Photo: Fotospeedy

Euroformula is committed to continuing being an alternative to FIA F3 for drivers based in Europe, but there’s now another Spanish-run third-tier single-seater series on the continent seeking the same market space

The pyramid to Formula 1 can sometimes be a tricky one to draw out, since Formula 2 and Formula 3 are now the names of spec championships rather than actual formulas, and Formula 4 is actually the fifth-tier category below Formula Regional.

This is all ignoring the Road to Indy, where there are open-wheel cars going from the second down to the fifth tier and all designed to prepare drivers for IndyCar. The third and fourth tiers there aren’t really comparable to Europe’s.

The F3-level third tier currently consists of the FIA F3 Championship and Euroformula (with Japan’s Super Formula Lights series using the same cars) for contemporary machinery, then there are some series still using the last generation of F3 cars.

FRegional, and championships using FRegional-based cars, fill the fourth tier. The category is incorporated into the name of all the FIA-certified championships except for the planned AU3.

Launched as FRegional Australia but rebranded before getting underway, it cancelled its pre-season test and inaugural race event at late notice this May due to an issue with shipping cars from New Zealand. It also left it very late to cancel what would have been round two in June. Last month it should have raced at Sandown, but instead the 2025 season was called off.

The other FRegional-spec series without the name is Ultimate Cup Series’ Formula Cup, which uses the Tatuus T-318.

That car has been the design inspiration or basis of several other chassis from the Italian manufacturer, including the F3-T318 used in Eurocup-3, FRegional Oceania’s FT-60 and for the more bespoke MSV GB3-025 raced in GB3 to ensure it remains on par with European rivals.

Photo: Fotocar13

GB3 had previously used a heavily upgraded Tatuus design that sat between FRegional and F4 in performance, and which was upgraded again to be reused this year in the formerly F4-spec GB4. In 2026, Britain has a de facto fourth-tier single-seater championship in GB3, one that sits just below in GB4, and then the truly fifth-tier British F4.

There will be lots of car changes in FRegional next year, as both Tatuus and Ligier introduce second-generation chassis.

Eurocup-3 will not be adopting the new Tatuus T-326, since it will instead be adopting a whole new technical ruleset.

Last week it announced it will be becoming a third-tier series from 2026 onwards, and will do so by switching to the ‘new’ Dallara 326 car with power supply from TOM’S-developed 1.6-litre turbocharged Toyota units.

The ‘326’ designation belongs to a bodykit in development for the six-year-old F3-level Dallara 320 car, and which will be remarkably close in specification to the ‘324’ bodykit introduced to SF Lights last year and in Euroformula this season.

Both of those championships also exclusively run the TOM’S engines, and Eurocup-3 has hired Engiser 101 to be its tuning partner for when it introduces them. The electronics will be the same, and the similarities extend to the GT Sport-run Euroformula and Eurocup-3 both being run by Spanish promoters.

On technical aspects, the main difference next year may well be tyres. Euroformula runs on Pirellis, Eurocup-3 will use a new compound from Hankook, and SF Lights is yet to name a supplier for after its current two-year deal with Kumho.

Since its launch in 2023, Eurocup-3 has done well to establish itself against the immensely popular FRegional European Championship with teams and drivers. Now it has its sights set on Euroformula, and arguably FIA F3 too, and what has been announced already about their 2026 seasons supports that.

2026 calendars

FIA F3 will support F1 for all 10 of its rounds next year, with street races in Melbourne, Monaco and Madrid’s new circuit.

The eight-round Eurocup-3 schedule will feature five of next year’s F1 tracks, including the planned ‘Madring’. Its race weekend there will take place in August, several weeks before F1 visits and will possibly make it the first ever championship to race on it. It will also visit Silverstone, which European series rarely visit due to having to ship cars to Britain.

