In the extended build-up to the opening round of the FIA Formula 3 Championship, it might be interesting to throw around predictions of first race winner, outright championship winner.
With the cars now drawing GP3 and F3 technology together, will it be an experienced ‘old hand’ with extensive GP3 experience who will stand out? Or will it be a young gun in a hurry who shines through? Will the combination of more (lots more) power and a heavier car trip up the unwary? And where do the two Kiwi drivers fit in?
In order to look forward, perhaps a look back is instructive.
As a nation, we are hugely blessed with talent in single-seaters at the moment. The prospect of watching the intriguing rivalry between Marcus Armstrong and Liam Lawson played out in the big league in front of massive global TV audiences is very exciting.
As discussed in earlier articles, Lawson and Armstrong turned on the mightiest battle in a long time at the Grand Prix. Lap after lap, through safety car periods and down those long Manfeild straights, they went at it. When Armstrong found his overtaking ‘sweet spot’, got past the yellow-blue-black car of Lawson and then held position out of the esses he was doing what F3 drivers are required to do: fight the position, defend the line. Likewise, when Lawson dived onto the grass he too was using a legitimate move to maintain momentum instead of having to give way and slot in behind Armstrong.
Many pointed to the penalty handed down for that incident as the point at which Armstrong’s championship was lost, but the seed for that was sown earlier. I think he was on a back foot from the point when the front shock absorber rocker ball snapped at Taupo, turning a sure win into a no-point finish. He pitted and changed the offending part, but the damage was done – Lawson would not have come within a sniff of Armstrong if the rocker bolt hadn’t broken. Frustrating but not something the most rigorous maintenance programme could have anticipated.
In any case, last week’s news that Lawson’s other championship was cancelled was paradoxically the best news race fans could have hoped for. Now we get to see New Zealand’s two leading race drivers do it all again – in the thick of a massive field of Formula Three drivers from all around the world.
Where to look now?
Perhaps at the stats, which may give some insight, and also into the character of the new championship.
Is he the real deal? Definitely. Will impetuous attacking get him in trouble this year? Without a doubt. The making of Liam Lawson will be in how he bounces back from setbacks as the F3 pack get to grips with this cheeky colonial boy.
Hastings born and mentored by Kenny Smith, Lawson has raced Formula First and F1600 before stepping up to wings and slicks cars. Kenny’s early assessment was ‘bloody fast’. In fact, he said, the big trick will be to get Lawson to slow down when he hits the lead. And in the wet? “The kid just goes quicker”.
In F1600 his sheer speed was instantly apparent, and he dominated proceedings in the 2017 championship, claiming fourteen of the fifteen victories on offer to become the youngest champion in the series’ history.
Lawson was set up to compete in the Formula Europe Masters championship until that fell over with only six entries.
He has limited experience with the 2019 F3 car though this will change before race day. He did struggle a bit at the first track test at Paul Ricard last week.
I am still saying the Red Bull thing could be blessing or curse – it can go either way. Of the many elite driver programmes out there, Red Bull offers great reward but at great risk. And when the relationship ends, you have to have a great CV compiled to take those essential next steps.
A head to head comparison between these two reveals many similarities, yet they couldn’t be more different in their approach and racing style.
Marcus Armstrong, Christchurch, 18
One big advantage Armstrong has is that he’s seasoned. He has an elite driver programme behind him, graduating from the 2014 Elite Motorsport Academy in Dunedin. He has also been forged in the furnace of Euro F3, raced alongside some of the best and now forms part of a very competitive three-car Prema team.
Prema ran Armstrong last year, where some to and fro with the very physical Dan Ticktum cost Armstrong valuable points in the early rounds and arguably pushed him out of title contention (remembering Armstrong led the championship for several rounds at its mid-point). But doing those hard yards honed the young Kiwi’s aggression and his will to win.
Likewise his final-round TRS disappointment this year let us see a more mature, more focussed Marcus Armstrong. Still passionate as ever, still invested in the here-and-now of racing, and still taking a race defeat to heart but now there’s real steel in his character.
As we saw in TRS, Armstrong’s race starts in wet or dry are now superb, his spacial awareness – of where the corners of his car are tracking in any given corner and where his rivals are – is razor sharp, and his willingness to stay wheel to wheel to fight for the lead is breathtaking.
