Has F1's best training ground been sentenced or saved?
The announcement of a single-make Formula 3 category on the F1 package was unsurprising but sad. It heralds the end of F3 as it has been known - but is that such a bad thing?
The first Formula 3 race I ever saw was over 27 years before almost-crowned 2017 European champion Lando Norris was born. In fact, at my then-age of almost five and three-quarters, even Lando's dad was only a toddler.
Since then, I've seen literally hundreds of F3 races (it may even be thousands) so, to me, the announcement from last week's FIA World Motor Sport Council that the category will become a one-make, spec-chassis, 350bhp spec-engine formula from 2019 is a very big deal - and a very sad day, even if it's one that had been anticipated.
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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.
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