GP2, GP3 and Formula Renault 3.5 mid-season round-up

By Aug 3, 2014, 1:30 PM EDT
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Just as Formula 1 is breaking for summer at the moment, its feeder series are doing the same. The shutdown gives all involved in motorsport a chance to take a break and refresh ahead of the second half of the season, and in the junior series, it is just as important.

Following on from our in-depth mid-season Formula 1 review, here is a brief look at how things are standing in its three main feeder championships ahead of the second half of the year.

GP2

The GP2 Series has been dominated by one man in 2014: Jolyon Palmer. The 23-year-old British driver has scored points in every race so far this season, and has qualified outside of the top two on just one occasion. With two wins and six further podium finishes to his name, Palmer has moved into a 43 point lead at the top of the standings with four rounds and eight races remaining.

The only driver that appears to stand any chance of stopping Palmer from winning the title is Carlin’s Felipe Nasr. The Brazilian driver is balancing his GP2 campaign with a reserve role at Williams, and after so many years of being the bridesmaid, he finally claimed his first victory in Spain earlier this year. Two other wins have followed, but he still faces an uphill struggle to beat Palmer to the title.

McLaren junior Stoffel Vandoorne has had a mixed first half-season in GP2, winning two races to make up for a five race run without points. He has been the top rookie of 2014, although Campos driver Arthur Pic could also stake a claim to that moniker after making an impressive start following his move from Formula Renault 3.5. Ferrari junior Raffaele Marciello has shown signs of pace, but has often come unstuck on race day and suffered from some hard luck.

For the American drivers on the grid, it hasn’t been a great year so far. Alexander Rossi is currently without a seat following his move away from Caterham, but he does hope to secure a place for the remainder of the season after joining Marussia F1 Team as a reserve driver. Conor Daly has been luckless (to put it nicely), but finally scored some much-deserved points in Hungary.

GP3

In a flurry of déjà vu from 2013, a Red Bull junior looks set to win this year’s GP3 championship. British racer Alex Lynn joined the brand at the beginning of the year as a member of its junior programme, and he has flourished in his debut GP3 season after a successful year in the FIA F3 European Championship in 2013.

The Briton currently leads New Zealand’s Richie Stanaway by 31 points with eight races to go, with Jimmy Eriksson and Emil Bernstorff in third and fourth place respectively. German starlet Marvin Kirchhofer currently ranks fifth, whilst Dean Stoneman, Jann Mardenborough and Patric Niederhauser are the other race winners in a very open season.

Lynn’s lead is by no means secure, such is the unpredictable nature of the GP3 championship, but he is the favorite to win the title before a likely move up to GP2 in 2015.

Formula Renault 3.5

The Formula Renault 3.5 title looks to be heading the way of yet another Red Bull junior in the shape of Spain’s Carlos Sainz Jr. The son of the rally legend Carlos Sr., the DAMS driver is 39 points clear of Roberto Merhi at the top of the standings, and has won five races so far this year.

Just in case Red Bull needed yet another successful junior driver, series rookie Pierre Gasly is enjoying a very impressive debut season, currently sitting third in the standings, although he is yet to win a race. Sauber junior Sergey Sirotkin is fifth in the championship with one race win to his name, as he looks to secure a full-time seat with the Swiss team in 2015.

Ford Mustang GT3 test has Austin Cindric dreaming of Daytona: ‘I want to drive that car’

By Mar 22, 2023, 2:30 PM EDT
Cindric Ford GT3 test
Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images
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Austin Cindric wasn’t the “mystery” test driver behind the wheel of the new Ford Mustang GT3 at Sebring International Raceway, but the Team Penske driver desperately wanted to be.

Ford CEO Jim Farley, an amateur sports car driver himself, made the big reveal via a Tuesday tweet that provided the first video evidence of the GT3 Mustang on track.

“I’ve watched the video in question about a million times,” Cindric said Wednesday during a Ford Performance Zoom news conference to promote NASCAR’s first road course weekend of the season at Circuit of the Americas. “Definitely exciting times for sure. I want to drive that car. It suits my experience level and also the relationships that I have.”

Ford will enter the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship next season with its GT3 Mustang, entering a two-car factory effort (that will be managed by Multimatic) in GTD Pro and making customer cars available in the GT Daytona category.

That increases the likelihood of seeing more NASCAR drivers crossing over to IMSA. Cindric has been the only full-time Cup driver in the Rolex 24 at Daytona the past two years, but Ford Performance global director Mark Rushbrook has said the GT3 Mustang will provide more opportunities.

Ford has used its GT4 Mustang as a NASCAR driver development tool in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge with Harrison Burton and Zane Smith combining to win the season opener at Daytona International Speedway in January.

“We’re excited about the Next Gen car and the new architecture there and the similarities between that car and GT3 and even GT4 cars,” Rushbrook said at the announcement of the Ford GT3 program in January 2022 at Daytona. “We think it’s a great opportunity and to do be able to do that in a 24-hour race and get NASCAR drivers even more time is something we need to consider taking advantage of that opportunity.”

Given his sports car background, Cindric probably still would be in the Rolex 24 regardless. He has eight IMSA starts since the 2017 season opener at Daytona, racing a Lexus RCF GT3 and Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the GT category. The 2022 Daytona 500 winner made his second LMP2 start this year with Rick Ware Racing.

But Cindric’s preference naturally would be in a Ford, particularly with sports car racing enjoying convergence and crossovers in both GT and prototype racing.

“It’s an exciting time in GT racing, just as it is now for prototype racing with a lot of new regulations and manufacturers building new GT3 cars,” he said. “And also the opportunity with WEC (the World Endurance Championship) and Le Mans and how that all lines up for that category of car. It’s definitely an exciting time. I want to be as much of a part of that as possible.”

Though those odds seemingly will increase with multiple Ford entries in the Rolex 24 field next year, Cindric said NASCAR drivers still have to put in the networking to land rides as he has in recent years.

“Now how (the GT3 Mustang) relates to specifically NASCAR drivers and how often they want to be in the Rolex, could it be an influence? Absolutely, as far as the tie-in with the manufacturer,” Cindric said. “But the challenge and the drive and the logistics of getting an opportunity for a race like the Rolex 24 will be just as challenging as it always is to find your one-off ride for the race. At least from my experience, that’s what I still anticipate.”

It turned out the “mystery” test driver wasn’t from NASCAR (Farley revealed the driver to be 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Joey Hand after a fan asked whether it was Joey Logano).

But Cindric believes there could be more Cup drivers — and perhaps himself — behind the wheel of Mustang GT3s in the future.

“There’s definitely more of a pathway than I think there would be before as far as Ford drivers are concerned,” he said. “Hopefully, I’ll get the opportunity to drive that thing. It’s obviously a great looking car. That’s the first box you’ve got to check. And it’s cool (to have) a guy like Jim Farley, no doubt he’s a racer just as much as he is steering the ship for Ford. It’s cool to see he’s just as excited as the rest of us about it.”