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| Image courtesy of www.motorsport.com |
Before I do, I want to disclose that whilst I know fine well that I am not selling anything and that means I probably don't need to tell of my biases, I feel it would just be better if I let you guys know here. I am making this article in partnership with the people behind this championship, but I do speak as a fan who is very intrigued by the concept. So to clear this up, I am not paid by Chadwick Motorsport to make this article, I volunteered to write about it from a racing fan's perspective.
On September 13th of this year, motorsport.com published an article talking about a new professional single seater championship that would be racing in Britain and it instantly intrigued me to an incredible degree. The article in question is linked here (http://www.motorsport.com/openwheel/news/gp2-level-single-seater-series-set-for-2017-debut-in-great-britain-826141/) and things that were said in this article included that it would be on the same kind of performance levels as a GP2 car. For those of you who don't know, GP2 is seen as the junior racing series right below Formula One, racing on the same weekend as the F1 drivers alongside the Grand Prix.
The reason why this perked my interest is that it is absolutely unheard of to have a domestic racing championship in Europe at the level of performance. Usually when climbing the racing ladder, you have entry level championships like Formula 4 and Formula Renault 2.0 racing both in national and European championships, then you have the next step up being Formula 3 championships which have been scaled down in terms of national championships since more drivers are choosing to race in the European championships at this level.
But the level that this new British racing championship is unheard of on a national scale, with like I've already said, performance that is very comparable to that of GP2 and Formula V8 3.5. It did make me wonder, how would this appeal to a driver looking to move up the racing ladder into F1? We will get to that in a bit.
Next up, that part where I said, racing in the winter? Before I go on, my contact at Chadwick told me that they are now pursuing a series set in a more traditional format, that being from the beginning months of one year to the later months of that same year.
The original idea was to race between December and March, providing racing drivers at the level of GP2 and Formula V8 3.5 a chance to race during the off season and keep themselves sharp. Maybe also, drivers in lower junior single seater series could utilise this smaller scale championship that will not clash with their main campaign. They could use this to their advantage in order to try their hand at racing these type of cars whilst they don't immediately have a budget, which by the way is a huge problem in racing nowadays and what we will get onto soon.
I know a lot of what I just said is now no longer relevant because I have now been informed that they are pursuing a more traditional schedule structure that most championships follow. Whilst the idea of a winter series at that level would work brilliantly, as many single seater series take place during the European winter months (Examples: Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand, MRF Challenge in India and other parts of Middle Eastern Asia, even a future FIA certified F3 series), but the fact that this series was taking place in the UK during the winter was a concern.
No matter though because now that this UK based championship will now run during the more traditional months, I now have reason to believe that this will now fill a gap in the motor racing market. That reason is as follows.
Speaking extensively about GP2, many F1 drivers have won championships in GP2 since that series' inception in 2005. The inaugural champion was Nico Rosberg, who as we know is now the F1 champion and now has just hung up his helmet, and his team mate for the last few years at the Mercedes GP team and three-time champion Lewis Hamilton, won the GP2 championship the year before moving up to F1. From 2005 to 2011, every single champion graduated to F1 the following year with the exception of 2008 champion Giorgio Pantano, who had a small campaign in F1 with the Jordan team back in 2004.
Since then though, with the amount of drivers trying to make it to F1, it hasn't since been the case that the tradition of the GP2 champion immediately graduates to F1. 2012 champion Davide Valsecchi and 2013 champion Fabio Leimer never got the chance, and since then all the GP2 champions have had to wait a year. That includes Renault F1 driver Jolyon Palmer and McLaren's Stoffel Vandoorne, with reigning champion and Red Bull backed Pierre Gasly unable to take one of the Toro Rosso drives and can't stay in GP2 since the rules prohibit the champion from competing.
Vandoorne spent his 2016 campaign in Super Formula, which is the top-line Japanese single seater championship and it seems that Gasly and also former GP3 champion Alex Lynn will be heading over to the Far East to race there this year. Not to discredit Japanese motorsport because as far as Asian based motorsport championships go, Japan are pretty much the only country who embrace it to such an incredible degree.
But when concerning world motorsport, Europe is the main home and we have no proper alternative to F1 here unfortunately, not as far as car performance goes but more in terms of its competitive nature. This is where I believe this series will come in, because thanks to my contact at Chadwick Motorsport, I have been told some incredible figures and facts regarding cost entry that I believe will be incentive enough for many top line drivers to race in this series. This is where I talk about money.
Ever heard the term 'Pay driver' in motorsport? It's a sad fact but motorsport is the only sport (As far as I'm aware) that money plays more of a part in over actual talent, and that's why you will often see drivers who are obviously not as talented as many of their peers, picked for drives in high cost motorsport. I touched on this before in an article I wrote about the chance of video game based racing becoming popularised by the fact that there would be very little in the way of money involved, because the cars used in video games are obviously digitally created so there would not be any need for money to be used to repair the cars.