Euroformula and the Formula Renault Eurocup (which used FRegional cars for its last two seasons in 2019 and ’20 before its assets were inherited by the FREC paddock) last raced there in 2019, and the all-female W Series only headed there in 2021 and ’22 due to being an F1 support and all of its entries being operated by a British team.

There are four F1 tracks on Euroformula’s 2026 calendar, since it has dropped the Red Bull Ring for a first ever trip to Misano.

In addition to a calendar, Eurocup-3 has announced it will have at least nine teams on the grid next year. Its four Spanish squads (Campos Racing, Drivex School, Global Racing Service and Palou Motorsport) will continue, along with Dutch outfit MP Motorsport, and stepping up from the Spanish F4 championship under the same promoter will be two more Spanish operations: Tecnicar Motorsport and the TC Racing team founded by goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois with the assistance of ex-F1 driver Roberto Merhi.

Total newcomers to the paddock will be British teams Double R Racing and Hitech GP, and Eurocup-3 aims to complete its grid with a 10th team.

Double R raced in Euroformula from 2019 to ’21, running future F1 and IndyCar drivers, and through its sister company Fine Moments ran all of W Series’ cars. Its last race outings were the final two rounds of the 2023 British F4 season, and it has been a test-only team since then.

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

Euroformula will continue with Dallara’s ‘324’ bodykit next season, and has shared pictures from the manufacturer as it produces six more of them to be ready for use later in 2025.

A new name in the GT Sport paddock, starting with next month’s round at the Red Bull Ring, is Roland Rehfeld. The long-time team manager and then sporting director of PHM Racing retained that role for its F2 and FIA F3 squads when they were purchased by AIX Investment Group last year and rebranded, but as of this week he is no longer working for the team and has moved into a team management position at Euroformula dominator Motopark.

The FIA has confirmed to Formula Scout that FREC will switch to Toyota engines next year that will be built by Autotecnica since a deal with Alpine – that included branding of the championship and its Renault engines – ends this season. Tatuus’s second-generation T-326 chassis is set to succeed the T-318 after seven seasons of use, and two following the introduction of an update kit to reduce the physical effort required to steer the car.

ACI Sport will continue to promote FREC, and the FIA will support the Italian motorsport federation by providing technical expertise and staff (such as stewards and technical delegates) while helping revise its sporting and technical regulations.

The post The changes Europe’s major single-seater series are making for 2026 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: GT Sport

Euroformula has confirmed the anticipated upgrading of its Dallara 320 car for 2025, when it will run the ‘324’ bodykit already in use in Super Formula Lights.

The third-tier single-seater series introduced the 320 for its 2020 season to continue with the design philosophy of traditional Formula 3, after the FIA had taken the F3 naming designation and put it on its new GP3 car the year before.

Every single car on this year’s Euroformula grid is powered by a Volkswagen-based Spiess engines, but for 2025 the entire grid will switch to TOM’S-developed 1.6-litre turbocharged Toyota units with a power output of 275bhp.

It marks the return of the Japanese brand to Euroformula, since it was engine supplier from 2010 to ’18 when Piedrahita was its tuning partner.

To purchase the 324 upgrade kit and Toyota engine, teams will need to pay €127,330 (£107,315). If entrants want to purchase the 324 as a brand-new car from Dallara (with 10 set to be built for the European market), then it will cost €265,330.

“We are particularly happy to start a new chapter in the history of the Euroformula Open. As known, we have been through a couple of difficult seasons, due to a number of reasons having to do with market conditions and production issues,” said Jesus Pareja, CEO of Euroformula promoter GT Sport.

“But we have never ceased to believe in our formula. GT Sport has been involved in single-seater formulae since 2001, with the Spanish F3 championship, and we are proud of what we have achieved. The project based on the Dallara 324 and the Toyota engine has been maturing for a couple of years and crystalizes now, after a successful introduction in the Super Formula Lights in Japan.

