You would think that if they were serious about sorting out the "ladder" they would have done it with Gerhard Berger and the FIA. Of course adding another championship will simplify things!

I thought the main problem was the similarity of F2/F3/GP3, and the "in between" spec of FR 3.5. GP2, despite it's massive monopolistic costs is at least the de facto finishing school nowadays, unless you are Red Bull.

As ever the real problem is the profiteering organisers, rather than the ladder itself. The FIA ought to choose series at steps between Karting and F1 and award them FIA status, regardless of commercial interests, and get on with it...even renaming the with the "FIA Formula..." where ever possible.. Job done.

If only it were that simple, eh?!

The only improved clarity I can see in F4 is that it fits numerically (if you ignore GP2, GP3, FR3.5, etc).

I'm intrigued at the £35k cost for a private entrant. That's pretty good for modern motorsport.

Not sure about the specs of the series, though. It appears at first glance to be quite close to F3, which would be bad for F3 as drivers may consider jumping to a higher series if there's little improvement in the car speed for the spend. But it is a tough space to fill between FFord and F3 (personally, I thought it was a good test for a driver to make the jump).

@Elephino,
The specs are closer to FFord with wings (or FFord 2000) than F3.
They are aiming for it to be a step between karting and F3. At a guess, the market they're attempting to fill is the Formula Renault one...

I suppose it will all boil down to whether people take the championship seriously enough that winners find it makes finding sponsors easier. And for that, only time will tell.

I understand your concern about this series, but actually I think they've hit the nail on the head here.

The proper Junior Formulae have been hit hard recently, Frenault UK has fallen by the wayside and RenaultSport have announced yet another car change to a Barazi Epsilon/Tatuus hybrid (old tub but pretty much every body panel is new). FPA disappeared a couple of years ago and this was the cheapest entry into the single seater market with a good package, FBMW dried up and went through a number of changes that now limits entrants by age, and FFord's new car has been as much of a flop as Renault's. Dare we even consider FVauxhall and FVauxhall Junior that disappeared at the end of the '90s or the stillborn Junior Formula Ford project of 2009 - turned into FFord Academy which lasted half a season and the budget for that was close to F4!

We can look even further into this with the current options to karting graduates being FRenault BARC (same price point as proposed for F4 but on a weaker backage), FVee which has nothing like the support of either, Club FFord which is weak at best, and 750MC's F4 series for retired cars with a few modifications (it's not tightly controlled mind) that hasn't really taken off.

What the BRDC have done here goes beyond the numerical logic of F4, F3, F2 and then F1. Yes, Derek Warwick and MSV have simplified all of this, and that helps a young driver when trying to find sponsorship.

In the past, if I'd said to the average person I raced in any of the aforementioned junior series, they'd look at me with more than a puzzled expression, and surely I'd resort to saying "like a baby F1 car". But now it's much easier, I don't need to add fluff or dumb down a pitch, I just say its F4, it's 3 tiers lower than F1. That's a real racing ladder!

So it works in that sense, but it also fits with the reduced cost formula that Dr Palmer and MSV have been so great at producing (I think F2 needs to go quicker but that's it). The prizes on offer aren't insignificant either. There is never a situation where winning one series guarantees promotion to the next, there is usually a nice cheque that will help but that's it.

So what does the 2013 British F4 Champion get?

- A £25k scholarship to move to F3.
- A Carlin F3 test (that itself is a good 3-5k).
- BRDC SuperStar status (a money can't buy prize that means far more to a driver than you'd think).
- A shout at entering the McLaren Autosport Award (which can add another £100k to the coffers, plus a whole host of other bonuses).

Entering F3 and being competitive will cost at least £400k, and to go about winning it you're looking £600-750k without so much as a batted eyelid!

Factoring in all of that then, this series not only looks good, it's got driver's asking "Where's the catch?".

