Sims confident ahead of F3 debut

McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner Alexander Sims is confident that he can make a strong debut in Formula 3 next season after successful winter tests in Spain and Portugal.

The 19-year-old, who finished runner-up in Formula Renault UK this year, has signed with Mucke Motorsport for a Euro Series campaign next year and was boosted by three promising outings with the team in testing during the last two weeks.

"It's gone really well over the last couple of weeks and we made a lot of progress each time in the car," he said. "We had two days at Estoril and Valencia - tracks I'd never visited before – and Barcelona, where I have been before in Formula Renault.

"We took time to learn Estoril and Valencia on the opening day, then I started to get my times down and find the limits. It's been a fantastic few days and I'm very pleased."

Sims is looking forward to the challenge of making his debut in the category with one of the front running teams in the fiercely competitive European championship.

"We're well aware of just how competitive the Euro Series is, but that's the challenge – we need to compete with, and beat, the best drivers.

"It's going to be very difficult, but our initial preparations have gone as well as we could have hoped. I'm really looking forward to getting back in the car in the new year and continuing our preparations."

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Sims to graduate to Euro Series

JTR target Boyd for second seat

British Formula 3 team JTR are hoping to sign Formula Ford champion Wayne Boyd for next season after a successful pre-Christmas test.

The Northern Irishman has previously tested for Dallara teams Carlin and T-Sport and sampled JTR's Mygale at Guadix in Spain, and team boss Joe Tandy hopes to sign Boyd alongside his brother Nick - who finished on the podium three times this year - for 2009.

"Wayne was like a guy with a year's experience, not a rookie. That's impressive," said Tandy. "We've already got Nick (Tandy) signed for next year and we want to run at least two cars.

"Nick and Wayne would be the dream team and the Mygale could be the car to have."

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Alguersuari controls first race

Q and A with Edoardo Mortara

He may have had to give second best to race winner Keisuke Kunimoto in the Macau Grand Prix, but one of the most impressive performances over the whole weekend came from Edoardo Mortara.

The runner up in the F3 Euro Series was the quickest man throughout practice, and he won the qualification race - but saw his hopes of overall victory in the big event dashed after a brush with the wall late in the race.

Although deeply disappointed with losing out on the win, Mortara was philosophical about what happened when autosport.com caught up with him for a chat.

Q. Do you think without the incident where you brushed the wall after the final safety car period, that you had the car to win?

Edoardo Mortara: I don't know. Honestly, I am disappointed today because the qualification race was different. I felt we had a strong chance to do something, and I don't know why today it was different. We were crazy fast in the mountains considering we put low downforce on to be fast on the straight, and we were faster than Keisuke by five or six tenths every lap.

It was just on the straight it was impossible to close on him. He was coming out of the last corner really well, but then incredibly for the first time this weekend he was the first guy I saw where the gap grew on the straight – even when I was in his slipstream. I think I did all I could to win this race, and I think there was no more I could do. I am just really disappointed.

Q. Do you feel that the race was decided on pure horsepower?

EM: No. At the end of the day, you see TOM'S won with a Toyota and Brendon (Hartley) is third with a Mercedes-Benz, and I am second with a Volkswagen. So you can see it is a big battle between manufacturers, and it is normal that you have some of them who have different use of power and these sorts of things. Today you have to say that they (TOM'S) had a good car and a good engine, but this is not new. We knew it before coming here, and we tried all we could to do well. Anyway it is like this. I don't think it is because I had a Volkswagen that I lost.

Q. You said after the qualification race that you were not warming the tyres up as quickly as the TOM'S, which is why it took you a few laps to get up to speed. Was it a similar characteristic today?

EM: Yes. I had to say today I also had some problems with the temperatures of the engine, because at the restart my engine had big, big problems to get speed on the straight. It was really strange. I was not feeling really great with the car like the other days. I had some problems, so I was trying to close the gap in the mountains. And I pushed really hard in the first lap to have the gap quite close – but I crashed the car. So to give you an idea of how hard I was pushing – it was 120 percent.

