Friday 17th November 2017. This day was the day World Series Formula V8 3.5 was confirmed to be folding. For good. I haven't seen many people talking about this. And in all honesty, I haven't watched the series since it split from Renault. But this is a sad and important goodbye. One in which I wanted to talk a bit about.
First of, what was World Series Formula V8 3.5?
Well, it was a junior single seater series starting in 1998 as World Series by Nissan before switching to Formula Renault 3.5 in 2005 and then a final change to what it is known as today, World Series Formula V8 3.5 which happened in 2016. And now, after the current season, 2017; the series will be no more due to a lack of entries.
Loosing this series is a blow to those trying to reach Formula One. Over the years it has proved a very popular feeder series and was a personal favourite with the Red Bull Junior Team. And, to this day, a number of drivers including the likes of Formula One 4x World Champion; Sebastian Vettel and Formula One drivers Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz Jr, Kevin Magnussen and Stoffel Vandoorne among others have graduated into the big time. So why has the fate of this championship been caused by a lack of entries?
There are probably a number of reasons for the decline in entries. One that comes to mind is the thing everyone talks about; finances and expenses. Motorsport is a "money-guzzling" business, whether you're a driver or team owner, it's expensive.
But as mentioned before, "there are a number of reasons." And, what I am about to talk about is what I think is motorsport's main current problem. Formula One drivers are getting younger. These youngsters, like Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll, are skipping the most important feeder series, the series where they should be getting the most experience in preparation for Formula One. And they're not the only ones. Ex-Toro Rosso and Red Bull driver Daniil Kvyat went to straight to Formula One from GP3, as did Valterri Bottas although he had a gap year as reserve driver for Williams. But still. Is this the new trend? Karting to Formula Three to Formula One? Will we see more feeder series die? I hope not.