Archive for the “Formula 3” Category

It’s been a while since I last blogged on Motors TV.com and since then we’ve had a pretty good run in British F3.

The Thruxton event a couple of weeks ago was one of my best of the year, I really enjoyed it and we raced strongly against a lot of the A Class cars. Unfortunately I’ve lost quite a lot of points over the course of the season with a few non-finishes but on pace, we’ve definitely been very strong and we’ve still taken plenty of wins.

At Silverstone, last weekend, I was really pleased with my performance in the last race where I finished around half a minute ahead of my class points rival James Cole. It was a good way to finish the event as the other two races didn’t quite go as planned. Again though, we were fast all weekend.

We’ve only got six rounds left but I’m only nine points behind the National Class lead so we’ve still got a great chance to win the title. It’s going to be really important to make sure I finish all six of the rounds. If we do then I think we have a good opportunity to take the fight down to the wire.

Everything’s going brilliantly with the guys at T-Sport. I’m learning so much each time I’m in the car and I’m really enjoying the racing – my engineer, Nick, is doing a fantastic job for me and we’re working really well together. It’s definitely been my most enjoyable season since I started racing.

So it all comes down to Snetterton, over Bank Holiday weekend, and then Brands Hatch towards the end of September. I can’t wait for the last six races, whatever happens it’s going to be good fun!

 www.menashehidafar.com

 About Menasheh:

Menasheh Idafar is a 19-year-old racing driver with dual British and Bahraini nationality. After making his UK race debut in the club-level Formula Renault BARC Championship in 2007, Menasheh went on to finish fourth overall in the category during his second season, taking five podiums and four pole positions along the way. Stepping-up to the national Formula Renault UK series in 2009, he returned to the podium during the four-round Winter Championship. In 2010, Menasheh is competing in the National Class of the Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series with T-Sport at the wheel of a Mugen-Honda powered Dallara F307.

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After a really long break – almost seven weeks – British F3 is back on track this weekend at Rockingham and I can’t wait!

We’ve had some good results so far (and some not so good ones as well!) and the National Class fight with my team-mate James Cole is pretty close. There are only eight points splitting us going into next weekend’s three races so there’s everything to play for.

I’m learning so much this year with T-Sport and having a really good time. It’s been a challenge so far but I much prefer driving the F3 car to the Formula Renault I raced before and I think we’re definitely making good progress.

We’re all going to have a new experience at Rockingham with the introduction of pit-stops into British F3. It’s an exciting change and one I’m really looking forward to. It’ll add something else for sure, especially with the different strategies, which will be good to learn for the future.

I always want to do as well as possible but I really do think we stand a good chance at Rockingham, it’s a track I know from Formula Renault and we’ve also tested there in F3 so hopefully we can start the weekend well in practice and build from there.

After Rockingham we have a break of a couple of weeks and then there are three back-to-back events at Spa-Francorchamps, Thruxton and Silverstone so it’s a really important part of the season where we need to score well.

http://www.menashehidafar.com/

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It’s been a few weeks since my last blog and during that time I managed to take my third and fourth National Class wins of the year at Silverstone and Magny-Cours.

We had some bad luck as well at both events, including a puncture and some understeer problems because of a really bad flat-spotted tyre at Magny-Cours, but I enjoyed both weekends. I really like the new GP track at Silverstone and I think we did a pretty good job in France too considering it was my first time there. The team was great as always, I’m really enjoying working with the T-Sport guys.

At the moment we’re in Hockenheim for the second back-to-back weekend of racing in Europe, it’s great to be able to drive at some Formula One tracks this year and to get that experience. I’m hoping we can have three strong races in Germany as it’s really important for me to try and close the gap in the championship.

Going into this weekend’s three races I’m 24 points behind my team-mate James Cole so if I can leave Hockenheim a bit closer I’ll be happy. I’d like to try and take the lead back over the next couple of events but with 21 races still to go, it’s a long season and there are plenty of points available.

There’ll be a big break in the championship calendar after Hockenheim – the next races at Rockingham aren’t until the middle of July – so it’s important to try and finish this first part of the season as strong as we possibly can.

http://www.menashehidafar.com/

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Just a couple of days to go until the next three rounds of British F3 at the new Silverstone Arena GP track and after a positive test last week, I’m really looking forward to it.

The new part of the track is good, I think it should be a lot of fun in the races, plus it’s going to be a big weekend supporting the FIA GT1 Championship. Obviously my focus is on F3 but I am looking forward to watching some of the GT races too…there’ll be some awesome cars out there.

Our test at Silverstone last week was very consistent and we managed to be quickest in the National Class. We ended the day seventh overall on combined times so I was really pleased, as ever T-Sport did a fantastic job for me and gave me a great car.

Obviously it was great to take two class wins at Oulton Park but I was disappointed to retire from the third race. The main thing this weekend will be to finish all three but if we can repeat our testing pace, we should stand a good chance of fighting for a hat-trick of class wins.

