277 replies to this topic

[Muppetmad]

Câmara has a tough decision to make. Even if he were to go straight to F2 and do well, I don't think there will be a lot of seats in F1 going around in 2026 (especially for someone in the Ferrari academy). F2 has also been all over the place this year, and F1 teams aren't taking it as seriously as they used to as a barometer of driver promise. Going to F3 first and doing well as a rookie would, I sense, set him up better for the future.

[Frood]

But he was outclassed by Antonelli, which is a generational talent that outclassed Bearman this year in F2. The "winning in the first year" can be a misleading parameter sometimes. Slater dominated F4 and if he goes to FRECA next year he will win it easily too, because again there won't be an Antonelli sharing the team's garage with him.

Durksen skipped F3 too and did very well in F2 this year driving a midfield car. And I don't Camara is less talented than him..

True, but then again Antonelli (and Dürksen) had the advantage of the car being new to everyone. Dürksen is also difficult to judge considering he's been in poor machinery for basically his whole career.

I just don't feel as though Câmara would be as well-positioned to pull off a move to F2. I'm happy to be wrong, though.

[efuloni]

Thing is Camara could easily have gone to F3 this year. He didnt need another Freca season. His rookie season was good enough to earn the promotion.

But ok, it was the right choice. He got used to poles and wins, got the title, etc. All of this is important for him.

However, he is not that young. Maybe a leap to F2 could show us all if he is F1 material or not. 2025 and 2026 in F2 and lets see what he is made of.

But honestly, Ferrari Academy is usually very conservative. He will probably just drive for Prema F3 next year.

[Racer3000]

True, but then again Antonelli (and Dürksen) had the advantage of the car being new to everyone. Dürksen is also difficult to judge considering he's been in poor machinery for basically his whole career.

I just don't feel as though Câmara would be as well-positioned to pull off a move to F2. I'm happy to be wrong, though.

 

The new F2 car uses the same engine and gearbox and a lot of parts of the older car. I believe the experience factor was still an advantage for those on their second season. 

 

But I agree that doing F3 will be better for Camara. He's fast, but still too raw sometimes. Also, the chances of available seats for him in F1 2026 will be close to zero. So doing F3 would be more prudent.

[Jellyfishcake]

Yeah the lack of options on the F1 grid kinda makes rushing to F2 not really worth while.

He'd be better off going to F3, getting a good result there then F2 after that.

 

I think his desire to stay in FRECA was to win a title, he knew this was his best bet, and to finally get a championship in cars was important.

[Frood]

Formula Regional teams are starting to announce their line-ups for the Macau Grand Prix in a month's time. This is how the grid is looking so far:

Team                   Driver 1        Driver 2         Driver 3
ART Grand Prix         Kanato Le       James Wharton
Evans GP               Cooper Webster  Tiago Rodrigues  Kai Daryanani
Kiwi Motorsport
MP Motorsport
PHM Racing
Pinnacle Motorsport
Prema Theodore Racing
R-ace GP               Enzo Deligny    Tuukka Taponen   Ugo Ugochukwu
Saintéloc Racing
TGM Grand Prix         Sota Ogawa      Rintaro SATOOOOOO!!!!!1111one
TOM's Formula

Edited by Frood, 16 October 2024 - 21:15.

[HistoryFan]

poor line-up so far.

[Frood]

Current provisional entry list for Macau. A few F3 names in there, it's a shame the organisers have downgraded to the arguably rubbish Formula Regional cars instead!

Team                   Driver 1           Driver 2             Driver 3
ART Grand Prix         Kanato Le          James Wharton        Evan Giltaire
Evans GP               Cooper Webster     Tiago Rodrigues      Kai Daryanani
KCMG/Pinnacle          Noel Léon          Mari Boya
Kiwi Motorsport        Jett Bowling
MP Motorsport          Oliver Goethe      Valerio Rinicella
PHM Racing             Rashid Al Dhaheri  Matteo de Palo
Prema Theodore Racing  Dino Beganovic     Freddie Slater       Alex Dunne
R-ace GP               Enzo Deligny       Tuukka Taponen       Ugo Ugochukwu
Saintéloc Racing       Théophile Naël     Alexander Abkhazava
TGM Grand Prix         Sota Ogawa         Rintaro SATOOOOOO!!!!!1111one
TOM's Formula          Rikuto Kobayashi   Jin Nakamura

[billm99uk]

'Jett Bowling' wins 'Best Racing Driver Name' award straight off!

