Formula Renault 2012

[ljbmotors]

Changes aplenty, this could be a cracker.

Build up and yearly progress discussion here...

[mattlovestbs]

To start with, got the six round Winter Series next month.

[ljbmotors]

Discussion for that to.

[MiltonTCF]

Not Winter Series Matt, the 'Finals Series' ;)

32 car full grids expected, split between TOCA and BARC cars.

Confirmed drivers I know of already are Oliver Rowland, Jake Dennis, Dan Wells, Geoff Uhrhane, Hector Hurst. Full entry list will be named on Monday.

[mattlovestbs]

So, according to MN - FRUK is only supporting BTCC for seven out of nine rounds and joins the British F3 for two weekends.

What do we make of this?

[Eunos]

Thought there were 10 Btcc weekends :p

None the less, 3 Formula Renault free weekends?, That's fine with me :cool:

[ljbmotors]

Renaults are only having 27 races (3 at each weekend) and I believe they will support F3 at Spa and Zandvort.

[mattlovestbs]

Renaults are only having 27 races (3 at each weekend) and I believe they will support F3 at Spa and Zandvort.

Zandvoort - yes, Spa - no. Silverstone GP.

[ljbmotors]

Are they supporting F3 at Silverstone or Formula Renault 3.5.

Didn't believe F3 raced at Zandvort either?

[mattlovestbs]

Are they supporting F3 at Silverstone or Formula Renault 3.5.

Didn't believe F3 raced at Zandvort either?

Zandvoort - Masters of F3.

WSbR isn't visiting Silverstone in 2012 - it'll support Brit F3.

[ljbmotors]

Sorry, should have realised and PAID ATTENTION!!!.

Why aren't FRenault 3.5 visiting Silverstone?

[mattlovestbs]

Sorry, should have realised and PAID ATTENTION!!!.

Why aren't FRenault 3.5 visiting Silverstone?

Going to Russia instead.

[ljbmotors]

Manor have quit FRenault UK in favour of Eurocup.

What a crying shame.

[mattlovestbs]

Manor have quit FRenault UK in favour of Eurocup.

What a crying shame.

No surprises there - Eurocup is in a fine state, huge grids with some VERY good racing and VERY talented youngsters from all over Europe.

[Turkington Fan!]

bad news for FRUK.

[ljbmotors]

Changes have been announced.

3 races (1:15 mins 2/3:30 mins)

Complicated qualifying system: Fastest time in quali= pole for race 3, 2nd fastest = pole for race 2 and race 1 decided on 6-10 reverse of quali times.

Tatus cars to run in junior class, Graduate class renamed the rookie cup.

However, is it to little to late, especially with no Manor?

[mattlovestbs]

Shahaan Engineer has signed with Fortec - 16yr old Indian driver made his FRUK debut in the six round Protyres Formula Renault UK 'Finals Series' with Fortec last November.

[Eunos]

3 Formula Renault Races?

More paddock time I guess ¬_¬

[MiltonTCF]

Gabriel Casegrande, a young Brazilian, has signed for Mark Burdett Motorsport. Engineer will be joined at Fortec by Dan de Zille and two other drivers, to be named later this week. Atech are set to run two cars minimum, with Dan Wells still working on getting the budget together for his drive, while it's expected that Josh Webster will join Casegrande at Mark Burdett.

Aside from that, the series is really struggling. No young drivers want to enter the Junior Class, when its an awful lot cheaper to race in the Renault BARC series, where they get top billing and will compete in a field of 20, rather than 5.

I can't see grids over 8/10 in the main class and 5 in the junior class.

[mattlovestbs]

A big change has been announced:

Junior class has been 'scrapped' and instead, the final three weekends of the season (Silverstone GP, Rockingham, Brands GP) will see a 'Renault GP Cup' for the BARC runners. Its a standalone event, so it doesn't affect the outright Championship battle.

In other news - Josh Hill has signed for Fortec Motorsport for 2012

[ljbmotors]

Sad news.

Renault has made a huge mistake, UK series need the Junior class.

Renault GP doesn't help FRenualt UK at all, were supposed to be boasting grids not wasting money on a pointless non-championship.

Good to here Hill is back, although guess competitions going to be thin on the ground.

Renault need to bring Tatus back to refine the car and make the series cheaper.

SRO have nearly destroyed this series, I hope next year I am saying back from the brink.

[redshoes]

Renault has made a huge mistake, UK series need the Junior class.

There's a good article in this week's Autosport about this. Whilst the Junior class would be good for the main FR series it has major implications in the BARC FR series. In trying to save one you may end up killing the other.

[Wee Scamp]

Here's an idea... Why not replace Formula Renault with a Radical series. Much more affordable and it would be supporting a UK company for a change.

[MiltonTCF]

I didn't realise the Junior Class was being removed?

[mattlovestbs]

I didn't realise the Junior Class was being removed?

That was my understanding of the news - from SRO and the Protyre Championship. There were going to be conflicts between the two it seemed like

[MiltonTCF]

That was my understanding of the news - from SRO and the Protyre Championship. There were going to be conflicts between the two it seemed like

SRO didn't announce it, they in fact hid it away, but it's been confirmed by BARC that it is the case.

The UK series doesn't need the Junior class. It wasn't going to be successful. From the dozen or so drivers i'd spoken to, over 90% of them were going to the BARC series, as it's much, much cheaper than the 'Junior' class was going to be. All the major teams, Antel/Fortec/Scorpio/RPD had already entered BARC and weren't interested in the Junior class.

