British Formula 3000 Championship
The British Formula 3000 Championship , which was sometimes also referred to as the British Formula 2 Championship , was a regional automobile sport series that was held a total of eight times from 1989 to 1997. The regulations corresponded to those of the International Formula 3000 Championship , but the races took place almost exclusively on tracks that were on the British Isles .
history
Emergence
For 1985 the FIA reorganized the racing class below Formula 1 . It replaced the previous Formula 2 European Championship , which had been announced annually since 1967, with the newly established International Formula 3000 Championship. The reason for this was the recent sharp rise in the costs of Formula 2, which had led to a dominance of the works teams and a continuous decline in the number of participants since the early 1980s. The Formula 3000 regulations stipulated the use of the widespread and uncomplicated 3.0-liter naturally aspirated engines of the previous Formula 1 and permitted the use of disused Formula 1 racing cars. These and other approaches in the technical area should bring about a cost reduction and make motorsport below Formula 1 attractive again. The economic goals of the FIA could not be achieved. Already in the first few years it became clear that the Formula 3000 was not cheaper than the previous Formula 2. In particular, the hope that the use of disused Formula 1 racing cars could keep chassis costs low was not fulfilled. In fact, only a few Formula 1 cars from Williams and Tyrrell were used in the 1985 debut season . They proved to be inferior to the chassis specially designed for the Formula 3000 by March or Lola . In the late 1980s, for example, there were complaints about a cost explosion in the Formula 3000. A season in the International Formula 3000 in 1990 meanwhile required a budget of £ 2 million. This created the need for inexpensive alternatives.
For decades, Great Britain had held championships in various motor sport classes alongside international competitions. In the 1960s, separate Formula 2 championships were held at times, sometimes even in two competing series side by side (e.g. the RAC British F2 Championship on the one hand and the Autocar British F2 Championship on the other hand in 1967), and there were also occasional later a British Formula 1 championship (1978 to 1982). The British Formula 3000 Championship, which was launched in 1989, continued this tradition. It was the second national Formula 3000 series after the Japanese Formula 3000 Championship , which had replaced the Japanese Formula 2 Championship in 1987 .
development
In the first two years the national Formula 3000 championship was established in Great Britain; she reached the largest starting field in 1990 . With the beginning of the fourth season in 1992 , the series was given the name British Formula Two Championship in the hope of gaining more prestige and increasing its attractiveness for drivers and sponsors . A British Formula 2 championship had already existed between 1957 and 1972. However, the use of this term in the 1990s was misleading. In fact, it had nothing to do with traditional Formula 2; rather, regardless of the new name, it remained in fact a regional Formula 3000 championship. The series began to decline in 1993 . From the summer of that year, hardly more than 10 vehicles started per race. In the 1994 season only four drivers registered for each championship run; there were also various pilots who only contested one or two races. Three of the 10 originally planned races, including the first two races in April and May of that year, had to be canceled because the number of participants was too low. In 1995 the championship was not held because there were too few reports before the start of the season. In 1996 there was a revival of the championship; a full season with ten races was driven again. The 1997 season, however, was canceled early. After the first race at Brands Hatch , in which only three drivers participated, the organizers discontinued the series.
Attempts at revitalization
A new beginning under the name UK3000 was planned for 1999 . After numerous British and continental European teams initially showed interest, the planning ended before the first race because too few drivers were willing to take part. The attempt by the British Racing and Sports Car Club to establish an Autumn Cup based on Formula 3000 rules after the 2000 European Championship in Great Britain also failed early on.
After the end of the British series, the Italian Formula 3000 Championship, established by Pierluigi Corbari in 1999, was the only regional Formula 3000 championship in Europe. It existed with changing names under the organization of Enzo and Paolo Coloni as Auto GP until 2016, but in recent years it had technically differed from the former Formula 3000.
Regulations
The British Championship saw itself as an inexpensive way of entering the second highest single-seater class. For cost reasons, only Formula 3000 chassis that were at least one year old were permitted. Initially, the teams used Lola and Reynard vehicles ; At the beginning of the 1990s, however, Reynard was in fact the sole supplier - parallel to the development in the International Formula 3000 Championship. Reynard, however, was heavily involved in international competitions. Therefore the teams in the British Championship received very little support from the factory. Most of the 3.0 liter naturally aspirated engines came from Cosworth ; Japanese Mugen engines were also used in some cases .
Racetracks
The races took place almost exclusively on British tracks (Brands Hatch, Donington Park , Oulton Park , Silverstone , Snetterton and Thruxton ). In 1990 there were races at Le Mans and Nogaro , and in 1994 a race in Halifax, Canada was on the racing calendar.
driver
Numerous British and international drivers have competed in the British Formula 3000 Championship over the years. Each season had its own master; no driver won the championship title several times. The British Formula 3000 Championship did not succeed in being "an effective stirrup in international motorsport for young racing drivers:" Only three title winners later made it to Formula 1, but only for economically ailing and uncompetitive teams: Gary Brabham , the 1989 champion drove for Life in the 1990 Formula 1 season , Pedro Chaves (1990) for Coloni the following year and Philippe Adams (1993) for Lotus ( 1994 ). Adams was the only one of them who qualified for a Formula 1 race. Damon Hill , Roland Ratzenberger , Perry McCarthy and Christian Horner were among the other drivers who also competed in the British Formula 3000 championship .
The championship title of 1991 went to Paul Warwick , who ran for Madgwick International . Warwick won the first four races of the season. In the fifth race at Oulton Park he had a fatal accident while in the lead. After a broken suspension, his car went off the track and hit the lane. Warwick was thrown out of the vehicle. The organizers of the race rated Warwick as the winner of the race. So he had won five of eleven championship races. With a total of 45 points, he had the most points at the end of the year, so that the championship was awarded posthumously to him.
master
Web links
- 1989 Formula 3000 British Championship statistics on www.driverdb.com
- British Formula 3000 Championship 1990 statistics on www.driverdb.com
- 1991 British Formula 3000 Championship statistics on www.driverdb.com
Individual evidence
- ^ Reuss, Ferdi Kräling: Formula 2. The story from 1964 to 1984 , Delius Klasing, Bielefeld 2014, ISBN 978-3-7688-3865-8 .
- ^ David Hodges: Rennwagen from A – Z after 1945 , Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 , p. 273.
- ^ Alan Henry: Auto Course 1990/91 , Osprey Publishing Ltd, London 1991, ISBN 0-905138-74-0 , p. 257.
- ^ Alan Henry: Autocourse 1992/93 . London 1992 (Hazleton Securities Ltd.), ISBN 0-905138-96-1 , p. 253.
- ^ A b Alan Henry: Auto Course 1991/92 . London 1992 (Hazleton Securities Ltd.), ISBN 0-905138-87-2 , p. 249.