[sportyskells]

Last race of the season and Mother Nature has play spoil sport today no qualfying at all for today hopefully it’s clears up for “lights out and away we go”

[Ruusperi]

Season finale at wet Monza about to start.

[Muppetmad]

Pin starting P12! Unless I'm forgetting something, that's a huge PB in qualifying this year. Fingers crossed she can convert that into points now.

 

Edit: Ahhh, they used the test times to set the grid. I missed that.

Edited by Muppetmad, 26 October 2024 - 11:25.

[Ruusperi]

Pin starting P12! Unless I'm forgetting something, that's a huge PB in qualifying this year. Fingers crossed she can convert that into points now.

There was no qualifying. Practice times determined the grid. So many drivers probably were not doing serious flying laps in practice, because they didn't know they would matter.

 

SC in!

Edited by Ruusperi, 26 October 2024 - 11:25.

[Ruusperi]

Frantic stuff!

[Frood]

This is an incredible - and amazingly clean - battle for third!

[Ruusperi]

SC as Lacorte spins out. 3 minutes to go, so maybe 1-lap shootout?

[Ruusperi]

Ugo wins!

[Frood]

Pin starting P12! Unless I'm forgetting something, that's a huge PB in qualifying this year. Fingers crossed she can convert that into points now.

Edit: Ahhh, they used the test times to set the grid. I missed that.

Not sure if Doriane had a problem in that race; if not, it was a very poor performance - beaten by García who started 14 places behind her.

[Muppetmad]

Not sure if Doriane had a problem in that race; if not, it was a very poor performance - beaten by García who started 14 places behind her.

Agreed.

[Anja]

I've read somewhere that Ugochukwu is 195 cm tall, is that true? It would be getting into territory where the height could be an actual disadvantage in his career. Especially since he's just 17 and can possibly still grow a bit.

Edited by Anja, 26 October 2024 - 13:15.

[Frood]

I've read somewhere that Ugochukwu is 195 cm tall, is that true? It would be getting into territory where the height could be an actual disadvantage in his career. Especially since he's just 17 and can possibly still grow a bit.

 

Yes, he's supposedly on the verge of 2m. Here's the podium from today - as far as I know, Wharton (on the right) isn't particularly short. Unsure about Câmara.

 

 

I think Wharton is about 1.80m-ish, here are both him and Ugochukwu last year with Kacper Sztuka, listed on F3's website as 1.74m:

 

Edited by Frood, 26 October 2024 - 13:35.

[midgrid]

He could still be the next Matt Neal in the BTCC!

[Jellyfishcake]

Good for Ugo to get a win before the season ends, as stepping up to F3 with a winless season wouldn't have been ideal.

 

I didn't realise he was quite as tall as that.

 

Meanwhile race 2 ends with a red flag to close the season off 

 

Funny how mid season Taponen and Badoer were really on a run of podiums, but then their seasons completely fell off at the end, as Wharton starred in the back half

Edited by Jellyfishcake, 27 October 2024 - 14:51.

[Frood]

Don't bother watching the second race; yet again Monza somehow causes racing drivers' IQ to drop 50 points and they couldn't go a lap without crashing. Eventually the race got red-flagged after Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi's crashed car caught fire (after being taken out by Liu Ruiqi, who managed to cause two accidents in the space of half a lap resulting in cars catching fire, having already nerfed Edgar Pierre off earlier in the lap)

[sportyskells]

That crash was a carbon copy of f3 2022 at the very same turn (minus the fire bit)

[Frood]

Final entry list for the Macau Grand Prix:

Team                   Driver 1           Driver 2             Driver 3
ART Grand Prix         Kanato Le          James Wharton        Evan Giltaire
Evans GP               Cooper Webster     Tiago Rodrigues      Kai Daryanani
KCMG/Pinnacle          Noel Léon          Mari Boya
Kiwi Motorsport        Jett Bowling
MP Motorsport          Oliver Goethe      Valerio Rinicella    Alessandro Giusti
PHM Racing             Rashid Al Dhaheri  Matteo de Palo       Liu Ruiqi
Prema Theodore Racing  Dino Beganovic     Freddie Slater       Alex Dunne
R-ace GP               Enzo Deligny       Tuukka Taponen       Ugo Ugochukwu
Saintéloc Racing       Théophile Naël     Alexander Abkhazava
TGM Grand Prix         Sota Ogawa         Rintaro SATOOOOOO!!!!!1111one
TOM's Formula          Rikuto Kobayashi   Jin Nakamura

[Frood]

Quick update on the Macau line-up - Giusti will not be competing after all, and his place at MP Motorsport will be taken by newly-crowned Spanish F4 champion Mattia Colnaghi.

