Car
Formula 3: What we know about the next-gen F3 car
by Samarth Kanal
3min read
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This year, F2 introduced a new car - and next year it will be F3's turn to introduce new machinery. According to F2 and F3 CEO Bruno Michel, the car will be revealed “sometime at the end of [this] summer”.
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Michel explained that accounting for a grid of 30 cars means producing the next Dallara-built F3 car isn’t as straightforward as it might seem.
“We're happy with what we're seeing, but it's still in the very early development process in terms of getting on the track,” he said. “It's not like Formula 1 when you build two cars. When we go into production it is mass production.”
The next-generation F3 car will incorporate a new gearbox in 2025 as French manufacturer 3MO will take over the tender from Hewland - which will continue to supply gearboxes to F2.
Michel said the split of gearbox supplier between the two categories was done in order to “not put all my eggs in the same basket”.
Yet, he ruled out opting for a different engine supplier for F3, which uses a six-cylinder Mecachrome engine - while F2 uses a turbocharged six-cylinder Mecachrome engine.
Formula 2 and Formula 3 currently use the same V6 Mecachrome engine
“For an engine, the fact that it's the same base of engine from Mecachrome is incredibly helpful in terms of logistics, in terms of organisation, and in terms of cost as well,” said Michel. “It makes a big difference.
“We used to have two engine manufacturers: one for GP2 and one for GP3 when AER [Advanced Engine Research] was doing GP3 and before that Renault, and Mecachrome was doing GP2. And we decided I would say, seven, eight years ago, to use the same company. To me, it was a very, very good decision, and I don't think we want to change that.”
The new F3 car will be homologated to the latest FIA safety standards and incorporate new bodywork. Like in F2, this will provide a new challenge to the teams as they wrestle with set-up.
The most significant change to the new car’s handling will come in the form of the tyres, which will increase in diameter to fit 16-inch wheel rims. This is two inches smaller than the rims that F2 and F1 use - because an 18-inch wheel rim would simply be too big for the F3 car.
For tyre supplier Pirelli, the 16-inch wheels present a further challenge: this isn’t a conventional wheel size for single-seaters, which means strenuous testing will be required for the new compounds ahead of next season.