The 2011 Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series (an international

motor racing An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gene ...

series), was the 61st British Formula 3 International Series season. The season began on 16 April at

Monza Monza (, ; ; , locally ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the Lambro, River Lambro, a tributary of the Po (river), River Po, in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capital of the province of Mo ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

and ended on 9 October at

Silverstone Silverstone is a village and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England. The village is about south-southwest of Towcester and northeast of Brackley, both accessed via the A43 road, A43 main ...

after 30 races held at ten meetings. Of those meetings, six were held in the United Kingdom, with overseas rounds at Monza, the

Nürburgring The () is a 150,000-person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Grand Prix motor racing, Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long configuration, built in the 1920s ...

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, Paul Ricard in

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, and Spa in

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. Brazilian driver Felipe Nasr dominated the series, winning seven races and recording 16 top three finishes over the first eight rounds of the series, putting him 123 points ahead of Nasr's Carlin Motorsport teammate, Danish driver

Kevin Magnussen Kevin Jan Magnussen (; born 5 October 1992) is a Danish racing driver, who competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship for W Racing Team, WRT and the IMSA SportsCar Championship for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, RLL as a factory driver f ...

, giving him an unassailable lead in the championship with two rounds still in hand.

Regulation changes

A number of changes were announced for the season, with pit-stops set to be introduced in the third race of each round, but this plan was later abandoned in July 2011. The championship's class system – Championship and National – was also renamed to the International and Rookie Championships. The Rookie winner will receive a fully paid entry to the 2012 International Championship.

Drivers and teams

Driver changes

; Changed Teams * William Buller will change teams for his second season in British F3 moving from Hitech Racing to Fortec Motorsport. Lucas Foresti will also join Fortec Motorsport, having completed his rookie season with Carlin. * After driving for Räikkönen Robertson Racing in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, Carlos Huertas and Felipe Nasr will join Carlin. * After three seasons with his family-run CF Racing outfit, Hywel Lloyd will move to Sino Vision Racing to partner Adderly Fong. ; Entering/Re-Entering British Formula 3 International Series * After finishing runner-up to Robin Frijns in Formula BMW Europe, Jack Harvey moved to Carlin. Another Formula BMW Europe graduate, Fahmi Ilyas competed with Fortec Motorsport. *

and Pipo Derani moved from the Motopark Academy team that competed in German F3 to compete in the championship. Magnussen drove for Carlin, while Derani raced for Double R Racing. * Formula Three Sudamericana champion Yann Cunha moved into the series full-time and partnered National class champion Menasheh Idafar at T-Sport. Cunha competed at the second Silverstone meeting with CF Racing in

. * After two seasons in Formula Renault UK, Harry Tincknell competed for Fortec Motorsport. * Bart Hylkema moved into the series from the Formula Renault Eurocup, to compete in the secondary Rookie Cup for T-Sport. He was joined in the Rookie Cup by

Kotaro Sakurai is a Japanese former racing driver. Sakurai raced under Filipino license in Formula BMW Pacific and in the GP3 Series. Career Karting Sakurai began his racing career in karting at the age of nine and raced in Japan and Australia. Formula B ...

, who moved from the now-defunct Formula BMW Pacific series to compete for Hitech Racing. * Pietro Fantin moved into the series from Formula Three Sudamericana. He will compete for Hitech Racing, the team he raced for in three meetings in 2010 when he was competing in the Invitation Class. He was joined by Formula Renault UK race-winner Riki Christodoulou, who returned to the championship after a season's absence, and Bruno Méndez, who competed in Formula Renault 3.5 in 2010. * British Formula Ford champion Scott Pye moved into the championship, driving for Double R Racing. ; Leaving British Formula Three * After contesting a part season in Formula Renault 3.5 for Tech 1 Racing outside of commitments in British F3, 2010 champion Jean-Éric Vergne moved into the series full-time with Carlin. Third-placed Oliver Webb and ninth-placed Daniel McKenzie also moved into the series for Pons Racing and Comtec Racing respectively. * Runner-up in 2010 James Calado moved into the

GP3 Series The GP3 Series, or GP3 for short, was a single-seater motor racing series launched in 2010 as a feeder series for the GP2 Series, introduced by GP2 organiser Bruno Michel. GP3 followed the entire European leg of the Formula One series and the ...

with ART Grand Prix. * Daisuke Nakajima returned to his native Japan to compete in Formula Nippon, having finished in eleventh place for Räikkönen Robertson Racing. * Alex Brundle returned to FIA Formula Two Championship, having competed in the series' inaugural season in

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

. He was joined by Max Snegirev and National Class runner-up James Cole.

Race calendar and results

* A provisional ten-round calendar was announced on 16 October 2010, before this was altered again on 26 November 2010. The Nürburgring meeting was moved from September to July on 4 February 2011. The first and third races at the Spa-Francorchamps round were also points-scoring for the FIA Formula 3 International Trophy. * ¹ Fastest lap recorded by Roberto Merhi, but he was ineligible to score the fastest lap point. * ² Fastest lap recorded by

Hannes van Asseldonk Hannes van Asseldonk (born 10 January 1992) is a retired Dutch racing driver, who most recently competed in the Formula 3 Euro Series for Fortec Motorsport. Career Karting and junior formulae Born in Boekel, Netherlands as the only son of f ...

, but he was ineligible to score the fastest lap point.

Championship standings

References

External links

The official website of the British Formula 3 Championship
{{British F3 Seasons British Formula Three Championship seasons Formula Three season

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

British Formula 3 Championship