2014 British Formula 3 International Series

2014 British Formula 3 International Series

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The 2014 Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series season was a multi-event motor racing championship for open wheel, formula racing cars held across England, and one round in Belgium. The championship featured a mix of professional motor racing teams and privately funded drivers competing in 2 litre Formula Three single seat race cars that conformed to the technical regulations for the championship. The 2014 season was the 64th and final season British Formula Three Championship. The series, promoted by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation, began on 4 May at Rockingham Motor Speedway and concluded on 14 September at Donington Park after a 21 race schedule held at seven meetings. ^[1]

In a season that saw only four drivers contest the entire championship, it was Chinese driver Martin Cao who won the championship, driving for Fortec Motorsports. Cao started the season with a run of seven successive second-place finishes to a series of drivers, but his consistent finishing kept him towards the top of the championship standings. Cao took his first win at Thruxton, and went on to take four overall wins – plus a further two class wins behind drivers who were ineligible to score championship points – in the final three race meetings, to ultimately win the championship title by two points, ahead of team-mate Matt Rao. Rao won five races over the course of the season, with one fewer podium finish over the season, compared to Cao. Third place went to Camren Kaminsky, who took three podium finishes over his full season campaign.

Another Fortec driver, Sam MacLeod, finished fourth in the championship with four race victories, but he did not contest the whole campaign as his main focus for the season was in the German Formula Three championship with Van Amersfoort Racing. Marvin Kirchhöfer took two wins at Silverstone, when he was learning the circuit for the GP3 Series round at the circuit later in the season. Egor Orudzhev also won at Silverstone, while Roberto Merhi (two wins) and John Bryant-Meisner shared class victories at Spa-Francorchamps. Of the ineligible drivers, Ed Jones won all three races at Spa-Francorchamps, Santino Ferrucci won two out of three at Brands Hatch, while Sean Gelael finished second to Jones twice.

Drivers and teams

Team	Chassis	Engine	No.	Driver	Rounds
Carlin	Dallara F308	Volkswagen	1	Zhi Cong Li	All
			2	Alice Powell	1
				Egor Orudzhev	2
				Sam MacLeod	4
Fortec Motorsport	Dallara F312	Mercedes HWA	3	Marvin Kirchhöfer	2
			7	Matt Rao	All
			50	Sam MacLeod	1, 3
			57	Martin Cao	All
Double R Racing	Dallara F312	Mercedes HWA	8	Wing Chung Chang	1–4
			9	Roberto Merhi	4
			16	Dan Wells	6
			18	Max Marshall	5, 7
	Dallara F308				6
	Dallara F312		34	Camren Kaminsky	All
ADM Motorsport	Dallara F311	Volkswagen	10	Kang Ling	4
			72	Nikita Zlobin	4
Motopark	Dallara F311	Volkswagen	11	Nabil Jeffri	4
	Dallara F308		24	Indy Dontje	4
Performance Racing	Dallara F310	Volkswagen	12	John Bryant-Meisner	4
Invitation Entries
Fortec Motorsport	Dallara F312	Mercedes HWA	10	Santino Ferrucci	6
Carlin	Dallara F312	Volkswagen	20	Sean Gelael [2]	4
			21	Ed Jones	4

Race calendar and results

A seven-round calendar was announced on 23 September 2013. In a change of direction from recent seasons, the championship held only a single round outside the UK, in Belgium, supporting the 2014 24 Hours of Spa. The remaining six rounds were all held in England. The three race format used in previous seasons was retained for all rounds of the championship. ^{[1] [3]}

After appearing on the 2013 calendar, the international round held at the Nürburgring was dropped from the 2014 calendar. Donington Park, Rockingham and Snetterton all returned to the calendar after a one-year hiatus, while Thruxton returned to the calendar for the first time since 2010.