Once given to scary ‘round the outside’ passes that got him commentator and race fan acclaim but could put a race result at risk, Armstrong is now an analytical driver with a full array of tactical and strategic tools at his command.
Perhaps the one tool he has yet to bring fully out of the war chest is the psychological – something drivers like Nick Cassidy use all too well. Armstrong likes to race his own race, and when Lawson had trouble with his car’s clutch engagement and was fluffing TRS starts the older teen remained silent.
One classic though: Armstrong’s reference to Dan Ticktum as being in a ‘downward spiral’ in an interview with him last year gave me a bit of a smile – and as it turned out Armstrong’s mid-season comment was right on the money as Mick Schumacher surged through to take the F3 title.
On the topic of Ticktum (another to wander through the Red Bull revolving door of driver talent), that bloke was an unhappy camper afterward and hardly did any interviews before announcing that he would do the South East Asia Winter Series, where he was emphatically shown the door by Ye Yifei. He then committed the ultimate no-no, calling his car ‘shit’ on the post-race live streamed interview to the embarrassment of the young interviewer. The Brit didn’t bother turning up for the last round of the series and is off to test his mettle against our own Nick Cassidy and a hot pool of talent in Japan Super Formula.
Armstrong says the greater weight of the new car makes judging braking points and cornering speeds tricky, and the Pirelli tyres have a very different (less forgiving) performance profile that challenges drivers to judge how to get the best of them in qualifying and racing.
Jehan Daruvala, Mumbai, India, 20
Protégé of the former Force India F1 team, Jehan Daruvala leapt straight from karting in 2014 into full-aero single seaters. Not every driver can or should do that, but it does suggest that having a plethora of minor single-seater categories at national level is not essential except that it caters to late-developers.
Interestingly, Lawson and Daruvala are equal on TRS race wins at five apiece. Daruvala has of course had the luxury of two TRS seasons in which to amass his five, but he also completed that challenging jump straight from karting into full-size single seater series racing in Europe. Set out on a graph, the career results of the pair are about to intersect – live on our streamed coverage of FIA Formula 3.
But at GP3 level? Daruvala has experience: with MP Motorsport he raced the all-time finale at Abu Dhabi last year, setting one fastest time. Given this race experience and the extensive testing now allowed, Daruvala should be well up to speed with the new 2019 cars.
He now jumps ship to Prema as team-mate to Armstrong.
Richard Verschoor, Benschop, Netherlands, 18.
To keep things on an even keel our fourth driver should be Holland’s Richard Verschoor. He’s 18 years old, team-mate to Liam Lawson at MP Motorsport.
Verschoor is experienced. He’s driven 129 single-seater races, and had 39 wins, 63 podiums and 23 pole starts and 29 fastest laps. He came to New Zealand and contested the 2017 Castrol Toyota Racing Series with Giles Motorsport, finishing third; he returned in 2018 and finished second with M2.
Rated highly when he arrived in New Zealand in 2017, Verschoor had a cautious start in TRS, but hit his pace late in the opening rounds.
Verschoor is another driver who has leapfrogged from karting into single-seaters. He has extensive experience in Formula Renault, F4, ‘old’ F3, TRS, ‘new’ F3 and GP3.
He is a former Red Bull Junior team member and won the 2016 SMP F4 and Spanish F4 championships. His Red Bull status was announced after he won the opening round of the 2016 SMP championship at Sochi and ended at the close of 2017 after a very average campaign in Formula Renault 2.0, where he was ninth and only stood on the podium once, driving with Josef Kaufmann Racing.
Verschoor’s 2019 F3 drive is a return to MP Motorsport. He raced the last eight rounds of the GP3 championship with MP Motorsport, scoring one podium and finishing 15th, so should be well familiar with the new F3 car’s performance and the cut and th4ust of competition at this level.
In summary
So what have we learned today? That the fortunes of race drivers turn on the smallest thing, and that nobody should go into an elite programme like Red Bull’s with their eyes half shut. That a championship charge and a string of successes can be derailed by a simple lack of ‘fit’ with an engineer or car. That the jump from old to new F3 is not as simple as some might imagine. That everyone’s equal until the flag drops. And as we all know, when the flag drops…
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