There is a lot of truth to Hillspeed team boss Richard Ollerenshaw’s assessment that the GB3 Championship has returned to the halcyon days of British Formula 3 following the reveal of next season’s calendar.
The UK single-seater category’s 2024 schedule includes three international race meetings as the Hungaroring in Hungary joins Spa in Belgium and Zandvoort in the Netherlands as foreign destinations. Add in two visits to the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit here in the UK and five of the eight race meetings next term will be held at current Formula 1 venues – a vital aspect for any junior single-seater championship.
The past four champions in the category – Luke Browning, Zak O’Sullivan, Kaylen Frederick and Clement Novalak – have all progressed up the single-seater ladder into F3 and even F2, where prior knowledge of European circuits is crucial if these young drivers are to make the grade at the next level.
The fact that championship organiser MotorSport Vision has added a third overseas round has generally gone down well with team bosses and should ensure that GB3 remains a high priority for up-and-coming drivers on the career ladder.
Over the past three seasons, the series has gone from strength to strength, which at one point during the 2021 campaign did not quite look to be the case. This was after MSV was forced into a mid-season name change by the FIA, losing the F3 moniker and rebranding as GB3.
Such a change in the middle of a campaign had the potential to derail momentum (especially in the immediate wake of the COVID-19 pandemic), spark confusion about where GB3’s place was in the pecking order of junior single-seater championships, and just generally turn people away. But instead, numbers have continued to grow, never dipping below 20 entries this season, and a championship-record 25 cars took the start at several rounds.
Source: Autosport