The
Formula 3000 International Championship
(initially titled the European Formula 3000 Championship) was
created by the
Fédération
Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) in 1985 to become the
final preparatory step for drivers hoping to enter the
Formula One championship.
Formula Two had become too expensive, and was
dominated by works-run cars with factory engines; the hope was that
Formula 3000 would offer quicker, cheaper, more open racing.The
series began as an open specification, then tyres were standardized
from 1986 onwards, followed by engines and chassis in 1996.The
series ran annually through 2004, and was replaced in 2005 by the
GP2 Series.
Engines
Formula 3000 replaced Formula Two, and was so named because the
engines used initially were 3.0 L (183ci)
Cosworth DFV engines
made obsolete by Formula One's change in engine rules. (It has been
observed
Bernie Ecclestone had
purchased a job-lot of DFVs in 1984, with no obvious use for them
at the time).
The rules permitted any 90-degree V8 engine, fitted with a
rev-limiter to keep power output under control. As well as the
Cosworth, a Honda engine based on an Indy V8 by
John Judd also appeared; a rumoured
Lamborghini V8 never raced. In later years, a
Mugen-Honda V8 became the thing to have,
eclipsing the DFV; Cosworth responded with the brand new AC engine.
Costs, not unlike the senior series, were getting out of
control.
Chassis
The first chassis from
March,
AGS and
Ralt were developments of their existing 1984
Formula Two designs, although
Lola's entry was based on and looked very much
like an
IndyCar. A few smaller teams tried
obsolete three-litre
Formula One cars
(from
Tyrrell,
Williams,
Minardi and RAM), with little success—the Grand Prix
and Indycar-derived entries were too unwieldy—their fuel tanks were
about twice the size of those needed for F3000 races, and the
weight distribution was not ideal. The first few years of the
championship saw March establishing a superiority over Ralt and
Lola—there was little to choose between the chassis, but more
Marches were sold and ended up in better hands. The form book was
rewritten in 1988 with the entry of the ambitious
Reynard marque with a brand new chassis;
Reynard had won their first race in every formula they'd entered.
This would continue in F3000. The next couple of years saw Lola
improve slightly—their car was arguably marginally superior to the
Reynard in 1990—and March slip, but both were crushed by the
Reynard teams and by the mid-90s, F3000 was a virtual Reynard
monopoly, although
Lola did eventually
return with a promising car and the Japanese
Footwork and
Dome chassis were seen in Europe.
Dallara briefly tried the series before
moving up to
Formula One, and
AGS moved up from
Formula Two but never recaptured their occasional success. At least
one unraced F3000 chassis existed—the Wagner fitted with a
straight-six short-stroke BMW. This was converted into a sports
car, however.
Politics
The series was not without controversy. Definitive rules for the
1985 season did not appear until the championship was well under
way. In 1987 questions were asked about the ability of some of the
drivers, given the high number of accidents in the formula. In 1989
the eligibility of the new
Reynard chassis was challenged - it was
raced with a different (but safer and no faster) nose to the one
that had been crash tested. This season also saw problems with
driver changes - the cost of F3000 was escalating to the point that
teams were finding it difficult to run drivers for a whole season.
A badly-implemented "two driver changes per car per season" rule
meant that some cars had to sit idle while drivers with budgets
could not race them (rather than allowing two drivers to share a
drive through the season on a race-by-race basis, teams could only
change the driver of any entry twice in a year). In 1991 the
performance of some Italian teams attracted attention - they had
started using
Agip's "jungle juice"
Formula One fuel, worth an estimated
15 bhp—giving their drivers a significant advantage. In the
early years of the formula there was much concern about safety,
with a high number of accidents resulting in injuries to drivers
and, unfortunately, one fatality in the International Championship
-
Marco Campos in the very last round
of the 1995 series.
Races
Formula 3000 races during the "open chassis" era tended to be of
about 100-120 miles in distance, held at major circuits, either
headlining meetings or paired with other international events.
The "jewel
in the crown" of the F3000 season was traditionally the Pau Grand Prix
street race, rivalled for a few years by the
Birmingham round.
Most major
circuits in France
, Italy
, Spain
, Germany
and the
United
Kingdom
saw the series visit at least once.
The spec-chassis years
In 1996, new rules introduced a single engine (a detuned
Judd V8 engine, re-engineered by and badged as
a
Zytek) and chassis (
Lola), to go along with tyre standardization
(
Avon) introduced in 1986. The following
year the calendar was combined with that of Formula One, so the
series became support races for the Grand Prix.
Several Grand Prix
teams established formal links with F3000 teams to develop young
drivers (and engineering talent); these relationships varied from
formal "junior teams" (such as the one McLaren
set up for
Nick Heidfeld) to fairly distant
relationships based mostly upon shared sponsors and the use of the
'parent' team's name. The series grew dramatically through
the late nineties, reaching an entry of nearly 40 cars - although
this in itself was problematic as it meant many drivers failed to
qualify. In 2000, the series was restricted to 15 teams of two cars
each.
However, by 2002 expenses were once more very high and the number
of entries, and sponsors, rapidly dwindled. International Formula
3000 was experiencing tough competition with cheaper formulae, such
as
European F3000 (using ex-FIA 1999
and 2002 Lola chassis),
World
Series by Nissan (also known as Formula Nissan) and
Formula Renault V6 Eurocup. By the end
of
2003, car counts had fallen to new
lows.
The
2004
season was the last F3000 campaign, due in part to dwindling
field sizes. In 2005 it was replaced with a new series known as
GP2, with
Renault
backing.
Champions
- For a complete list of drivers, see List of International
Formula 3000 drivers.
Three past F3000 champions (Müller, Junqueira and Wirdheim) have
never been entered in an F1 race. Bourdais, Fittipaldi, Junqueira,
Montoya, Moreno, Wilson, and Wirdheim have all raced in
Champ Cars. Müller became a BMW driver in
WTCC touring car racing after having been a
test driver for the BMW-
Williams F1
project in 1999 as well as a racer of the
BMW V12 LMR Le Mans winner. Sospiri attempted to
qualify for one Formula One race but failed to make it, having
raced for a highly unprepared team with poor equipment. Wirdheim
has been third driver in practice sessions for
Jaguar Racing, but has never participated in a
race.
Three past
F3000 champions have won an F1 Grand Prix: Alesi, Panis and Montoya
(who also won the Indy 500
once). By taking the 2008 World Drivers Championship,
Lewis Hamilton became the first ever
European Formula Two, Formula 3000 or GP2 champion to become
World
Champion (although Alberto Ascari
won the World Championship for two years running when all
qualifying races apart from the Indianapolis 500 were run to Formula Two rules).
Other F3000 series
- Euroseries 3000 (formerly
Italian Formula 3000, Superfund Euro Formula 3000 and Euro Formula
3000), active 1999 onwards.
- Japanese Formula 3000 (more commonly known as Formula Nippon), active 1973 onwards
(1987–1995 as Japanese F3000).
- British Formula 3000 (also
known as British Formula Two),
active 1989–1994 (1989–1992) as British F3000).
- OzBoss (formerly known as
Australian Formula 4000, Formula 4000, Formula Holden and Formula
Brabham), active 1989 onwards (used F3000 chassis 1989–2006).
- American Racing Series/Indy
Lights, active 1986 onwards (used F3000 chassis
1986–1992).
References
External links
01.jpg/200px-F%C3%B3rmula_3000_(Fernado_Alonso)01.jpg)
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