Formula Three

So, you know, they did a lot of testing with this young man, which brings to mind, Paul, if you think about it, I think Camara, who's coming in, he did a lot of old car, previous car testing with Haas and everything.

And I was thinking about it over the weekend and I thought – You know, if all of that testing, and maybe that's why they put a cap on it now, because if all of that testing is really how these teams are vetting these young drivers like that and not in F2 or F3, and you have all these parents paying a small fortune to get their kids in F2 and F3, and what you really should be doing is trying to pay for a test in an old car.

Yeah.

Well, you've got to do both, for sure.

So they'll need another year of building.

And then three years into the project, then maybe somebody's seat is up for grabs, right? Because then it makes sense to bring in the dude that just won F2? F3.

Ugo.

So for me, Checo's deal is a two-year deal.

I'm actually sat in the lounge of Aeromexico here at the airport as I'm flying down to Sao Paulo, which is nice.

I guess I've got to review the Mexican Grand Prix, which is going to be quite an interesting one, for obvious reasons.

Let's start with F1, F2, F3.

There.

We've seen it, you know, Max Verstappen was plucked out of relative obscurity and thrust into Formula One too early, they thought, back in the day, and now he's a four-time world champion.

People like Kimi Räikkönen, who went on to win a world championship, were again also plucked out of Formula Three, skipped the Formula Two or equivalent category, and were thrust straight into Formula One.

Talent identification, critically important in motorsport, and I think Toto Wolff will be very happy with his decision today.

What about with his decision to sign George Russell on such a big deal? Now that he's got a world champion on his hands like Antonelli, where does it land for George Russell?

Anyway, let's look at who has won races in Barcelona, and we'll start from the oldest.

Alexander Rossi won a race in F3 there in 2010.

Conor Daly has a win at Barcelona.

He won a GP3 race there in 2012.

He and Pillow seem to be the class of the field there.

Marcus Armstrong, I put in this category, too.

He podiumed at the track in F3 and had a seventh place in F2, and he was really fast at Road America last year, so don't knock him out.

Alexander Rossi is someone to watch.

Now, I'm not sure.

But because of that, I was able to sort of buy my first Formula Ford, Formula 3, and get into racing.

But mind you, for every pound I earned, I probably spent two on motorsport.

But it was my passion, still is.

So you get pretty disenchanted quite easily.

But I think, I don't know whether it was ego, stupidity, ignorance, I don't really know, maybe a mixture of all, but I just was never going to give up.

And I kept, you know, I used to, even when I... got a vegan-tuned Formula 3 engine out of George Robinson.

I used to ring up George every day without fail for half an hour, 45 minutes after dinner and have a chat with him because George did me a huge favour.

Antonelli won that title, stepped up to F2 a year later from Formula Regional and then bounced straight into F1.

Kamara has been held back slightly and has gone through three different categories in that period, winning titles each time in Formula Regional, then Formula Three, likely Formula Two this year.

So he's going to be a real talent coming in and he'll look across the grid to see his former teammate already a world champion at Formula One level.

That's how quickly things can change in this sport.

no particularly at the time that lewis was coming through and so i mean his is a an outstanding story i mean he um and his father you know who worked so hard to give him that opportunity um it's an it's an incredible story and a totally inspirational one where you know this young, outstanding karting talent.

Um, and all credit again to Ron Dennis to picking him up and giving him that opportunity in his early years of, you know, Formula Renault, Formula Three, um, you know, Formula Two and, and, and backing him to get to, to, to Formula One because it was, um, uh, you know, he, he was a trailblazer.

He was, he, in, in that respect and, uh, It

doesn't seem like many have followed in his wake, though, does it, in terms of

It's like Bart Simpson on the whiteboard.

F3.

He can't say GP2, GEP or two.

It's a big F3 engine.

That's

even worse.