 

On the subject of Formula Regional-level series, another single-seater championship has ended mired in controversy after the confusing ending to this year's French F4 championship (more on that here).

 

Eurocup-3 had its final round at Barcelona this past weekend, with MP Motorsport's Javier Sagrera going into the event leading the standings ahead of his challenger, Campos' Christian Ho. Ho qualified on the front row for Race 1, with Sagrera only 7th; though this was more like 6th with guest driver Nikita Bedrin lining up 3rd and ineligible for points. Sagrera's MP team-mate Emerson Fittipaldi Jr. took pole position, and MP also had Owen Tangavelou 4th and Bruno del Pino 6th; with Ho's only good backup being Jesse Carrasquedo in 5th.

 

Fittipaldi managed to do his team a favour by holding Ho behind him for the duration of the race; Sagrera worked his way past Tangavelou to finish 6th on the road (but scored points for 5th with Bedrin finishing 5th on the road). However, in saying that Fittipaldi held Ho behind him for the whole race - on Lap 16, Ho made what appeared to be a fair move (without wheel-banging) down the inside into Turn 1. Fittipaldi left the track and rejoined ahead of Ho; however, this was not penalised. This information becomes important later!

 

However, for Race 2, Sagrera had a tougher job, lining up 5th with Ho qualifying on pole. Again, Sagrera had backup with Fittipaldi in 2nd; Campos this time had Valentin Kluss in the mix (4th) to help Ho. This time, Ho could do nothing more to take the title - in taking pole, winning the race, and setting fastest lap, he would end the championship on 248 points. Sagrera, meanwhile, got himself involved in a little contretemps into Turn 1 on Lap 1 with Daniel Nogales, Kluss, and Bedrin. Sagrera went off, and later rejoined up the road ahead of both Bedrin and Kluss. Bedrin would later re-pass Sagrera; Sagrera ended up in a race-long battle with Nogales and another guest driver in Mari Boya. 

 

Sagrera finished 5th on the road, but with Bedrin finishing 3rd, he scored the points for 4th. This meant he finished on 250 points to Ho's 248, leaving Sagrera as the champion. 

 

However, after the race, Sagrera was handed a five-second penalty, dropping him to 7th on the road, behind Boya and team-mate Tangavelou. Like Bedrin, Boya was not scored, so he only lost 2 points. This put Sagrera and Ho level on 250 points; in this situation, with Ho having taking 5 wins to Sagrera's 4, Ho would win the championship.

 

What happened next is unclear, but Tangavelou was later disqualified due to MP breaking parc fermé rules, moving Sagrera back up one place and putting him back on 252 points, once again making him the champion. As I said, there is uncertainty over what transpired, but there are rumours that MP *could* have preemptively seen the penalty coming and broken parc fermé rules deliberately with Tangavelou's car to ensure Sagrera didn't lose the points. (This is like that time Ferrari broke the seal on Massa's gearbox deliberately, on steroids!)

 

Now Campos and Ho are appealing to the stewards, on the basis that Fittipaldi should have received a penalty in the first race. It's a complete mess, and it means the series has not released a final championship classification...

 

(For what it's worth, Ho looked the better driver over the course of the season - Campos were not as strong as MP over the course of the year, and it's his first season at the Formula Regional level compared to Sagera in his fourth. Ho was, on average, the fastest driver in both one lap and race pace, but had a fair share of bad luck. Sagrera was, however, very consistent, and that ultimately wins you championships in the long run)

Edited by Frood, 11 November 2024 - 20:26.

[Frood]

Still no news on the resolution to Eurocup-3's championship.

The Macau Grand Prix is this coming weekend. The first qualifying session was earlier today, but was held in the wet, so there should be plenty of chance for the drivers to improve. If they don't, the top 10 on the grid for the Qualifying race would be:

1. Goethe (MP)
2. Taponen (R-ace)
3. Rinicella (MP)
4. Al Dhaheri (PHM)
5. Slater (Prema)
6. De Palo (PHM)
7. Dunne (Prema)
8. Webster (Evans)
9. Beganovic (Prema)
10. Naël (Saintéloc)

Bear in mind Rinicella in 3rd was 2.7 seconds off, and everyone from 4th back was over 5 seconds off, so it wasn't a representative session.

First practice was also wet and wasn't representative, with Goethe 2 seconds clear of Slater and Dunne.

Edited by Frood, 14 November 2024 - 11:29.