The opening races of this season's British Formula Three Championship promise to provide an intriguing insight into the series. The prestigious title is always in demand for any young driver's CV, and this year sees a new Dallara chassis for the series, the Italian manufacturer building its F3 cars in three-year evolutions. A challenge to Dallara could be the Ralt chassis run by Team Avanti - but it is the driver's battle that will draw the attention.
Carlin Motorsport were the dominant force last year – proving themselves capable of engineering more than one race winning car and taking the first two slots in the championship with
Takuma Sato and
Anthony Davidson. That flexibility will be put to the test this season when Trevor Carlin's team put out no fewer than 4 cars in the championship class.
Jaguar refugee James Courtney heads the line-up, the rapid Aussie a winner at the opening meeting of 2001, but thereafter failing to find the top step of the podium. Formula Ford Festival winner Alan van der Merwe will be another strong runner for the team, while Michael Keohane steps up from the Scholarship Class and Shinya Hosokawa continues the team's strong Japanese links.
2001 was the first season Manor Motorsport had failed to claim the title since they exploded into the formula, and they have a potentially strong line up. Mark Taylor improved as the 2001 season went on and was a top six regular by the end of the year, while John Booth's team are also running Richard Antinucci, who has stepped up from Formula Renault and impressed in testing – being quickest on occasion. The Sheffield-based team are also running Dane Ronnie Bremer.
Latest rapid Finn could be Fortec's
Heikki Kovalainen. Another coming up from Formula Renault, the composed Finn is in a settled environment with his team and has the chance to shine. Brazilian Fabio Carbone fills the second Fortec Dallara–Renault.
