sure that I focused on my lines rather than speed, they’d explained to us that the test was on technique and being a competant driver rather than outright speed, it felt like a good lap and as we passed through the chicane for that last time he signalled for me to enter the pits and as I slowed down he told me that I’d done well and that he was pleased with what I had done. Unbeknowst to me, I’d done the hard part, that was the practical part of the driving over.

After getting out the car and swapping with the other half of the group we went back into the briefing room to watch the second half of the DVD which was on procedure, flags and other bits of safety that we needed to know. Again one of the instructors paused bits that needed particular attention before we went onto the theory test. 20 or so questions on flags, some basic rules and bits of safety.

The test was quite easy, most of the answers were very logical and as long as you knew your flags you’d be fine, of our whole group only 1 person got 1 question wrong, for the record the question was “What is Understeer” and the answer was not, “When you don’t steer enough”.

The rest of the group joined us back in the briefing room where much talk about the on track experience and what answers we had put for the theory test was had. The instructors all gathered in a side room discussing the events of the day and how we’d all done. Then out they stepped and announced to us all;

‘I am happy to tell you all, that I will be signing off all of your forms today. You’ve passed’

Credit: MSA UK

What a great feeling! A great day and hopefully a step towards some further on track experiences.

If you’ve enjoyed reading this and want to find out more then either contact the MSA, or Go Motorsport.

Don’t worry! This is not the end of this Go Motorsport series, theres plenty more fun to be had getting involved in Motorsport; we’ve still got Marshaling to do, working with a team for a day and some further on track experiences may be round the corner…

Formula Two

The season, has officially started. This weekend we had Formula Two and World Series action in England and Spain. Formula Two’s opening round took place on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit; Friday saw Dean Stoneman and Johan Jokinen take the lead in free practice 1 and free practice 2 showing that no-one had an all out advantage at the British circuit. Saturday saw Jolyon Palmer take pole in qualifying 1 ahead of Johan Jokinen and Dean Stoneman for Saturdays race 1 with Philipp Eng taking pole ahead of Palmer and Stoneman in qualifying 2 for race 2 on Sunday.

Race 1 took place later on Saturday with Palmer taking a lights to flag win ahead of Stoneman who span in first few laps but managed to collect second place 3 seconds behind Palmer. Sergey Afanasiev came third with Eng taking fourth. A full race report is avaliable here.

Race 2 on Sunday proved to be a close one, Eng managed to keep Palmer at bay winning by eight tenths, he described the race; “It was a very tough race,” said Eng. “Jolyon was pushing very hard and for me it was like qualifying every single lap, because I was always trying to get the maximum out of the car. I would have liked to get a podium in the first race – anyway I won this race and fourth in the first race is a good effort.” The full race report is avaliable here.

Following the first two rounds, the championship looks like this;

1. Palmer 43 points

2. Eng 37 points

3. Afansiev; 23 points

4. Stoneman; 18 points

5. Bratt; 18 points

Formula Renault 3.5

The first round of the World Series circus was in Spain at the Motorsport Aragon circuit, Sten Pentus and current British Formula 3 champion Daniel Ricciardo took the advantage in practice with Ricciardo taking pole for in qualifying for race 1 and race 2.

The first race of the season took place in wet conditions, Mikhail Aleshin took the advantage at the start overtaking Ricciardo into the first corner, despite all efforts he couldn’t get past and after making mistakes he moved down into third, overtaken by Daniel Zampieri who finished second. A full race report is avaliable here.

The second race saw Ricciardo again fail to use his pole advantage letting Sten Pentus and Jan Charouz through into turn one with Pentus holding his lead after the compulsory pit stop to the chequered flag. Ricciardo came in second and Nathanael Berthon in third. Although he didn’t win a race, Ricciardo said “Tonight I lead the championship. After winter testing disturbed by to a number of things, I was hoping to make a reasonably good start and leave here in the top 3. So in that respect, mission accomplished! Scoring points is important. Now I need to work on my starts. At the moment, that’s my weak point …” A full race report is avaliable here.

The championship looks like this;

1. Ricciardo 20 points

2. Aleshin 17 points

3. Pentus 15 points

4. Daniel Zampieri 12 points

5. Charouz 12 points.

Thats it for this weeks results. It’s my ARDS test on Wednesday so if you’ve enjoyed reading the Go Motorsport series then another one shall be up soon.

The next Feeder Series action is on 1st and 2nd May with Formula Two and World Series races.

How did I get to this point you ask? Well firstly in a moment of (some would say stupidity) weakness I bought a Go Racing pack from the MSA website, the pack consists of a whole host of forms and information, the Go Racing DVD, the 2010 MSA Year Book and a Demon Tweeks catalogue. The main form covers your basic details and a self assessed medical as well as space for a doctors medical report (which must be completed if you are a first time licence holder), the other bits of paper cover preparation for the ARDS test, how to safety drive on a circuit, where the ARDS (Association of Racing Driver Schools) courses are as well as various bits of information on the licence itself.

Go Racing DVD

This is a DVD that I will watch on the day of the ARDS course itself but its good to watch it a few times before the course to familiarise yourself with everything that is going to happen. Now I saw the older VHS version of this some years ago and I’m glad to say it’s updated in both information and in production, but it’s definitely not all inclusive, so don’t expect to know everything there is to know about Motorsport from a 20 minute DVD. It’s quite basic in parts which can be helpful because some of the paper information can be quite heavy, but if you do decided to have a go yourself, make sure you read the Year Book too, which has all the MSA rules in it, it’s got all the information needed about all forms of Motorsport so its definitely worth a quick flick, even if its just to broaden your knowledge of the Motorsport industry.

So what happens next? Well it’s now been booked. 21st April. Thruxton Circuit, Hampshire. Between now and then I need to get a medical and I’m going to spend a considerable amount of time watching on-board laps to get a feel for the circuit and where it goes, Thruxton is quite a high speed circuit with minimal braking zones so atleast just for peace of mind it’ll be good to get used to where I’m going.

So D-Day, Wednesday 21st April.

Watch This Space.