Global Racing Group confirmed its purchase of two F3 Americas cars to vie for the inaugural F3 Americas Championship Powered by Honda championship season slated to start Aug. 3-5 at Pittsburgh International Race Complex, appointing GRG as the first Formula 4 United States Championship Powered by Honda team committed to expand its operation into the next step in SCCA Pro Racing’s formula-spec ladder.
GRG will receive the first two consumer Ligier JS F3 chassis equipped with a set of specially designed Pirelli slicks using Pirelli’s proprietary Formula 1 technology and the 270-horsepower Honda Civic® Type-R® turbocharged K20C1 off the Onroak Automotive production line in July.
“From the day we committed to the F4 U.S. Championship, we have always had a focus on being able to provide the best possible ladder in open-wheel racing for our drivers,” said GRG team principal Christian Pedersen, who operates a fleet of four F4 U.S. cars. “With the addition of the F3 Americas Championship program, we believe a big next step has been made. Drivers will now be able to see a clear path from F4 and F3 to further careers in F2 and ultimately F1. Our business and sporting advisory (which includes Haas Formula One Team driver Romain Grosjean) councils are directly engaged in the entire ladder, so we can provide clear paths and connections. The FIA path is obviously the clearest and most direct, but with the addition of F3 to our program, we believe drivers will now be able to also continue their careers towards IndyCar. With the expected performance from the Onroak F3 cars, we expect that proficient racers in F3 will be able to go to Indy Lights or even directly to IndyCar. That is very similar to how we have seen drivers go straight from F3 to F1 in a few examples over the past few years.”
This next level of open wheel racing will meet the demands of racers and teams, like GRG, looking to grow their capabilities into more sophisticated, powerful machinery. Several performance and safety enhancements were updated for the F3 Americas chassis to meet the most current global Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile safety specifications. Compared to its F4 U.S. counterpart, the F3 chassis features more configurable aero components, increased impact safety structures, greater engine power, two different Pirelli tires and more sophisticated data acquisition.
F3 Americas aligns with the global FIA development ladder philosophy of using common components to provide a cost-efficient, reliable and powerful racing structure as drivers ascend through the levels on their way to U.S. or global racing success. The F3 Americas package meets the FIA price-cap of $134,000 and the top-seven drivers entered in the championship will also receive FIA Super License points to aid in their racing career advancement.
GRG will start testing F3 Americas drivers in the upcoming weeks. Interested drivers should contact Pedersen at: info@globalracinggroup.com.
The first official F3 Americas series test is scheduled at Pittsburgh International Race Complex for July 30-31. More teams have also committed to the series. A team contact list can be found at F3Americas.com.
