Jump to content


Photo
- - - - -

Another F4 championship launches...


  • Please log in to reply
6 replies to this topic

#1 Prost1997T

Prost1997T
  • Member

  • 8,379 posts
  • Joined: July 11

Posted 04 August 2015 - 18:17

http://www.f1600seri...ace-season.html

While it might be nice to run F4 cars at Watkins Glen, I can't see too many US racers opting for it. Wouldn't you just go to Europe if you were interested in running an FIA series and had that kind of budget?

Advertisement

#2 Fastcake

Fastcake
  • Member

  • 12,546 posts
  • Joined: April 10

Posted 04 August 2015 - 18:48

They're just going to replace the F1600 championship with a new Formula Four one. It seems perfectly sensible to change to a international formula at the same performance level instead of keeping their own unique regulations.

 

I don't know much about American junior racing, but in Europe a lot of the F4 championships have been much more successful than the failing series they took over.



#3 Prost1997T

Prost1997T
  • Member

  • 8,379 posts
  • Joined: July 11

Posted 04 August 2015 - 19:33

Except they're not replacing it (the statement says its an addition to the roster), and it isn't "failing" by any stretch. Several of the F1600 drivers have moved on to the Mazda Road to Indy ladder recently.

#4 redreni

redreni
  • Member

  • 4,709 posts
  • Joined: August 09

Posted 04 August 2015 - 22:36

Except they're not replacing it (the statement says its an addition to the roster), and it isn't "failing" by any stretch. Several of the F1600 drivers have moved on to the Mazda Road to Indy ladder recently.

 

I don't see the point in trying to get anyone in American motorsport to run to FIA regs or specs. They've tried that with LMPs and GTs, and they've ended up with classes that may or may not have the same name as what the rest of the world calls them, but for whatever reason, the regs and the cars aren't the same.

 

The US has always had its own structures and rules, which have usually worked okay at the junior level as far as I can tell. I'm not sure why anyone would want to try to export Formula 4 to the USA just because the most of the rest of the world is doing it. Most of the rest of the world has gun control...



#5 Prost1997T

Prost1997T
  • Member

  • 8,379 posts
  • Joined: July 11

Posted 05 August 2015 - 01:58

Focusing on the topic at hand, I don't see it succeeding for two reasons: cost, and a saturated market. F1600 uses a variety of old and new chassis (applies both the Canadian and American championships), I can't see a relatively expensive FIA spec design going down well with the competitors. The most recent attempt to have a FIA-spec car in a new US series resulted in about 6 entries all year (SCCA Formula Lites based around F3 regulations) and they're both slower\more costly than F2000.



#6 Fastcake

Fastcake
  • Member

  • 12,546 posts
  • Joined: April 10

Posted 05 August 2015 - 11:53

Except they're not replacing it (the statement says its an addition to the roster), and it isn't "failing" by any stretch. Several of the F1600 drivers have moved on to the Mazda Road to Indy ladder recently.


Oh really? I misread that then. It would make more sense to replace one series with another, but I guess they have a plan to make it work...

As I said, I don't know about the costs and grid sizes of American junior series. In Britain at least, MSA Formula delivered a much larger grid than Formula Ford did in its dying years.

#7 Prost1997T

Prost1997T
  • Member

  • 8,379 posts
  • Joined: July 11

Posted 05 August 2015 - 12:08

Oh really? I misread that then. It would make more sense to replace one series with another, but I guess they have a plan to make it work...

As I said, I don't know about the costs and grid sizes of American junior series. In Britain at least, MSA Formula delivered a much larger grid than Formula Ford did in its dying years.


Without it being cheaper there would be need to be some incentive to participate, like a scholarship or prize money. Formula Race Promotions' package of series have no TV coverage or mainstream exposure, unlike MSA Formula.

As far as I recall, a lot of Indycar's frontrunners started in wingless cars similar to the F1600 series (Power raced Formula Ford in Australia, Dixon did Formula Vee in New Zealand, Newgarden raced in Formula Ford for a while as well).

Edited by Prost1997T, 05 August 2015 - 12:13.