IF THE old adage that ‘adversity builds character’ is indeed true, then one of New Zealand’s brightest young racing talents will have it in spades moving into the second half of the FIA European Formula 3 Championship this year.
The 18-year-old Christchurchian (Don’t let the fact he races under an Italian license fool you – he is, after all, a Ferrari junior driver) led the prestigious championship by one solitary point heading into the most recent round of the championship at Silverstone in the United Kingdom.
Already a race winner thanks to a storming victory at the famed Norisring in Germany and with two pole positions to his credit, Armstrong had used a string of consistent race results to edge himself in front of Red Bull junior driver Dan Ticktum in the close title race.
However a tough weekend at Silverstone saw him leave the Northamptonshire venue second in the championship, now 18 points behind new leader Ticktum.
Sixth and fifth in the first two races were solid if unspectacular results however the wheels fell off in race three; quite literally.
Caught up in the first-lap dash through the Abbey sweeper at turn one, the steering on his Prema Theodore Racing Dallara was broken and his race ended after no more than five hundred meters.
Such is the way in European Formula 3, still the most cut and thrust junior category that offers serious performance on the path to Formula One.
It was his fifth non-finish of the season, in what is shaping up to be a season decided by those who can actually get to the finish of as many races as possible in the first place.
New leader Ticktum has been a non-finisher four times – with another zero-score added to that list – while third-placed Juri Vips charged up the order at Silverstone thanks to his second win of the year. Critically, the 17-year-old from Estonia has only one DNF to his credit so far this year, though he sits more than a full race win away from the series lead.
Still, it’s not all bad for Armstrong – not even slightly.
This year’s European Formula 3 field is as good as any in the last decade, with a mixture of second or third-year established stars contending against a strong rookie crop.
What’s more, the young Kiwi still leads several impressive names in the championship, including the reigning BRDC British F3 champion Enaam Ahmed and Macau Grand Prix podium finisher, Ralf Aron.
Behind that pair, Mick Schumacher certainly needs no introduction and now sits seventh in the championship thanks to scoring the second win of his season at Silverstone at the weekend.
It’s a well credentialled pack that any young driver would do well to be in the thick of, as Armstrong is.
He won’t have much time to dwell on his tough Silverstone weekend, either; the championship resumes this weekend in Italy. Bouncing back straight away could be the best possible thing for a young driver batting the mental challenges of such a gruelling campaign, 18,000km away from home.
There’s another element to the Marcus Armstrong story too, in that this year represents the last for the storied history of Formula 3 in Europe – at least as we know it.
The current ‘premier’ F3 brand will switch to what is currently known as GP3 next year, setting up the FIA’s long sought-after ladder of F3-F2-F1 on the Grand Prix program.
National-level F3 will then use a cheaper, lower-specification car which is more an evolution of Formula 4 than it is related to the highly specialised, high downforce cars that have contested F3 titles around the world for the better part of three decades (at least in current, carbon fibre form).
It’s the end of an evolution that technically started with Larry Perkins winning the 1975 European F3 title and ultimately morphed into the F3 Euroseries – won by the likes of Ryan Briscoe, Romain Grosjean and some bloke from Stevenage called Lewis Hamilton.
A driver adding his or her name to the storied list of ‘European Formula 3’ champions, especially in such a significant year prior to major change, will be a significant addition to any CV.
Marcus Armstrong may well be that guy; and after an Australian won the first European F3 season, a Kiwi winning the last would be an appropriate end to this current era of Formula 3.
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