“We are convinced that the new package is very attractive, both from a racing and budget point of view and having at our side top partners such as Dallara, Toyota, TOM’s, Cosworth [electronics supplier], and Pirelli as the official tyre supplier, is a strong plus.”

Motopark dominated free practice for this weekend’s Euroformula round at Paul Ricard, with Brad Benavides setting the fastest time of the day, 1m 57.380s, beating team-mate Jakob Bergmeister by 0.193s. FP1 pace setter, Levente Revesz was third-fastest overall, ahead of Fernando Barrichello.

French Formula 4 graduate Enzo Richer set the fifth-fastest time on his series debut with Motopark.

The post Euroformula commits to Dallara 324 upgrade for 2025 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Super Formula Lights

The Dallara 320 made its Japanese debut in round one of the rebranded Super Formula Lights series at Twin Ring Motegi, which was dominated by Ritomo Miyata.

Miyata sprinted off from pole in race one, while TOM’S team-mate Kazuto Kotaka made a very slow start but still entered Turn 1 in second place.

B-MAX Racing’s Sena Sakaguchi dived down the inside of Kotaka at the next hairpin, who didn’t concede the position as he remained on the outside. That allowed Toda Racing’s Teppei Natori to lunge past at Turn 4, where Kotaka was shuffled down to fourth.

The trio went three-wide through the high-speed Turn 6 and entry into the Turn 7 sweep, where Sakaguchi emerged ahead.

This battle handed Miyata a huge lead after lap one, and he pulled away by 12 seconds while Sakaguchi worked on distancing himself from Natori, who fended off Kotaka through the rest of the 20-lap race.

After spending seven laps stuck behind Albirex Racing’s Seiya Jun, 2017 champion and Nissan factory driver Mitsunori Takaboshi found a way through at Turn 7 and spent the next seven laps hunting down Kotaka. Once there he had the same problem, and they trailed home Natori.

For Sunday’s shorter race two, Natori was under observation in due to showing the ill-effects from doubling up in SF Lights and Super Formula on Friday.

Poleman Miyata, the 2019 title runner-up, made a great start and even weaved down the straight to Turn 2 to warm up his tyres such was his advantage.

This time Kotaka kept second, while Takaboshi qualified third but lost the spot to team-mate Sakaguchi pretty quickly.

The racing was bland, with Miyata winning by 9.311s. Natori came seventh, and it was decided afterward he would not make his SF debut as a precaution.

Miyata’s race one fastest lap put him on race three pole, and he dominated again, with Sakaguchi in second. Natori’s poor start handed third place to Kotaka, and then he lost fourth to Takaboshi a few laps in. Natori then fell into the clutches of a group led by B-MAX’s Kiyoto Fujinami, but he managed to hold them off.

B-MAX boss DRAGON won the Masters class in races one and three, the latter after battling with Rn-sports’ Masayuki Ueda. His team-mate Motoyoshi Yoshida won race two.

Results round-up
Race 1 (20 laps)
1 Ritomo Miyata TOM’S 35m37.455s
2 Sena Sakaguchi B-MAX Racing +12.497s
3 Teppei Natori Toda Racing +24.534s
4 Kazuto Kotaka TOM’S +25.202s
5 Mitsunori Takaboshi B-MAX Racing +26.337s
6 Seiya Jin Albirex Racing +30.605s
7 Shunsuke Kohno RS Fine +31.860s
8 Kiyoto Fujinami B-MAX Racing +32.549s
9 Tsubasa Iriyama Albirex Racing +45.400s
10 DRAGON B-Max Engineering +48.717s
Pole: Miyata, 1m44.514s
Fastest lap: Miyata, 1m46.166s

Race 2 (14 laps)
1 Miyata 24m45.953s
2 Kotaka +9.311s
3 Sakaguchi +10.858s
4 Takaboshi +13.891s
5 Kohno +21.457s
6 Fujinami +21.798s
7 Natori +28.510s
8 Jin +28.868s
9 Iriyama +39.029s
10 Motoyoshi Yoshida B-Max Engineering +1m18.012s
P: Miyata, 1m44.826s
FL: Miyata, 1m45.495s

