Understanding (British) Formula 3

[Senninha]

Okay, so this seems to be a topic that is causing some people (!) problems....

So, after visiting my first F3 meeting of the season on Saturday, I'm going to copy the info from the programme here to help the understanding (hopefully!)..

Ok, so this is what it says...

F3 - Series Information

Jackie Stewart, Nelson Piquet, Derek Warwick, Emerson Fittipaldi, Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill - all these F1 heroes graduated from the British F3 championship.  F3 originally grew out of Formula Junior in 1964 and is an internationally recognised category.  The cars ran one-litre engines from 1964 to 1970 and 1600cc units from 1971 to 1973, but since 1974 two-litre engines have powered the cars.  The championship is run by the British Racing Drivers Club (BRDC) and supported by Avon Tyres and TEAMtalk252, the official radio station of the championship.

Specification

Single-seater racing cars built to the 2002 FIA International Regulations.  Engines used are all based upon those built by manufacturers for series production cars of which 2500 must have been made.  Engines carry inlet air restrictions to control power and strict rules are imposed on aerodynamic aids and minimum weight.  All cars run on Avon slick or wet weather tyres.  The Championship Class caters for the better-funded teams using current machinery.  The Scholarship Class is aimed at less experienced drivers and teams operating lower-cost machinery that must be at least 2 years old, and as such is an ideal training ground.  

Awards

Championship Class
1st - £500
2nd - £250
3rd - £200
4th - £150
5th - £125
6th - £100

Scholarship Class
1st - £250
2nd - £125
3rd - £100
4th - £75
5th - £65
6th - £50

Points Scoring

20-15-12-10-8-6-4-3-2-1, plus 1 point for the driver(s) setting fastest race lap.



Ok, hope that's made things clearer... oh, yeah, this thing is probably copyrighted being from a race programme - so... yeah, it doesn't belong to me - copyright of BRDC/BMP/David Addison (probably him who wrote it - he writes most things!!).. and probably FOTA too... I'll check up on that later

[Henrik]

Very informative Senn!

Fun discussion yesterday too about the actual engine size and performance.

I'm still a but surprised how close the F3 and the F Atlantic are in terms of engines. Judging by the figures you gave, one can almost switch engines between the two.

2lt 4 cylinder 16valve ~240 hp

[Senninha]

It would have been nice if I'd have checked the website before I typed all that up - but the extra stuff from the website (www.f3-gt.com), such as the engine specs and so on are as follows:

Chassis

Teams are free to use any chassis conforming to the FIA’s regulations, but in recent years in the Green Flag British Formula 3 Championship, all teams have used chassis manufactured by the Italian Dallara company. Chassis construction is mainly of a carbon-kevlar composite, with panels in Nomex and aluminium. Covering bodywork is of carbon-fibre strengthened with a Nomex honeycomb and other composites.

Suspension

Suspension is by pushrods front and rear and is fully adjustable
Wheelbase: 2610mm
Front track: 1500mm
Rear track: 1430mm

Engines

Type: 2 litre, 4 cylinder, 16 valve, twin overhead cam
Max power: 210bhp at 6500rpm
Max torque: 230 N/m at 5700 rpm
Engines used in the British F3 Championship are from manufacturers such as Renault, Honda, Opel and Toyota.

Gearbox
Five speed non-syncromesh plus reverse.

Tyres
Available in slick or wet form, each driver is allowed two sets of slicks per meeting.

Performance
Top speed 158mph (dependent on circuit and gearing)
0-60mph 3.0 sec
130-50mph 2.8 sec (2.5G deceleration)

[OT]

Thanks Sen - very welcome information.

...I just wished that Australian TV moguls weren't so far up themselves that they could see the intersest and give it some air time.