Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Most racing series have now headed into a summer break, but the news is still coming in thick and fast and two huge stories have dropped for British motorsport. Formula Scout shares its first thoughts on the podcast
Formula 1 had barely packed up after the Hungarian Grand Prix ended before several of the teams were getting ready to head back on track for Pirelli tyre testing. They’ve been joined by Alfa Romeo Racing, testing protege Theo Pourchaire in its 2019 car, while Alpine juniors Oscar Piastri and Guanyu Zhou have been driving a 2018 F1 car at Monza.
The F1 junior, or ex-F1 junior, who has stolen all the attention though is Dan Ticktum as it was announced that he left Williams last week. He had been the team’s development and simulator driver, a role he previously held at Red Bull before that team dropped him in 2019, and the next time he is set to be on track is when Formula 2 heads to Monza in September.
It’s likely that Piastri and Zhou, who are one-two in the standings, as well as Ticktum (fourth) and Pourchaire (sixth) will be the drivers with all the attention on them at that point.
All four came through Formula 3 before reaching F1, but there will be significantly fewer drivers doing the same from now on as the FIA has restricted the usage of the F3 moniker to its own F1 support series. With what was known as Regional F3 having already switched to becoming Formula Regional in most territories, it left BRDC British F3 as the series clinging on.
But it’s been announced with immediate effect that it will be British F3 no longer, and instead adopts the GB3 name as of this weekend’s races at Snetterton. What does this mean for the series’ future, and also the history of F3?
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