Race 3 (14 laps)
1 Miyata 24m45.886s
2 Sakaguchi +8.139s
3 Kotaka +16.505s
4 Takaboshi +17.176s
5 Natori +27.033s
6 Fujinami +27.711s
7 Kohno +28.350s
8 Jin +29.320s
9 Iriyama +38.072s
10 DRAGON +52.815s
FL: Miyata, 1m45.461s

Championship standings
1 Miyata 35   2 Sakaguchi 19   3 Kotaka 15   4 Takaboshi 8   5 Natori 7   6 Kohno 2   7 Fujinami 2   8 Jin 1   9 Iriyama 0   10 DRAGON 0

The post Ritomo Miyata thrashes Super Fomula Lights field at Motegi appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Fotospeedy

A compromised calendar and grid due to the coronavirus pandemic decreased expectations for the start of the Euroformula season, but the Dallara 320’s debut still proved to be a success once on-track action began

Even days before the Euroformula season opener at the Hungaroring, there were questions over how much smaller the grid would get due to travel and budget restrictions. Entrants arriving from several foreign countries, including Britain, had to provide two negative COVID-19 tests taken in the five days before travel and at least 48 hours apart.

Two drivers decided to avoid that difficulty and race at Silverstone in the FIA Formula 3 Championship instead, and dented their own Eurformula title ambitions in the process. This also left CryptoTower Racing Team, a Japanese offshoot of reigning champion team Motopark, in a last-minute driver search. One-time Formula Renault Eurocup racer Matthias Luethen filled a seat for Thursday’s pre-event test, but decided against staying in the car for the rest of the weekend.

This left a grid of 12 cars, with the five-strong rookie class being decided on the night before racing began after a debate on whether the BRDC British F3 graduates could claim not to have relevant F3 experience.

Euroformula’s selling point this year is the new Dallara 320 car, which is a halo-shod successor to the uber-popular F317. It’s faster and more efficient than its long-serving predecessor, and retains the aesthetics of a traditional F3 car. Except as of this weekend, Euroformula was no longer an F3 series. By continuing a design philosophy that has been at the centre of junior single-seater racing for nearly 30 years, it’s actually isolated itself from what the market  now looks like.

When the Dallara 320 was launched last year, Formula Scout used British playwright William Shakespeare’s words to pitch the question of what the new car would mean. Now it’s been seen in action, the writing of pioneering Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra seems more appropriate for the Madrid-organised series.

Cervantes’ novel ‘Don Quixote’ tells the story of 16th century Spanish nobel Alonso Quixano, who seeks to revive chivalry in a world moving on from such idealism after he becomes immersed with the romantic tales of the past. Eventually he is seen as insane in his pursuit of old-fashioned nobility, but the story has lived through the ages due to its popular main principle that a free individual can be right when moving away from a society’s controlling status quo.

The first of several famous quotes from Quixote‘s prologue fits nicely into Euroformula’s nostalgia-driven divergence, as it describes what the Hungaroring weekend felt like at first: “estás en tu casa, donde eres señor della, como el rey de sus alcabalas”.

This roughly translates as “you are sitting in your own home, where you are the lord and master just as much as the king of his taxes”.

Euroformula is organised by GT Sport on a bill of its own, and is promoted primarily as the single-seater component in that paddock – where many manufacturers are present due to the International GT Open sportscar series – rather than as competition to the likes of FIA F3 and Formula Renault Eurocup and as a home to future Formula 1 stars.

The first two races of 2020 were won by CryptoTower’s Yifei Ye, a Chinese driver in a Japanese-owned team, and it is this international appeal that matters more to the promoter than how many of its graduates reach the pinnacle of single-seaters.

