The reboot behind the UK’s thriving single-seater category

"Everybody involved in British motorsport knows how important British F3 has been and we are delighted to get it back." Those words, spoken by MotorSport Vision chief executive Jonathan Palmer, were published in the 31 March 2016 issue of Autosport magazine shortly after the first round of the new BRDC British F3 Championship.

Just days before that opening event, the go-ahead had been given to rename what had been known since 2013 as the BRDC Formula 4 Championship as British F3, although the new two-litre Tatuus-Cosworth single-seater spec car had been given its competition debut in the 2015 Autumn Trophy under the F4 title. It heralded a new dawn, and five seasons later the MSV-operated BRDC British F3 series is well established as the UK's premier single-seater category, silencing a number of critics, and has gone some way to upholding the honour and prestige of the previous British F3 Championship, which ran from 1979-2014.

Even in the midst of a pandemic, the current iteration of British F3 has continued to stabilise and even build on its reputation in 2020. It has featured 24 races across seven meetings, and attracted a season high of 19 cars for the final round at Silverstone, with nine teams represented on the grid.

"What works for the drivers works for the teams, so I think all of that goes into what has made British F3 as successful as it is now," says Palmer. "Every year, and indeed throughout the year, we liaise carefully with them. This is very much our championship with them being part of it, and if they've got gripes or think there are ways things could be improved we'd be stupid not to listen to them carefully and implement them where we can. And the teams respect that."

As Palmer adds, "you can't tell teams and drivers what to do, they'll go where they want to go", yet the fact that so many operations are represented in the championship is a testament to its current success.

Trevor Carlin's internationally renowned squad was a mainstay until the end in the 'old' British F3 category and has been a permanent fixture since the new series was introduced in 2016, winning three of the five drivers' titles so far, including the past two with Clement Novalak and Kaylen Frederick.

Fortec Motorsport and Double R Racing have also been involved in the series from the beginning, as well as smaller teams such as Hillspeed, Chris Dittmann Racing, Douglas Motorsport and Lanan Racing. This season Hitech GP and JHR Developments joined the roster, while next year Elite Motorsport - best known for dominating Ginetta Junior in recent years - will move into single-seaters for the first time after acquiring cars from Lanan.

But what is it that makes the series so appealing for both teams and drivers? Cost plays an important part. A driver can realistically get on the grid for £180,000 for the season, while those with bigger budgets and wanting a full season of unlimited testing will push it closer to £320,000.

"No driver wants to be losing races or having compromised performance because of reliability issues, and the teams don't want the driver on their back. [Reliability] wasn't bad before but it could be improved, and this year has been absolutely exemplary" Jonathan Palmer

By comparison, a season in British F4 costs around the same, but the Mygale used in that series has less power and downforce. Costs in European series similar to British F3 tend to be higher. With many young drivers looking to make the move up the single-seater ladder quickly, and for as little money as possible, British F3 has found something of a niche market.

A failure to control spiralling costs was the undoing of the original British F3, with teams spending small fortunes on engines from Mercedes and Volkswagen as well as on development of the cars. While future McLaren F1 star Carlos Sainz Jr and IndyCar driver Jack Harvey competed in the series as recently as 2012, two years later (its swansong) British F3 fielded four full-time entries.

This is less of a problem in modern British F3 as all teams are supplied with the spec Tatuus chassis, which for this season underwent minor modifications including an upgraded front and rear wing, new engine cover and bargeboards to aid performance slightly and give it a refreshed look, while Mountune took over the building and maintenance of the two-litre 230bhp engines.

Richard Dutton, owner of Fortec, which has competed in British F3 for more than two decades, agrees that having a one-make series where engines are loaned out to teams and no scope for development has been key.

"I think most probably the biggest thing is the cost because we used to spend a lot of money on development [in old British F3]," he says. "We used to develop the car as well as the driver, whereas now you're only developing the driver. You can't go to the windtunnel; we used to make our own suspension and radiators, have our own floors, a lot of the stuff which takes the costs up. You can't do that now, so the driver benefits, and it's better value for money."

