2005 was the first Formula Renault 3.5 season. The champion that year was a Polish driver
called Robert Kubica. Next year, Kubica
made his debut in Formula One, deputising for an ill Jacques Villeneuve at the
Hungarian Grand Prix before getting the race seat permanently when Jacques
Villeneuve and Sauber parted company.
Since then there have 6 seasons of Formula Renault 3.5, with 6 different
champions, but none of these have graduated to Formula One, either directly or
indirectly. Compared to GP2 Series,
where all 7 champions have, at some point, driven in Formula One and 6 of the 7
runners-up have also graduated, Formula Renault 3.5 comes across as not
providing much of a leg-up into Formula One.
Why is this so? I have tried to
come up with some answers:
Formula Renault 3.5
champions have failed to acquit themselves after leaving Formula Renault 3.5
Most of the Formula Renault 3.5 champions have gone from
Formula Renault 3.5 to another series, usually GP2 Series. Despite being champions, however, they have
not looked so good after moving on.
2007’s champion Alvaro Parente got off to a good start in GP2, winning
on his debut, but failed to win again and finished 8th in the
championship. In 2009 he failed to
improve, and he then moved to the now defunct Superleague Formula, where he
also struggled to make much impact.
Giedo van der Garde has competed in GP2 since 2009, but has never
finished higher than 5th in the championship. Bertrand Baguette moved to IndyCar, but only
finished 22nd in his first season.
Mikhail Aleshin was unlucky to have budgetary problems which affected
his time in GP2 in 2011, but when he did race he failed to score a single
point. Hopefully Canadian Robert Wickens
will not continue this trend and will perform well in DTM this season.
Formula Renault 3.5
champions have less sponsorship
In the modern environment, Formula One teams need more than
talent from their drivers. Charles Pic
and Pastor Maldonado, for example, have in part managed to make it to Formula
One because they have rich sponsors in addition to talent behind the
wheel. With the exception of Giedo van
der Garde, who is backed by fashion label McGregor, the drivers who have won
Formula Renault 3.5 have not had large amounts of sponsorship to help them
secure drives in Formula One. Sadly, a
driver with more money behind them will be more able to make it to Formula One
than one with more talent but less money.
The drivers who were
guaranteed a seat in Formula One didn’t win the championship
Although none of the champions have made it to Formula One,
there are still 8 drivers currently in Formula One who have driven in Formula
Renault 3.5 or its predecessors. The
fact that no Formula Renault 3.5 champions have made it to Formula One since
Kubica would be different if Daniel Ricciardo or Jean-Éric Vergne had won the
series instead of being runners-up in 2010 and 2011 respectively. It was always the case that if Red Bull were
going to give any Formula Renault 3.5 drivers a seat in Formula One, it would
be their drivers Ricciardo and Vergne (though ironically the driver that beat
Daniel Ricciardo, Mikhail Aleshin, had been dropped by the Red Bull Junior Team
during the previous season). If there’s
a free seat at Toro Rosso next year, you can be assured that as long as he
doesn’t disgrace himself Lewis Williamson will be in that seat, regardless of
where he finishes this season, not the champion.
Will this change?
There are reasons to be hopeful that this will change. Because Formula Renault 3.5 races are held on
different weekends to Formula One races, a number of teams are now choosing to
run their young drivers in Formula Renault 3.5 so that they can still be
available for testing with the Formula One teams. This was one of the reasons that Red Bull
have preferred to run their drivers in Formula Renault 3.5, rather than GP2,
and Jules Bianchi is combining testing duties for Force India with driving in
Formula Renault 3.5. With the new Dallara
T12 chassis and ZRS03 engine, and the use of a drag reduction system (DRS),
Formula Renault 3.5 looks to be more relevant training for Formula One than it
had previously been, as well as providing plenty of track time for
drivers. I am of the opinion that the
lack of Formula Renault 3.5 champions in Formula One is anomalous, and will be
corrected with time, as there are a number of talented drivers who Formula One teams
cannot afford to overlook.
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