Sure, in a casual sense. Like a 2011 Dallara-Honda is still an Indycar. But you can't race them under that name anymore. The cars become obsolete in a certain configuration. Though at least in F3 you have the option to update your configuration to match rule changes. In most other series your equipment becomes obsolete.
No, in other categories common sense prevails. E.g. when they changed the regs in V8 Supercars they did not insist that everybody in the V8 Supercars Development Series upgraded to the new equipment straight away - there was a period of grace for them to run old spec cars, otherwise the cost of competing in the Development Series would have been prohibitive. When the BTCC changed from Super 2000 to NGTC regs, they didn't een insist that everybody in the main series invested in the new equipment straight away. Even F1 allowed backmarker teams to run grandfathered, de-tuned V10s for a year after the V8 regs came in because they recognised there weren't enough new engines available, or at any rate some teams couldn't afford them.
Gerhardt Berger had a vision of a single FIA F3 European Championship, with national feeder series that know their place, stick mostly or entirely to racing in their home countries, and do not try to compete with the FIA F3 European Championship, let alone with things like GP3, FR2.0 etc. In that he has largely suceeded; the Euroseries no longer exists, and British F3 has had to scale back enormously and stop going to Pau and various continental F1 circuits. So well done, Gerhardt, but I'm afraid if he thinks it is remotely feasible, cost-wise, for the entire field in British F3, German F3, F3 Open etc to shell out for the latest cars and engines when there is an abundance of old spec equipment available at very reasonable prices, he's mistaken. In any other category, the sanctioning body would recognise that and accept the fact that the rules for national F3 series allow for older spec cars to run.
Edited by redreni, 14 February 2014 - 22:01.