Luke

Well I'm a driver so it helps to have a differing perspective sometimes. The FIA backing would be great but the BRDC have gotten behind it and that's huge. We have to take small steps here because this is essentially the new FPA just not in name, in time I think the FIA could get behind it so here's how I'd like to see the ladder.

National F4 Series > FIA European F4 Series > FIA European F3 (There is a proposed Euroseries/British F3 merger) > FIA Formula Two (these need to go faster to justify it) > F1.

To compound things, I can tell you that on this side of the market, there are rumblings of a breakaway series yet again, so we could see rivals in the form of GP3 > GP2 > GP1 (seems to be a logical name no?). These rumblings seem to be rooted in the camp of a certain Mr E. As ever I don't know if much will come of it but Ferrari might support it if it follows the lower cost route they've said they'd like...

Anyway, back on topic, there is no major junior Formula in the UK any more, and so this could be good. If you think to run in a lower cost, less competitive team in BARC FRenault this year was the same as the proposed F4 cost then it seems that this series could see an exodus of drivers given F4's package being much better.

Who knows, the deal is that I blog on racing, I'm opinionated, a driver and I'm trying to race F4 next year so I must've seen something in it :)

Luke

@Luke, @Kate

Right... now that I have had a bit of time to think about it, here's my thoughts.

Before starting off, I wish the organisers and competitors all the best and I'll no doubt find myself at some of the rounds (although after this post, I may not be able to obtain a press pass).
It might not seem like it, but I am actually very positive about junior formula racing, but I am struggling to see any benefit to adding another category to the mix, when a more solidified structure is what is desperately needed.

£25,000 scholarship prize for F3 is nice, but it pales somewhat in comparison when a champion in one can do the various Formula Renault's in Europe gets the entire budget of the next step paid for.
While £25,000 is still an excellent prize, is it really enough of an incentive or will it be more widely seen as a lip-service prize?

Sam Collins from Racecar Engineering hit the nail right on the head the other day with regards to complete lack of mechanical scope offered by the series.
Junior drivers need to be more exposed - not less - to the mechanical aspects of tuning and setting up their machines, yet by limiting mechanical changes to the cars by regulation, drivers may be starved of this aspect.
For the opposite version of this, the French Formula 4 Series as promoted by the FFSA in conjunction with the Autosport Academy needs to be applauded and copied. It should be no surprise that the recent influx of French and Swiss drivers to Formula 1, GP2 and WEC are nearly all graduates of this programme.

Formula Renault UK disappeared for a number of reasons - mostly due to costs pumped up by license fees and a new car that was too complex and expensive for any practical use at that level.

Formula Palmer Audi failed because it was no better than a bog standard clubman series with (often) poor drivers and an irrelevant package that led to nowhere - the less said about Formula Vee and Vauxhaul, the better.
Meanwhile, F2* is generally seen as an irrelevant mess - why would anyone want to get trapped there, when it's barely on par with GP3 in terms of technology or talent or coverage.
There may be an announcement in a few weeks regarding the future structure of Formula Ford GB.
FRUK is still very much in the "we'll see" department.

BARC Formula Renault - for all its faults - has done rather well to shore up some of the gaps presented by the disappearance of FRUK, but that too is a not highly regarded series in the grand sheme of things for a reason.

As for the FIA, they had been toying with the idea of a wingless Formula 4 in 2010**, but that went quietly away before the year was out.

To conclude, make it simple - give drivers a tub, with wheels and engine and let them (with the help of engineers) tinker with it and work it out for themselves. And then let them race.

----
*There was an interesting argument over the Monza weekend by Will Buxton, where he noted that the likes of Formula 2 or GP2 could easily be professional series' in much the way F2 kind of was in the 60s and 70s. In its co-billing with European GT Open, there is scope there to create a "professional" category, catering to those who are quality racers, but who are not good enough for F1. Of course, that will never happen...

**The FIA did not want to emphasis a primary manufacturer, so they essentially proposed Formula Ford, but not necessarily a Ford product as it were.