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Old 10-24-2013, 04:54 PM   #1364
wvallwheeldrive
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Quote:
Originally Posted by OnTheGas View Post
Thank you for posting that article. (Till last year, I had a subscription to Autosport and I do miss their analysis articles.)

The response seen here in this forum to STR choosing Kvyat for 2014 was pretty interesting.

I've been following Euro F3 for a few seasons now because if one examines the current grid of F1, many of them came out of Euro F3, or British F3. Currently, 16 of the 22 F1 drivers came through F3, and the majority via Euro F3:
  1. Vettel - Euro F3
  2. Hamilton - Euro & Brit F3
  3. Webber - Brit F3
  4. Rosberg - Euro F3
  5. Grosjean - Euro & Brit (1 meeting) F3
  6. Button - Brit F3
  7. Hulkenberg - Euro F3
  8. di Resta - Euro F3
  9. Perez - Brit F3
  10. Ricciardo - Euro & Brit F3
  11. Vergne - Brit F3
  12. Gutierrez - Euro F3
  13. Bottas - Euro & Brit F3
  14. Bianchi - Euro F3
  15. van der Garde - Euro F3
  16. Chilton - Brit F3

This season Euro F3 is much easier to follow. All the races are available on Youtube to watch for free, as well as brief race summary videos as well. Candidly, I tend to follow it via print, (news articles and twitter), versus video however.

Back on topic, this season in Euro F3 has seen some good talent rise to the top. In particular, there is a kid named Raffaele Marciello who won the championship after finishing 3rd last season. Initially, he fought against another strong talent named Pascal Wehrlein. But Wehrlein picked up a DTM ride for this season and so only raced the first meeting of this F3 season (which = 3 races). There is an amazing kid named Felix Rosenqvist who really stood out, and finished 2nd in points this season. There is a young brit named Alex Lynn who purposely chose Euro F3 to learn how to work with European engineers and he stood out and finished 3rd in the championship.

In to this competitive environment, for Kvyat to come in a for a few races, grab poles and win a race against Marciello and Rosenqvist was incredible. It showed how he was able to learn and quickly adapt to a car, and a series that he was not familiar with, and win.

But I don't doubt that the fact that he is also a Russian helped STR's decision. The commercial aspect is part of racing.

But how many of those guys jumped straight from F3 to F1? No one is saying F3 is a bad series, it's just a lower step on the ladder to F1
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