Q. You are obviously disappointed not to have won, but with the speed you showed in practice and the way you raced here, do you feel you have shown the world a bit more of your potential?

EM: I don't know. It is the others that have to judge my performance. I cannot judge that. I am pretty satisfied with what I did this weekend. I did a lot of best times and in qualifying we could easily do the pole position, but because of bad luck it was not possible. We won the qualification race, in the warm up we just prepared for the race and didn't take any risks and we were sixth. And during the race, I think we were faster than Keisuke in the mountains, and probably faster also in times, but we did not win. Racing is like this.

Q. What is the next step for you? What will you do next year?

EM: I was trying to win Macau, although finishing second is not so bad. So let's see now. We will see what my manager and my sponsors can do. I don't really know for the moment.

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Series bosses agree cost cut plan

The world's three major Formula 3 championships have joined forces in an attempt to control costs in the category and balance the technical regulations across the three series.

Bosses of the British, European and Japanese championships met in Macau in November and again in Frankfurt in December to discuss plans to introduce constraints on the use of parts such as brakes and transmission in the category to prevent costs from increasing unnecessarily.

Peter Briggs, who represents British F3 teams' association FOTA, believes that unity between the three series is vital to the strength of the category.

"The aim is to ensure that Formula 3 stays as it is. We're not taking anything away, we don't want to stop the teams from modifying, changing and adapting their cars - it's a hugely important part of F3 that drivers and engineers can learn to do that at a junior level," he told autosport.com.

"We're just trying to stop the things that won't affect the overall package, except to increase the costs. We would far rather decide on this ourselves now, than wait for the FIA to have to do it for us.

"For example, if one team introduces new brakes with a major performance increase, but much more expensive, everyone else has to get them to keep up. But if everyone has them, the only difference in the package is the cost. The first step will be transmission controls but there are a number of areas to look at."

Briggs says that the controls will also help the three championships to be more equal for the international F3 events.

"There is a very good chance that we will have the three series agree on things," he said. "It's good that the three main championships are all talking together with the same aims, and it will be good for events like Macau and the Masters to have everyone on common technical ground."

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Euro Series drops Pau round

The Formula 3 Euro Series has dropped its round at Pau, following yesterday's announced changes to the DTM calendar.

The re-shuffled DTM calendar removed the round at Mugello and also swapped the French round from Le Mans to Dijon, but the decision to push the season-opening round at Hockenheim back by three weeks has forced the supporting F3 championship to change its regular calendar.

Last season, the Euro Series skipped the DTM round at Lausitz and joined the World Touring Car event at Pau two weeks later, but the revised DTM calendar means the season opener at Hockenheim now clashes with the WTCC Pau date.

The changes mean that next season the Euro Series will hold all ten rounds in support of DTM events.

2009 F3 Euro Series calendar May 16-17 Hockenheimring (D) May 30-31 Lausitz (D) June 27-28 Norisring (D) July 18-19 Zandvoort (NL) August 1-2 Oschersleben (D) August 15-16 Nürburgring (D) September 5-6 Brands Hatch (GB) September 19-20 Barcelona (E) October 10-11 Dijon (F) October 24-25 Hockenheimring (D)

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Bird eyeing Euro Series title

Sam Bird is confident that he will be able to challenge for the Formula 3 Euro Series title next season after signing for front running German team Mucke Motorsport.

The Briton finished 11th in this year's standings with Manor Motorsport, but believes he can develop the front-running pace he showed in the second half of the season, and at Macau - where he was in contention for victory before being taken out at the start of the final – into a title charge in 2009.

"I didn't have the best of years last year," he told autosport.com "The speed was there to be seen quite clearly, but the results just didn't come my way.

"There's unfinished business for me in the Euro Series, I want to prove to some people that I can challenge for wins and championships at this level.

"The pressure is on. This is the first time since Formula BMW that I've stayed in a championship for a second year and I'm looking forward to the challenge. It will be tough but I think there's a possibility of challenging for the title."