None of us are underestimating the challenge though, testing is testing and the race weekend is a totally different prospect…plus F1 test driver Luiz Razia will be racing in National Class so there’s increased competition. We’ve got a good base to start from during practice on Friday so I hope to qualify as close to the overall top 10 as possible and then see what happens…

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Hi everyone,

Well, my season is now underway. It had been a long wait since my last race at Monza in September 2009!

It is fantastic that my sponsors believed in me over the winter to let me continue my career and especially with Carlin in British F3 that is very good.

I did a few days testing in the F3 car before Christmas although it was pretty tough because most of them were wet so only really at the first official tests earlier this year did I get to learn about the car in the dry conditions. I was struggling for pace initially in the dry tests but I knew it would come but experience was certainly an obstacle. My team mates were pretty fast initially and coming from FRenault compared to me in FBMW they were just used to a car with more aero and of course the circuits! I was able to really learn from their data and with my engineer Brice I was able to make great progress at every test.

At my final test at Silverstone before the first race at Oulton Park I gained a lot of confidence and certainly made a lot of progress with both myself and the car. I was never outside of the top 3 in all of the sessions which certainly was encouraging but still it was just a test and I still didn’t really know where I really was on pace.

I arrived at Oulton Park pretty relaxed and calm for my first race weekend in British F3. The whole paddock seemed to have a really relaxed atmosphere which I really liked compared to the very confined and busy paddock of the F1 support paddock which I have been used to!

We had no free practice so we just had to go straight into qualifying on Saturday morning which certainly was a new and hard challenge for me! The circuit had been wet although it was drying so I chose to start on slick tyres immediately in qualifying as did most of the grid. The first few laps were very slippery indeed but as the temperature built up in my tyres and I began to take risks I realised I had great pace and after 10 minutes of the 25 minute session gone I was on pole. I managed to get a few clear laps and certainly I was in the fight for pole position. There was a yellow flag in the second sector with around 15 minutes to go so I decided to pit for another set of new tyres whilst I wasn’t able to set a faster time. In hindsight maybe I should have just kept the same set of tyres on my car because the circuit was drying very quickly and I had a really good balance. Still, I pushed hard on my second set and once my tyres were up to temperature I was able to fight for pole in the final minutes. I had to settle for 4th eventually but this was still a great result for my first qualifying in British F3. I had qualified 3rd and 4th for races 1 and 3.

My first race was on Saturday afternoon. I had a pretty bad start off the line with too much wheelspin but still I held 5th position from the first to the last lap and I was very happy to achieve that. In my first ever British F3 race to finish 5th was a good result.

The second race was not until Monday morning because of course we did not race on Easter Sunday. I was starting 3rd after the top 7 were reversed on the grid. It was similar conditions to qualifying actually so once again I was very happy to start on slick tyres. The grid was still very slippery though and I had never made a start in these conditions so I just picked my revs and thankfully got a much better start than race 1! I held my position for the first lap and I immediately realised I was fast enough to win. I took advantage of Dias and Nakajima fighting with each other to move into second and once I was behind Nakajima I knew if I could pressure him on to the damp parts of the circuit then I would have a chance to overtake. This opportunity came on the third lap at the first corner and once I was in the lead I just kept my head down and pushed for a gap. I help the lead to the flag and won my first British F3 race in only my second race and first ever weekend! That was pretty special.

The third race was on Monday afternoon and was 40 minutes long. This was the longest race I have ever competed in so it was pretty tough! I didn’t find it hard physically but it was a new challenge for me to think about saving my tyres and ensuring that I always had a balance I was confident with. I started 4th and had a pretty good start although I had to swerve hard to miss Huertas who had stalled on the grid. This opened a gap from me to the top 2 and after the first lap and a small mistake from me the gap was around 4 seconds to the leaders! I realised pretty soon that my race was for 3rd and that I needed to think about that. I managed consistent laps and stayed focussed to finish 3rd and get another podium.

So, what a great first weekend. 5th, 1st, 3rd. Sunoco Driver of the Weekend and 3rd in the Championship. I was very happy. I have to pay a lot of credit to the great start to my season to my team Carlin who have made the transition from FBMW to F3 very manageable for me. They have given me the confidence I needed all the way so I am very thankful to them. There are still 27 races to go and there are a lot of areas I am not happy with and need to improve with so I will maintain my focus and structure to continue achieving good weekends and of course more race wins.

It was very hard to secure the funding for this season because of the way the economies are around the world at the moment but hopefully this great first weekend has gone some way to showing my sponsors they were right to believe in me.

I have one test at Silverstone before I go back to Silverstone on 1/2 May for my second race weekend of the season. I will approach it with the same mentality with which I approached Oulton Park.

I will spend the downtime back at home training hard and improving more, as for sure that is what the competition will be doing.

It’s fantastic to be back racing again and I am really looking forward to an exciting season!!

Take care.

Thanks,

Rupert :)

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