When you consider the motivations behind the Dallara 320’s introduction, it can be said that Euroformula is starting to own a niche in single-seater racing with a popular design on classic tracks (Pau and Enna-Pergusa were due to appear on this year’s calendar as grands prix) rather than playing to the more F1-centric demands of its rivals. Or in other words, it felt like watching old F3 last weekend.

There are no overtaking aids, no trick tyres, and a very open paddock where money isn’t splashed around. The car is a challenge but one that’s enjoyed because it allows drivers and engineers to demonstrate their ability – and in a timetable that supplies enough practice time for both to learn what’s needed to be competitive. That’s why the Eurocup is also competitive, and why drivers have joined from FIA F3 where a disadvantageous position is difficult to overturn outside of a top team.

But the reality is that results in FIA F3 matter more than Euroformula. Doing a good job of keeping old F3 alive may follow Quixote in challenging the status quo aesthetically, and its planned addition of the Mediterranean GP was experimentation out of self-awareness of the niche it now chooses to carry on its shoulders – as Quixano did as he sought to revive chivalry. But as the Quixote prologue read, Euroformula is just the master of its own home when the rest of the motorsport world doesn’t share those motivations, or is looking elsewhere in a year when F1 really is racing nearly every week.

A few chapters into Quixote comes another famous quote (in one English language translation of the novels): “By a small sample we may judge of the whole piece”.

Journalists love to bring news from the paddock on the day it happens, but in reality most stories play out over a far longer period and making assessments of the success of Euroformula’s 2020 evolution ideally needs to be made after a longer period than just two races as changes are usually judged on what further modifications are needed to ensure survival.

By focusing on the Hungaroring weekend alone, the picture is that the Dallara 320 has brought increased pace at the expense of overtaking, and that laptime boost is not as big as expected. But the Hungaroring is historically a circuit that is very difficult to overtake on, and its configuration also doesn’t play to the improvements in Dallara’s latest design. It’s circuits like Spa-Francorchamps and Monza where the crazy side-by-side action is expected to be played out at record speeds.

It’s also very tempting to say Ye will follow Harrison Scott, Felipe Drugovich and Marino Sato in going mostly unbeaten for the rest of the season after his dominant race performances in Hungary. But with it being a new car, there’s bound to be surprises, even after a debut that was devoid of the reliability issues that would be expected with a debuting machine.

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Sebastian Estner, who’s had little in results so far in his career, was quickest to adapt to the hot conditions of free practice and was bettered only by Ye and his own brother Andreas in qualifying.

Andreas Estner looked like he too could be a match to Ye in qualifying for VAR, but Ye’s end-of-weekend assessment was that he had significant room for improvement in qualifying himself and that once he’d mastered tyre turn-on he would be able to replicate the season-long domination of the last three champions. Ominous, not unrealistic, but not yet predictable.

For both Ye’s opposition and the series itself – after the ongoing pandemic tore through its originally more exciting calendar and entry list – another Quixote quote comes to mind.

“Que la diligencia es madre de la buena ventura, y la pereza, su contraria, jamás llegó al término que pide un buen deseo.”

Its English interpretation: “Diligence is the mother of good fortune, and idleness — its opposite — never brought a man to the goal of any of his best wishes.”

The fact that Formula 2, FIA F3, Euroformula and the Eurocup have been able to stay in business, organise new calendars (Hockenheim was another loss for Euroformula due to the track’s unsuccessful F1 negotiations) and bring back international junior single-seater racing during lockdown is commendable, and has depended on the teams also surviving without income.

The latter two series were notably quick to open talks with circuits once it became clear their planned schedules would be affected, while it’s evident which series were not as reactive as their reduced or non-existent 2020 seasons demonstrate.

Those efforts have to be kept up as lockdown and travel restrictions still change, and while it doesn’t have the negotiating power that F1 and its supports has, nor a spot on British television this year, Euroformula does have a degree of freedom with its new car due its ‘non-F3’ status and has already revived a classic team rivalry.