For some, this may go against the very ethos of what Formula 3 stood for, but the current climate for motorsport and single-seater racing means that the days of teams developing their own cars, for better or worse, generally belong to the past. Series including FIA F2 and FIA F3, all the way down through the motorsport ladder, have followed this route to keep costs affordable and maintain parity as much as possible. Ensuring that performance is equal across the board, while supplying a reliable car and engine combination, is just as important to Palmer as controlling the costs.

"No driver wants to be losing races or having compromised performance because of reliability issues, and the teams don't want the driver on their back," he says. "We've gone to Mountune this year. [Reliability] wasn't bad before but it could be improved, and this year has been absolutely exemplary. We've had no race failures at all with the engines, which is great. So car reliability has been exceedingly strong, and then we've also got car performance.

"OK, some drivers would like to feel they've got an advantage, but essentially they want to feel that they haven't got a disadvantage, and that's another great strength that we've honed in British F3 - equality of performance."

With nine different winners this season - only three of those solely from reversed-grid races - and six different teams reaching the top step of the podium, the championship is delivering in terms of equality and competitiveness.

The success of British F3 is due in part to Palmer's other forays into single-seater racing over the decades, including Formula Palmer Audi (1998-2010) and the FIA Formula 2 Championship (2009-12) - both of which were run in-house by MSV instead of established teams - and the harsh lessons learned.

"One of the big things that we learned is that running it all under one roof doesn't work," says Palmer, who admits that from a commercial point of view both series were tough, though they did succeed in helping some drivers' careers. "Having one big team and effectively cutting out the teams, cutting out the middle men, ultimately does not work commercially and it's not what the drivers want. It's a way to get the costs down, no question about it, but you do need the teams."

MSV also operates a number of circuits on the British F3 calendar - Oulton Park, Snetterton, Brands Hatch and Donington Park - and there are further trips to Silverstone and Spa as part of its position supporting the British GT Championship.

"You've got great circuits, it backs up British GT, which is very strong - the whole package is good and Palmer has done a very good job with it," says Dutton. "It needs more promotion, but obviously the situation with COVID makes it difficult for them to do it. We've gone through a difficult year, but we've survived it and the championship is looking very strong for next year, which is a credit to them."

While British F3 has strived to establish itself as the leading single-seater category in the UK and grow its reputation in Europe, one of its biggest hurdles remains ensuring that it can keep its name, and all the history and prestige that comes with it.

Palmer has been in a battle with the FIA for several seasons, the world motorsport governing body keen to keep the Formula 3 name solely for its own championships in the wake of creating the Formula Regional European Championship for 2019.

"For someone to find £200,000-300,000 is one thing, but then to have to go up to around £1million for a proper drive in that - it's a hell of a gap and there will be a lot of drivers who without something like British F3 wouldn't have the confidence or the ability to make that jump into FIA F3" Jonathan Palmer

"British F3, it's the right title for it," says an adamant Palmer. "The performance is there, the pedigree is there and I'm sure the FIA will ultimately think it's a valuable part of the heritage of world motorsport that is their responsibility to protect and enhance. Although we've had some pressure, I'm sure that ultimately common sense will prevail and they'll realise that British F3 is an important, valued title and it thoroughly deserves to remain. The most important thing of all for them is that in no way is it any threat to FIA F3. No one is going to confuse the two - they serve different roles."

Palmer, indeed, believes that his series is a direct feeder into FIA F3. Last year's British F3 champion Novalak made that move this season with Carlin, finishing 12th in the standings with two podiums to his name; last season's runner-up, Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Award winner Johnathan Hoggard, has been testing with a number of teams in the championship. Such is the commitment to prove that it is the logical next step that, from next season, the winner of the British F3 title will be given two days of testing in an FIA F3 car.

"We are one of the prime feeders into FIA F3," says Palmer. "There's the FIA F4 championships that exist in the various countries as well, but I think British F3 is probably an even better proving ground for drivers coming into FIA F3 than FIA F4. There is a gulf of performance difference between the two, there's a gulf of technological difference in terms of what you can adjust, and even the downforce level is pretty token in FIA F4. And of course the other big thing is budget.

