Autosport Plus

How junior single-seaters ended up in chaos

The push to streamline the single-seater ladder appears to have worked at the top end with the FIA F3-F2-F1 path, but at the third tier the sphere has now fragmented into too many series competing against each other

When Jean Todt stated in his manifesto for a second term of FIA presidency that he wanted a MotoGP-style ladder of single-seater racing at Formula 1 events, he changed the course of junior motorsport in Europe.

Back then, in 2013, there was a neat equilibrium. GP2 and GP3 supported F1, the FIA Formula 3 European Championship ran with the DTM as a parallel series to GP3, both feeding into GP2. Renault had its successful Formula Renault 3.5 category, plus its FR 2.0 pyramid of Eurocup, ALPS and Northern European Cup, and this group of Renault championships in turn also fed drivers into F1.

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Author Marcus Simmons

Marcus Simmons is the Deputy Editor of Autosport magazine. As a child he was a regular on the chalk banks of Thruxton – hence his unhealthy obsession with 1970s Formula 2 and F3 – before he became an MSA timekeeper at the age of 17. At 19, his reporting debut for Motoring News arguably overshadowed Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal as the sporting moment of June 1986, and he joined the staff in 1990 after graduating from his degree course in Plymouth. A parallel Formula First career – which was as incident-packed as his childhood exploits in show-jumping and hunter trials – finished when he wrote off his car and put himself in hospital in 1991.

Marcus moved to Autosport in the summer of 1996. Since then he has had two stints as a freelancer and a brief spell as editor of Motor Sport magazine, during which the revered green cover was revived, before he rejoined Autosport in 2008. He lives in Teddington with his wife (who, gratifyingly, grew up within earshot of Castle Combe), daughter, stepson, dog, cat and guitars, and additionally has an adult daughter and stepson.