So in regards to this series, here is what I was told that will be the case for entry into the British based championship. The initial entry costs are £375,000 which will cover pretty much everything such as the cost of each individual car and engine, race entry fees, permits, transport, personnel, maintenance and trackside support, with anything further than that not yet defined in terms of cost. For every season after from then on, the cost will be cut down to just £75,000 due to the car and engine's cost having already been covered in the first season, and this is absolutely remarkable! (Note: These figures may change but the Chadwick Motorsport guys are set on keeping the series costs to as little as possible.)
I just want to get it out there right now, I am not an expert and I have no way of finding out if these numbers are true, but I heard these numbers thrown around when discussing the prices to run for a season in these junior formulae series. GP3 racing cost I believe about US$600,000, Formula Renault 3.5 (Now Formula V8 3.5) costs US$800,000 and GP2 costs an astonishing US$5,000,000 for a season. So to think that after the introductory year after the cars and engines have been developed, for the entry fee to cost less than £100,000 is incredible, so this will allow drivers who don't have as much money to compete in most competitive championships to revitalise their professional single seater career.
The reason why I believe this has been achieved is because Chadwick Motorsport will be running every single entry in the series, and this method was last utilised in the FIA's Formula Two championship which ran between 2009 and 2012. It's a stroke of genius on Chadwick's end to do this, especially considering that for the most part, the series will remain in Britain with I believe one possible overseas round, hopefully at Spa. That's my next point actually.
Being the enthusiastic individual I am, I got talking with my contact at Chadwick regarding this series' possible schedule. I obviously don't run the championship so my word isn't fact in the slightest, but as far as I am concerned, the best racing schedule for this series would be alongside the British GT and the BRDC British F3 championships. Partly because tagging onto the same program will lower the costs of hauling the freight around but mostly because as far as the top line British national racing championships go, the schedule for a weekend alongside British GT and F3 is far less packed than let's say, British Touring Cars.
I've been to Croft many times to watch the BTCC and loved it, but the current TOCA package that always tag along with BTCC and get their races shown on ITV4 is already at its peak when it comes support races. The Chadwick-ran series is planning on having all of its three races on the final day which is exactly what BTCC does, and having a Sunday structured with the first Chadwick-ran series race, then a BRDC F3 race, then Chadwick, BRDC F3, final Chadwick race then the British GT race. Obviously some variables apply there, which I won't get too deep into.
Plus also when you consider the calibre of the circuits that British GT and F3 have been attending in recent years, you have obviously the big guns like Silverstone, Brands Hatch, Donington Park and Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, but then you have some great national circuits like Snetterton, Rockingham and probably my favourite, Oulton Park which just so happens to be the closest to where I live. Unfortunately, no Thruxton but no matter.
Without sounding way too sensationalising of this new series, Chadwick have gone beyond the call of duty when it comes to not only providing drivers who want to continue their single seater career, but also with fans due to the fact that they may be pursuing a one day format for all the races. Like what BTCC does, have one or two practice sessions the previous day before qualifying then leaving all the racing for the big day. That would provide more than enough incentive for the fans to flock up on the day of the racing, and with the main British GT race and one or two British F3 races also there as well.
Just want to add, as far as broadcasting goes for those who want to watch at home. Chadwick are pursuing a YouTube live streaming method which has worked in the past for DTM, and I imagine perhaps they could strike up a deal with ITV, BT or Motors TV to show highlights a week later or maybe even live.
Anyhow, in conclusion! It's a British based championship with cars that use a 4.0-litre V10 that produce 640 horsepower, with according to my contact at Chadwick, ticket prices that will be kept to as little as possible. I may have bias here but when I heard about this championship, my ears perked up and I took notice, and I am writing this as a fan who is excited to see this series happen. Because there will be more than enough drivers who will be willing to compete in this championship and hopefully, all the talented ones will be placed in the series and we can have some great racing in what I am confident will not only be the premier domestic single seater championship, but will be a top line concept for other drivers that are based in Europe to want to hop over to this crummy rock off of the coast of France.
Before I end off, I want to thank Chadwick for authorising me to write this article and entrusted me with a lot of information and I have respected their trust. I would very much like to attend an event at some point, maybe if they do become a part of the British GT and F3 program (Here's hoping) and they go to Oulton Park for the first round, I could go there.
So anyway, if you've made it this far and are not bored to death, I thank you. Hope you enjoyed and I'll be publishing another article in the next coming days.
Alright! That will do, so until we meet again.
Luca.
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