"For someone to find £200,000-300,000 is one thing, but then to have to go up to around £1million for a proper drive in that - it's a hell of a gap and there will be a lot of drivers who without something like British F3 wouldn't have the confidence or the ability to make that jump into FIA F3."

Palmer believes that while Euroformula Open is "kind of another halfway [point] up the ladder between British F3 and FIA F3", the new-for-2021 Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine - a merger between Formula Regional and Renault Eurocup - is differentiated by British F3's costs.

While there is always room for improvement, Palmer is keen to stress that "the main thing is just not to change anything too much" in British F3. Given that the main effect of the coronavirus pandemic on all of UK motorsport is uncertainty, stability is the number-one priority.

"I'm very excited about the future for British F3 - it's very much on the right track," he says. "It's valued very highly internationally, its reputation is definitely far better than it was for quite a long time in the latter years of [the old] British F3, and it's getting back to the heyday sort of times, I think.

"We're not going to rest on any laurels, we want to keep making it better and to make sure that British F3 has a terrific future for the next five, 10 years. Part of making it successful, maintaining its success and expanding its success is that it's recognised as a valuable step for aspiring Formula 1 drivers to come and prove themselves - that is the real bottom line."

The latest generation of British F1 talent can chart their rise through Palmer's series, with Williams F1 driver George Russell the winner of the BRDC F4 title in 2014 with Lanan, while the first race of new-era British F3 was won by current McLaren star Lando Norris with Carlin.

As Palmer says, "we want to find the new Russells, the Verstappens, the Leclercs, there are people out there who are just [at] another level of superiority". Based on the current trajectory of BRDC British F3, there's every chance that the next generation of F1 drivers could make their mark in the series.

A 'new' home for international drivers

Throughout the 2020 BRDC British F3 season a total of 24 drivers took part in at least one race and, while nearly half were British, the remainder came from across the globe, including the US, Brazil, Malaysia, Argentina, India, Australia, Belgium, Thailand and Jordan.

There were 13 overseas drivers, whose participation has turned the UK-based series into something of a hotspot for international talent, much like the previous iteration of British F3.

"If you go back to the [Ayrton] Senna days, British F3 was always where the foreign drivers used to come, so it's good to see them coming back again," says Fortec boss Richard Dutton.

"Any driver that comes over to the US from a European championship tends to do quite well, so we figured for driver development it would be the right move to go to any series in Europe" Kaylen Frederick

Throughout its six decades of history, F3 in Britain was a magnet for international drivers who would go on to Formula 1, including Senna (below), Emerson Fittipaldi, Mika Hakkinen, Rubens Barrichello, Takuma Sato, Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne.

And with the growing reputation of the BRDC British F3 series, a steady stream of foreign drivers has been attracted to the UK's shores even in the midst of a pandemic. Reigning British F3 champion Kaylen Frederick joined the category in 2019 with Carlin, having previously contested the USF2000 series in his homeland.

PLUS: How Carlin's next American hope took the long road to glory

"We were looking to move over to Europe to try to get some experience in the series over here as they just seem tougher," he says. "Drivers seem to mature more quickly. Any driver that comes over to the US from a European championship tends to do quite well, so we figured for driver development it would be the right move to go to any series in Europe.

"But the reasoning behind the British championship was a lot to do with building a relationship with a team like Carlin moving forward, as they've got so many connections with higher teams.

"Also, not only is it a really competitive series but they race on some pretty technical and tough tracks to be quick on."

Having mastered "tough tracks" and come out on top of a closely fought championship battle, Frederick believes that while the current guise of British F3 may still not be what it once was, compared to other F3 categories it ranks right up there.

"Some people made the argument that maybe the series isn't as prestigious as it once was," he says. "There's a lot of other F3 series that are being pushed by the FIA that might look a bit more appealing.

"But I think, especially considering the amount of issues everyone has gone through with COVID, who's to say that this year wouldn't have been even stronger, and it was probably the strongest F3 series besides FIA F3?"