Round		Circuit	Date	Pole position	Fastest lap	Winning driver	Winning team
1	R1	Rockingham Motor Speedway	4 May	Sam MacLeod	Sam MacLeod	Sam MacLeod	Fortec Motorsports
	R2		5 May		Sam MacLeod	Sam MacLeod	Fortec Motorsports
	R3			Sam MacLeod	Matt Rao	Matt Rao	Fortec Motorsports
2	R4	Silverstone Circuit	24 May	Martin Cao	Egor Orudzhev	Egor Orudzhev	Carlin
	R5				Marvin Kirchhöfer	Marvin Kirchhöfer	Fortec Motorsports
	R6		25 May	Martin Cao	Marvin Kirchhöfer	Marvin Kirchhöfer	Fortec Motorsports
3	R7	Snetterton Motor Racing Circuit	21 June	Sam MacLeod	Sam MacLeod	Sam MacLeod	Fortec Motorsports
	R8		22 June		Sam MacLeod	Matt Rao	Fortec Motorsports
	R9			Sam MacLeod	Sam MacLeod	Sam MacLeod	Fortec Motorsports
4	R10	Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps	25 July	Ed Jones	Roberto Merhi [N 1]	Ed Jones	Carlin
	R11				Roberto Merhi [N 1]	Ed Jones	Carlin
	R12		26 July	Ed Jones	John Bryant-Meisner [N 1]	Ed Jones	Carlin
5	R13	Thruxton Circuit	16 August	Matt Rao	Matt Rao	Martin Cao	Fortec Motorsports
	R14		17 August		Matt Rao	Martin Cao	Fortec Motorsports
	R15			Matt Rao	Matt Rao	Matt Rao	Fortec Motorsports
6	R16	Brands Hatch	30 August	Santino Ferrucci	Matt Rao [N 2]	Santino Ferrucci	Fortec Motorsports
	R17		31 August		Martin Cao	Martin Cao	Fortec Motorsports
	R18			Martin Cao	Matt Rao [N 2]	Santino Ferrucci	Fortec Motorsports
7	R19	Donington Park	13 September	Martin Cao	Matt Rao	Martin Cao	Fortec Motorsports
	R20		14 September		Matt Rao	Matt Rao	Fortec Motorsports
	R21			Matt Rao	Matt Rao	Matt Rao	Fortec Motorsports

Notes

1. Fastest lap recorded by Ed Jones, but he was ineligible to score the fastest lap point.
2. Fastest lap recorded by Santino Ferrucci, but he was ineligible to score the fastest lap point.

Championship standings

Pos. Driver ROC SIL SNE SPA THR BRH DON Pts International Class 1 Martin Cao 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 Ret Ret 11 Ret 5 1 1 2 2 1 2 1 2 5 285 2 Matt Rao Ret 4 1 5 Ret 3 3 1 3 8 6 4 2 2 1 4 2 3 3 1 1 283 3 Camren Kaminsky 4 5 4 6 Ret 4 4 Ret 4 12 8 13 Ret 5 3 6 5 5 4 3 3 161 4 Sam MacLeod 1 1 Ret 1 2 1 Ret 5 6 121 5 Zhi Cong Li Ret 7 5 7 3 Ret 5 Ret 5 9 Ret 9 3 3 5 7 6 Ret 5 4 4 118 6 Wing Chung Chang 3 6 3 4 Ret 5 6 3 2 7 7 11 103 7 Max Marshall 4 4 4 5 Ret 6 2 5 2 93 8 Marvin Kirchhöfer 3 1 1 54 9 John Bryant-Meisner 4 4 3 53 10 Dan Wells 3 4 4 41 11 Roberto Merhi 3 2 DNS 39 12 Egor Orudzhev 1 Ret Ret 26 13 Indy Dontje 5 DSQ 7 23 14 Nabil Jeffri 6 DSQ 8 18 15 Alice Powell 5 3 Ret 16 16 Nikita Zlobin 10 Ret 10 6 17 Kang Ling 13 9 12 5 Guest drivers ineligible for points Ed Jones 1 1 1  — Santino Ferrucci 1 3 1  — Sean Gelael 2 3 2  — Pos. Driver ROC SIL SNE SPA THR BRH DON Pts

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver Second place Bronze Third place Green Points classification Blue Non-points classification Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired, not classified (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not practice (DNP) Did not arrive (DNA) Excluded (EX)

References

1. "SRO unveil new-look British F3 2014 calendar". British Formula 3 Championship . Stéphane Ratel Organisation. 23 September 2013. Archived from the original on 21 October 2013. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
2. Simmons, Marcus (24 July 2014). "Roberto Merhi back to Formula 3 for Spa British round and Macau". Autosport . Haymarket Publications . Retrieved 24 July 2014.
3. Simmons, Marcus (23 September 2013). "British F3 adds Thruxton to expanded 2014 calendar". Autosport . Haymarket Publications . Retrieved 20 October 2013.

External links

• The official website of the British Formula 3 Championship