Bird considered joining a number of teams for 2009, but believes that Mucke will give him the best opportunity for success.

"Mucke are one of the best teams in the Euro Series," he added. "I was fortunate to be able to speak to a lot of teams for next season, but I'm confident that Mucke is the right decision."

Team boss Peter Mucke added: "I am very pleased to sign Sam. We were interested in him already last year, so we are very happy to have reached an agreement to run him in 2009.

"I think Sam is a very talented driver, who certainly has the ability to fight with us for the title. We look forward to working with him."

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Chilton joins Carlin for 2009

Max Chilton will join Carlin Motorsport's British Formula 3 team next season for his third year in the series.

The 17-year-old became British F3's youngest ever polesitter at Monza last season for Hitech Racing, and hopes to become the series' youngest champion next year - a record set by Carlin's Jaime Alguersuari this season.

"In 2008, my aim was to be among the top runners but next year I'm in it to win," said Chilton. "I'm still young but I think I have enough experience to be a serious contender for the title.

"It's all down to me now, I know Carlin have the experience and resources to help me succeed in 2009."

Team boss Trevor Carlin added: "We’ve been watching Max's progress for some time and we've seen him develop from a young driver still very much in the learning process, to a very talented and quick driver capable of challenging for race wins.

"He showed great potential this year and I think, with our help and support, he will be a very strong contender in the 2009 championship. We've been very pleased with his performance in winter testing so far and I'm delighted he will be racing with us next year."

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Sims to graduate to Euro Series

Alexander Sims will graduate to the Formula 3 Euro Series next season with front-running outfit Mucke Motorsport, after being crowned the 20th winner of the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award last night.

The 20-year-old, who finished runner-up in Formula Renault UK this season, announced the move on the stage at the Autosport Awards ceremony in London last night after receiving his award from 1996 world champion Damon Hill.

"After the Formula Renault season finished, Mucke offered me a test at Lausitz and it went really, really well, and they said they'd be interested in running me next season," he said.

"Mucke are a great team, and the only one consistently challenging ART during the last few seasons. I'm not saying we're going to go in there and beat everyone straight away, but I think we should be in a position to win races."

Winning the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award marks a watershed moment in his rapid rise through junior motorsport after just two seasons of car racing.

"Winning this award is a massive boost," he said. "I'm completely taken aback by it - it's such a massive honour and just looking at the list of past winners shows everything about what it means for a driver."

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Ericsson switches to Japanese F3

Formula 3 racer Marcus Ericsson has signed to race for multiple Japanese title winning team TOM'S next year.

Ericsson, who finished fifth in the British championship this season, will live and race full-time in Japan and believes the move will allow him to challenge for victory in next year's Macau Grand Prix, as well as the Japanese championship.

"I'm delighted to join TOM'S," he said. "It's one of the absolute best F3 teams on the planet.

"It's going to be exciting to live outside Europe for the first time and it will provide a great opportunity for success in both the Japanese F3 championship and Macau."

TOM'S team boss Susumi Koumi added: "We're very pleased to have Marcus on board and look forward to a successful season with him.

"We would like him to enjoy driving our F3 car, and also the completely different culture here to broaden his experience in various aspects."

Ericsson's season in Japan will kick off with the first round at Fuji on April 4-5.

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Ombra target British F3 campaign

Italian-based Formula 3 team Ombra Racing have announced their intention to join the British championship full-time next season.

Ombra contested the full German F3 Cup season this year and also entered the British series round at Monza, which is close to their base, with Matteo Chinosi taking a pole position.

They have teamed up with Neil Brown Engineering with the aim of running at least one Dallara Mugen-Honda in Britain next year, based at NBE's headquarters in Spalding, Lincolnshire.

A team statement read: "British F3 is one of the most prestigious championships in Formula 3 for its history and value of drivers, and for us will be a great challenge.

"The Neil Brown partnership has been fundamental to start this new adventure, now as usual we let the results speak."

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