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I'd be following Alex Sims this year again, the guy went to my school so guess I should have some allegiance to him, might be a year too early to expect a championship run but should be in the points often enough.

Hulkenberg won the masters in 2007 and claimed the championship in 2008
Bianchi won the masters in 2008 and hopely claims the championship in 2009

Bianchi should grab this with bot hands, just needs to keep it clean through out the season.

He is my tip to win the championship.

I guess Bianchi has good chances to win this year. He races for ART and proved his talent last year.

That's some extremely impressive times from Bottas, looks like he's getting himself comfortable already in a F3 car. At this rate Bianchi's will have to watch out even with his extra experience.

again Bianchi today, Botas still fast

[spoiler]01. Jules Bianchi (ART Grand Prix) 1:31.678
02. Atte Mustonen (Motopark Academy) 1:31.926
03. Roberto Merhi (Manor Motorsport) 1:32.386
04. Valterri Bottas (ART Grand Prix) 1:32.464
05. Brendon Hartley (Carlin Motorsport) 1:32.742
06. Jon Lancaster (SG Formula) 1:32.796
07. Alexander Sims (Mücke Motorsport) 1:32.860
08. Christian Vietoris (Mücke Motorsport) 1:32.902
09. Sam Bird (Mücke Motorsport) 1:32.910
10. Stefano Coletti (Prema Powerteam) 1:32.942
11. Esteban Gutierrez (ART Grand Prix) 1:32.956
12. Kevin Mirocha (HBR Motorsport) 1:33.032
13. Henkie Waldschmidt (SG Formula) 1:33.110
14. Cesar Ramos (Manor Motorsport) 1:33.236
15. Mika Mäki (Signature Plus) 1:33.311
16. Andrea Caldarelli (SG Formula) 1:33.314
17. Christopher Zanella (Motopark Academy) 1:33.362
18. Carlo Van Dam (Kolles & Heinz Union) 1:33.428
19. Basil Shaaban (Prema Powerteam) 1:33.465
20. Jean-Karl Vernay (Signature Plus) 1:33.481
21. Marco Wittmann (Mücke Motorsport) 1:33.532
22. Pedro Ferreira (Manor Motorsport) 1:33.556
23. Adrien Tambay (ART Grand Prix) 1:33.633
24. Johnny Cecotto (HBR Motorsport) 1:33.709
25. Jake Rosenzweig (Carlin Motorsport) 1:33.732
26. Edoardo Mortara (Kolles & Heinz Union) 1:33.774
27. Matteo Chinosi (Prema Powerteam) 1:33.843
28. Tiago Geronimi (Signature Plus) 1:34.051[/spoiler]

I've only just noticed the Kolles & Heinz team times. Two observations:

- Wasn't Mortara going to do GP2 with Arden?
- That's some really poor times, I hope they improve because both Van Dam and Mortara deserve better.

Hang on, why didn't Mustonen show any of that sort of form in British F3 last year?

Still backing Bottas btw.

damn, the car of Kolles & Heinz Union is ugly

I think it looks awesome!

Hopefully some channel will pickup the rights since Premiere seems to get rid of every series except F1 and supports and the IRL

+1
really nice car

I'd love to watch F3ES in Free TV live as the offer of Premiere keeps getting worse, so I won't fetch it.

Yeah, It's almost like a Gulf sponsored F3.

+1 looks shit hot!



and could I request something from you motorsports guru's, would you be able to give me a run down on the big names in this series and what they have done etc. Brendon's brother is interested so I thought I'd ask you guys and pass on the info to him

yesterdays testingtimes at Valencia:

[spoiler]01. Atte Mustonen (Motopark Academy) 1:27.713 (79 ronden)
02. Roberto Merhi (Manor Motorsport) +0.106 (90)
03. Jules Bianchi (ART Grand Prix) +0.263 (80)
04. Brendon Hartley (Carlin Motorsport) +0.612 (49)
05. Sam Bird (Mücke Motorsport) +0.712 (89)
06. Marco Wittmann (Mücke Motorsport) +0.724 (77)
07. Kevin Mirocha (HBR Motorsport) +0.795 (64)
08. Cesar Ramos (Manor Motorsport) +0.866 (87)
09. Valterri Bottas (ART Grand Prix) +0.872 (99)
10. Stefano Coletti (Prema Powerteam) +0.919 (83)
11. Christian Vietoris (Mücke Motorsport) +0.946 (98)
12. Christopher Zanella (Motopark Academy) +1.061 (86)
13. Alexander Sims (Mücke Motorsport) +1.071 (100)
14. Esteban Gutierrez (ART Grand Prix) +1.119 (99)
15. Henkie Waldschmidt (SG Formula) +1.184 (89)
16. Jon Lancaster (SG Formula) +1.222 (97)
17. Mika Mäki (Signature Plus) +1.239 (78)
18. Johnny Cecotto (HBR Motorsport) +1.309 (77)
19. Jake Rosenzweig (Carlin Motorsport) +1.543 (107)
20. Pedro Ferreira Nunes (Manor Motorsport) +1.610 (92)
21. Andrea Caldarelli (SG Formula) +1.692 (95)
22. Matteo Chinosi (Prema Powerteam) +1.833 (81)
23. Adrien Tambay (ART Grand Prix) +1.885 (97)
24. Jean-Karl Vernay (Signature Plus) 0:01.910 (78)
25. Basil Shaaban (Prema Powerteam) +1.965 (82)
26. Carlo Van Dam (Kolles & Heinz Union) +2.095 (109)
27. Tiago Geronimi (Signature Plus) +2.219 (90)
28. Jens Klingmann (Kolles & Heinz Union) +2.652[/spoiler]