Both of these were staples of European F3 in its most-recent heyday, and will set it up for an even stronger 2021 – unless the FIA were to decrease its superlicence points allocations next year on the basis of its depleted grid so far. But as Quixote‘s Quixano found, his endeavours to keep the romanticised version of the past alive actually went noticed by far more people and in many more countries than expected.

Further reading
Why Euroformula has to make the most of its 2020 ‘what if’
Podcast: Trevor Carlin, F2 and IndyCar team boss
Classic junior single-seater races to watch in lockdown

Stories from the Euroformula paddock and the action from Silverstone is discussed in the latest Formula Scout podcast. Click below to listen, or head to Breaker, Google Podcasts, Overcast, RadioPublic, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

The post Why the start of Euroformula’s new era shouldn’t go unnoticed appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photos: Euroformula / Alfredo Filippone

Two grand prix events and several driver signings have been lost by Euroformula as a result of the ongoing pandemic, but the series’ momentum doesn’t need to be lost when there is a new car to show off

Anyone can have a good idea, but it takes a considerable amount of money, time and commitment from both its creator and others to have a successful idea. But patience is a dangerous commodity in motorsport, and there is very much the expectation to be a success sooner rather than later in such a competitive sphere.

Euroformula became an open-engine formula last year, a decision made before the demise of FIA European Formula 3, putting it alongside Formula 1, Formula E, IndyCar, Super Formula and Super Formula Lights as single-seater series with such technical freedom.

While that move proved popular due to it being the only high-profile F3 series in the world that had stuck to the decades-long tradition of having multiple engine builders, it gave the series a major challenge when it came to equalising the performance of those engine suppliers to avoid the domination of one technical package.

The long-serving Toyota-derived Piedrafita engine had a markedly different torque curve to the HWA and Spiess units that came across from European F3, and despite the introduction of a sportscar-style Balance of Performance it was clear that the Piedrafita couldn’t match the German engines.

Drivex School and RP Motorsport were quick to swap their Piedrafita power supply for HWA and Spiess respectively, and while this obviously was not a good look, it meant that greater technical scrutiny could be given to not only balancing the remaining two suppliers, but also on preparing for an informal regulatory alignment for this season too with a mid-year power boost.

The new Dallara 320 car is the latest in a line of designs by the Italian chassis manufacturer that can be traced back to the early 1990s when it first swept the F3 market with a monodamper-fitted pushrod car. It features the side-mounted air intake that is synonymous with F3 and contains the engine-equalising restrictor, is lighter than its popular F317 predecessor at under 575kg (including driver), and follows F1’s safety standards with the halo cockpit protection device.

By all measures, this should mean that laptimes are faster than in the past, and in a slipstream-happy car that has received plaudits for its aesthetic appeal, the races should look pretty stunning on television if the entry list grows.

Also adopting the 320 this year is Japan’s SF Lights series, which uses the same size of engine inlet restrictor, meaning the two series can look forward to a shared race meeting in the future just as SF Lights did with European F3 at the Macau Grand Prix in the past.

Macau currently has a contract with the F1-supporting FIA F3, which is understood to be extended for 2021, and the promoters of Euroformula and SF Lights have not made contact with Macau about taking the grand prix title in the years beyond. But that’s because they may not need to.

As well as inheriting European F3’s engine suppliers and one of its fastest teams in 2019, Euroformula also saved the historic Pau GP. The French street race, while organised and run to great acclaim, has faced the continuous pressure of cancellation over recent years and it looked like it would be gone for good after European F3’s demise.

Euroformula promoter GT Sport stepped in and agreed a deal to incorporate it into its own calendar, and double amputee Billy Monger’s famous victory put the series on sports bulletins all over the globe. The success of that weekend was not a given, but the extra coverage and what turned out to be an operationally smooth couple of days bred demand for more.