All it could have done was damaged the BARC series, which is very healthy at the moment and didn't deserve to be messed around with. Something like this was always going to happen when SRO took over Renault UK and Clios but not Renault BARC.

So it was a nice idea, but once again SRO had totally over-priced it and this was going to cause low grid numbers, just like the main class. The junior class would have had 5 cars maximum, which is actually what SRO were aiming for, just 5 cars.

This GP Cup is much better. For those three meetings, I can see 8/10 cars at least joining the grid, which is better.

[mattlovestbs]

Josh Webster has signed with Mark Burdett Motorsport for the 2012 campaign - having raced with the team in the six event 'Finals Series'.

[MiltonTCF]

Looking great for 2012 - just 5 cars have turned up to pre-season official testing, with only 6 confirmed entries so far.

Lets compare this to Formula Renault BARC, which has 18 confirmed so far. Turns out the 200k budget for the TOCA series is a bit too much.

[Reidy_fan]

oooppppsss can see the MSA removing the championship license at the end of the season, 200k is stupid money for a feeder to F3 series, for that money you can do PCCGB or ginetta G55

[SpeedRacer]

No one is racing in the Formula Renault Championship this year as due to the small amount of entries the Championship has been cancelled. Dont know what will replace it on the Support Package though.

[gatesy]

Hopefully something more interesting than they were!

[daveylad1978]

Wise decision, but a bit rubbish for anyone who's got the budget together for it. Unless their team migrate to one of the European series.

[vulcan1]

I can't say i'm going to miss it :rolleyes:
I hope they bring an exciting series in but it's probably quite late now to get a whole race championship to change their race calendar to the same as the BTCC weekends. Would love to see the legends or volkswagon racing cup though :D

[Claw]

Shame....I used to enjoy this series. Just been watching some old races from 2001, when Carl Breeze won the title. Some great racing then.

[daveylad1978]

And think who has passed through it on their way to bigger things.

[Reidy_fan]

wonder if SRO will do a deal with TOCA and get national f-fords on or will it be up to individual tracks to get some club racers on as support. SMRC classics and minis are already doing knockhill and croft. sure if TOCA pay diesel costs for the drivers they will do the whole package :-p

[Claw]

Formula Ford still excist? I thought it just vanished.

What about some old school one-make series. Is TVR Tuscans still going?

[daveylad1978]

Formula Ford still excist? I thought it just vanished.

What about some old school one-make series. Is TVR Tuscans still going?

It's running with the F3 GT package now. They're getting decent grids now they've switched to a more affordable engine.

Tuscans are gone, but some still run in a championship for all TVRs.

[ljbmotors]

Have TOCA declared it will not be replaced?

[MclarenFanJack]

What about the series Sherry1992 races in would love that on the series!

[littlefozz]

Just add a fourth btcc race to every weekend. 40 round championship would be awesome!

[BTCC2]

Just add a fourth btcc race to every weekend. 40 round championship would be awesome!

Hmmm to be honest it's already too many :(

[Mondeo2]

The loss won't have any effect on the TV schedule at least for Brands Hatch as the FR races were before the 1st BTCC race and after the last BTCC race.

[Eunos]

I wont lie, I'm very happy to have Formula Renault off the package :cool:

and In all honesty It doesnt really effect the schedule that Bad

BTCC x 3

GT Supercup x 3 (2 on some weekends)

Juniors x 2

Clios x 2

Porsches x 2

That's still 12 Races a weekend.

If the offchance they did replace it, I don't want another 1 make series.. Something like the VW cup would be great, Though I know it's not going to happen :P

[wvm]

It's only off the schedules for one season.
I don't think there's any need to replace it - as it is the timetable is so crowded that some races are on Saturday.

[MiltonTCF]

I'd like to see it replaced with a different series each weekend, like:


Formula Renault BARC
Intersteps
Formula Ford
VW Cup
Formula Vee

[redshoes]

All championships must submit their regulations complete with dates to the MSA in December in order to be ratified. Drafting another championship in and completely changing their dates is not really an option.

Even if it was possible drafting on FFord or VW Cup doesn't really help. You fill the hole in TOCA's timetable but simply leave a similar hole inthe F3/GT timetable. You've not solved the problem, you've just moved it somewhere else.

Best you can hope for is a non-championship guest race at some meetings, but that on itself is not as simple as it sounds. For a start can you find enough drivers with the budget for an extra race.

[Wee Scamp]

I think a Ginetta "oldies" series in G40s would be just the ticket :cool:

[mattlovestbs]

Not exactly FRUK related - but how can FRUK attract six entries when a two year old series - FR Alps attract 30+ entrants?

[SimonLongman]

FR is an expensive series, not made any cheaper by it's involvement with the BTCC. The extra cost to the championship to run on the program is probably £60k - £100K ++++ which needs to be covered by the entrants championship and race entry fees. That's why the FR BARC series is viable and successful - it's much cheaper !! There are probably no other series out there who would be prepared to join for that money, particularly if they are trying to keep costs down to keep fields large.

It's great if you can afford it, but also has it's downsides... with TV and media coverage focused on the main event, you also get bumped or have your laps reduced to meet schedules if there is any track downtime.

[MiltonTCF]

Not exactly FRUK related - but how can FRUK attract six entries when a two year old series - FR Alps attract 30+ entrants?

The sheer cost of FRUK really.