www.driverdb.com is useful. Cheak it out, it may help.

There does seem to be some patterns building up from these tests, the spanish kid Merhi is extremely impressive and Mustonen seems to have found the speed he didn't show in Britain (perhaps Raikkonen Robertson Racing just couldn't compete with Carlin).

I see from driverdb that Motopark didn't compete in previous seasons. They are superb in Formula Renault so no surprise they are doing a good job here as well, but my question is, is this a completely new effort from scratch or are they taking over an existing team? (like ART previously took over ASM as a name)

Go Bianchi

Valencia Day 2 (24/03/2009)
[spoiler]01. Roberto Merhi (Manor Motorsport) 1:26.989 (86 ronden)
02. Jules Bianchi (ART Grand Prix) +0.289 (92)
03. Atte Mustonen (Motopark Academy) +0.591 (50)
04. Brendon Hartley (Carlin Motorsport) +0.876 (90)
05. Valterri Bottas (ART Grand Prix) +0.940 (88)
06. Sam Bird (Mücke Motorsport) +1.059 (105)
07. Stefano Coletti (Prema Powerteam) +1.111 (85)
08. Cesar Ramos (Manor Motorsport) +1.160 (82)
09. Jon Lancaster (SG Formula) +1.166 (88)
10. Christian Vietoris (Mücke Motorsport) +1.174 (89)
11. Andrea Caldarelli (SG Formula) +1.190 (58)
12. Henkie Waldschmidt (SG Formula) +1.278 (94)
13. Christopher Zanella (Motopark Academy) +1.283 (54)
14. Pedro Ferreira Nunes (Manor Motorsport) +1.288 (94)
15. Marco Wittmann (Mücke Motorsport) +1.345 (81)
16. Jake Rosenzweig (Carlin Motorsport) +1.486 (78)
17. Alexander Sims (Mücke Motorsport) +1.615 (83)
18. Matteo Chinosi (Prema Powerteam) +1.642 (98)
19. Esteban Gutierrez (ART Grand Prix) +1.682 (80)
20. Carlo Van Dam (Kolles & Heinz Union) +1.709 (113)
21. Mika Mäki (Signature Plus) +1.804 (78)
22. Jean-Karl Vernay (Signature Plus) +1.848 (63)
23. Kevin Mirocha (HBR Motorsport) +1.858 (73)
24. Johnny Cecotto (HBR Motorsport) +2.115 (101)
25. Tiago Geronimi (Signature Plus) +2.126 (92)
26. Jens Klingmann (Kolles & Heinz Union) +2.297 (96)
27. Basil Shaaban (Prema Powerteam) +3.075 (51)
28. Adrien Tambay (ART Grand Prix) +3.265 (68)[/spoiler]

I'm a bit suprised by Mehris pace, he's only 18 and seems to be able to fight in the front of the field in his debutyear

he was overshadowed by Riciardi in Formula Renault last year, but looking at his results last year and testingresults this year, I think he just might be as good as Riciardo, and I rate Riciardo pretty high

Mäki is getting disapointing, afther a year of Euroseries he should be able to do at least
top 10

Merhi is good, not as good as Ricciardo though. But they are both very quick. Do remember Ricciardo got 6th on debut for SG formula at the nurburgring last year. Manor are a more compeditive car, which will be good for merhi to challenge for race wins hopefully.

Looking at the top 4 Formula Renault Eurocup drivers from 2008, Bottas is going quick, hanging up front and in the top 10 but hes also in ART, which he will have a good car for this season. Merhi is probably one of the fastest at the moment in the F3 euro with Bianchi, hes with Manor. Caldarelli is with SG and is doing good lap times, around the top 10 mark. Ricciardo is in British F3 with Carlin going fastest in pretty much all the test sessions. I think the formula renault have produced alot of good drivers, which we can see now in F3 for this season.

Testing from today:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73889