Photo: Fotospeedy

The next element of that increased ambition, alongside a renewal of the Pau deal, was the revival of the Mediterranean GP on Sicily’s lakeside Enna-Pergusa circuit for the 2020 season. Initially a non-championship F1 race when first run in the early 1960s, for a long time it was a marquee event for European Formula 2 and then International Formula 3000.

It was another news headline that was well received both in and out of the paddock, and you can imagine the reaction there would have been had negotiations to get Zandvoort on the calendar (home of the Masters of F3) been successful.

There was also an approach for another historic race title to be brought back at one of the series’ other rounds, but the coronavirus pandemic has undone most of these exciting developments. Fans will have to wait until 2021 for the two grands prix, with Jarama and Mugello replacing them on the revised calendar, which means outside of F1’s ongoing Silverstone visit there will be no overseas racing for European series this year.

Prior to the pandemic, there was a lot of driver interest in the series for both its new car and calendar, and it attracted ‘new’ teams in Manor Competition and Van Amersfoort Racing. Both names have been big hitters in the last two decades of F3, but only VAR has cars entered for the Hungaroring season opener. It’s not clear when – or if – Manor will make it on track, with its single-seater return in the Formula Renault Eurocup actually being operated by partner squad MP Motorsport for now.

VAR will be resuming an old European F3 rivalry with Motopark, which is running two teams in Euroformula this year after its 2019 domination led to surplus demand for its services. Motopark team principal Timo Rumpfkeil has been fairly resistant to expanding his outfit’s car count, but he will have five out for Thursday’s pre-event Hungaroring test across Motopark and its Japanese-branded offshoot CryptoTower Racing Team, and his line-up will feature six drivers when returnees Cameron Das and Lukas Dunner aren’t prioritising clashing FIA F3 duties.

Carlin has two cars present and a third that may be filled later in the season by a Hispanic driver. The British contingent is smaller than last year, with Fortec Motorsports absent from the Hungaroring and its signings Kris Wright and Johnathan Hoggard potentially not racing until later in the season, while Hoggard’s BRDC British F3 rival Ayrton Simmons fronts Double R Racing’s efforts and is expected to be joined by a team-mate for future rounds.

Drivex’s two-car line-up includes two very promising Formula 4 graduates, and the Spanish squad has had one of the better pre-seasons when it comes to visiting circuits to test during the lockdown period.

It will be difficult, but it’s important that Euroformula doesn’t lose the momentum that many of the exciting 2020 additions would have brought before the pandemic struck. It can still bank on some big names, and two replacement rounds that should provide an exciting new challenge, as well as a new car that fans can not wait to see in action.

Hungaroring entry list

The post Why Euroformula has to make the most of its 2020 ‘what if’ appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photos: Carlin

McLaren Formula 1 driver Lando Norris tested a Dallara Formula 3 car at Silverstone today as preparation for a return to racing.

The 20-year-old was ran in the test by Carlin, which he raced for throughout his junior single-seater career. He claimed the 2015 British Formula 4 and 2017 FIA European F3 titles with the team, and also won races in BRDC British F3 and Formula 2.

It was the first time Norris had driven a single-seater at speed in the real world since F1 pre-season testing in February, and also the first time junior single-seater powerhouse Carlin had been out testing in the United Kingdom since the start of the coronavirus-caused national lockdown.

To work on his neck muscles prior to getting back into an F1 car, Norris also intends to spend time in a kart just as many of his F1 and IndyCar contemporaries have. Red Bull Racing’s Alex Albon is another planning to test an old F3 car before the first grand prix of the year in July, and Williams’ George Russell is also considering a test drive in a junior single-seater car.

In addition to Norris, Carlin was also doing testing for its various race programmes at Silverstone. It shook down two of its new halo-shod Dallara 320 chassis for the upcoming Euroformula season, with reigning British F4 champion and 2020 signing Zane Maloney at the wheel, and had its Dallara P217 prototype sportscar and BRDC British F3 cars on track.

