JF:
I’d say jumping into the F3 car, just because of the brakes, you can get on them so much later and in the high speed corners it’s absolutely unreal how much speed you can carry through. But you can also learn so much more in Formula Three than, for example, in Formula Renault, because it is an open category and you can change things on the car and learn more about the car and the development of these cars.
Crash.net:
Now from an engineering standpoint, how much more freedom do you have with Formula Three than say Formula Renault?
JF:
Massive, it’s massive. You can make small modifications here and there, plus you have gears that you can actually change whereas in Formula Renault they are fixed ratios. So from a drivers perspective you can try and find a few small edges here and there so it’s definitely the way forward and definitely the way to learn.
Crash.net:
For next season are you looking at Formula Three in general or are you focusing on Performance in particular?
JF:
Just looking at Formula Three in general at the moment, there’s still lots of options for me and it is still early days, so there is so much that could happen over the coming months that we just need to keep our options open.
Crash.net:
This was your first experience of a 2002 Dallara, although it is only one development cycle from the 2001 car you’ve already driven, could you really notice much difference in the handling of the car?
JF:
Yeah absolutely, I was quite surprised. I didn’t expect it to be so different but it just was. You can carry so much more speed through the corners, I feel as though the newer car has much more aero on it than the old one and that’s the bigger effect.
Crash.net:
And for a driver stepping into a new car after the experiences you’ve had in Formula Renault, do you find it’s getting easier for you to say what you want to have done to the car?
JF:
Yeah within five or ten laps you can tell exactly what’s going on with the car so that can only help when doing limited testing as will be the case next season, but it should be good.
Crash.net:
The aim for the new class is to standardise performance and make it more equal, do you think that the measures taken are positive?
JF:
I believe that Formula Three has to be an open formula. I do believe that having the single engine for the National class is the way to cut costs because it is getting outrageous. It’s the kind of thing that will help this Formula but they can’t have too many regulations and stop you developing the small things because that would kill F3, but the way they are doing it seems to be the best way.