Silverstone is owned by the British Racing Drivers’ Club, while many of the other major British circuits are owned by Jonathan Palmer’s MotorSport Vision organisation. Private tests that observe social distancing guidelines (as shown below) are able to take place at present, with racing set to return in July.

The post Norris prepares for F1 return with F3 test at Silverstone appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Glenn van Berlo

Several Euroformula teams have returned to action to privately test the new Dallara 320 car prior to its race debut this year.

The global coronavirus pandemic led to the cancellation of Euroformula’s pre-season Winter Series, meaning there will be no official tests of the lightweight Formula 3-level car before the delayed start to the season at the Hungaroring on July 11/12.

Travel restrictions and the closing of workplaces as the result of lockdown measures meant some cars were not delivered by Dallara to teams until recent weeks, which has coincided with circuits reopening for tests behind closed doors.

Drivex School took the first of the two chassis it has ordered to Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo circuit prior to lockdown, with Glenn van Berlo at the wheel.

Team principal Miguel Angel De Castro, who finished sixth in the inaugural season of what became Formula V8 3.5 during his career as a driver, said: “The Dallara 320 performed perfectly and what was supposed to be an initial shakedown became a real test, as everything worked perfectly, in total reliability.

“We covered around 140 laps in total, and recorded interesting lap times, even if we were not looking for performance and even using only used tyres.”

Motopark has been at local track Oschersleben with at least three of the new cars, and has called on its former GP2 driver Tom Dillmann to shake down its new chassis.

In addition to its confirmed line-up of five drivers, spread across the main team and the CryptoTower Racing offshoot, one-time Formula Renault Eurocup racer Matthias Luethen has tested extensively with the German team.

Van Amersfoort Racing has tested in the Netherlands after taking delivery of its second and third cars, while it is not believed that any of the British teams have been out testing since lockdown began as factories have reopened later than on the continent.

The post Euroformula teams resume testing of new car appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Japanese F3

Sena Sakaguchi topped the post-season Japanese Formula 3 test at Suzuka, marking the public debut of the Dallara 320.

Two rolling chassis of the halo-shod single-seater – which will be introduced to the series next year – were on-track with the B-MAX Racing with Motopark team, and were joined by seven of the current Dallara F312/317 cars.

The two-day test kicked off in the wet, with Sakaguchi immediately setting the pace in the new car.

His closest rival was team-mate Raoul Hyman, who raced as a Sauber junior in FIA F3 Championship this year and was testing an original Dallara F312 chassis.

Euroformula Open podium finisher Simo Laaksonen briefly bettered Hyman in the second of the 320s, but the South African replied at the end of Wednesday’s morning session with the second fastest lap behind Sakaguchi.

Honda junior Teppei Natori, who raced in FIA F3 and EF Open this year, was the man to beat once running switched to slick tyres in the afternoon session.

Sakaguchi and Laaksonen soon bettered the Toda Racing driver’s best lap in their faster cars, but Laaksonen was then shuffled back down the order by Hyman, RS Fine’s Shunsuke Kohno and Motopark’s Ameya Vaidyanathan.

The Thursday morning session was drier, and this enabled the two Dallara 320 testers to showcase the new car.

Sakaguchi ended up over a second faster than Laaksonen, who was 0.081s clear of experienced F3 driver Hyman. The session was interrupted by a red flag period caused when the fifth Motopark car of DRAGON crashed.

Cloud cover meant the final test session was cooler, and most drivers didn’t improve on their best times.

Natori, who is considering a return to Japan in 2020, was the high-profile crasher this time around and ended up way off th pace.

Sakaguchi was once again fastest, with Hyman putting in a strong lap to improve on his morning time and get to within 0.041s of Laaksonen’s best.

In addition to the Dallara 320s in action in Japan, British teams Carlin and Fortec Motorsports have also taken delivery of the new car to race in EF Open next year.

Test results

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