Lehdistötiedotteet - F3 Masters of Season 28 Ultimate Review

F3 Masters of Season 28 Ultimate Review

We've had a season full of action, fun, excitement, thrill, glory, bust-ups, tears and celebrations. we started from Pau, visiting Monaco, Zandvoort, Spa before we left Europe to go to the streets of Macau in China (technically), Rafael Drummond conquered the first ever invitational with a rounds spare with the likes of Palmu, Valenta Jr, Evans and even the 24 year olds Szybki and Vilanova holding on to the more experienced and older guns. The Brazilian was no doubt a favourite to win and started off with domination at Pau while Evans and Valenta Jr. who were set to challenge Drummond banged into each other, it allowed Palmu and Szybki to sneak through but still give him a run of his money, Drummond won again at Monaco in the Sprint Race before a safety car spiced everything up and sent him out of the running before crashing out, allowing a closer fight for the win, went down to the wire with 22 year old Italian, Paolo Nannini forcing Valenta Jr. to come in too hot as he dealt with the pressure beautifully to take home what was a shock win, Dawid Melnarowicz Jr, the young Pole another one who came through the chaos finished right behind him, Bartek Szybki, his highly rated fellow countrymen, always lurking and Vincent Ritter, the young Frenchman showing what he's worth too and let's not forget Mack Zaggro, the young Brit delivering his best result after pulling the bravest moves in the event. Zandvoort saw new winners as well, Drummond started from pole but mixed conditions came to play in the Sprint and Palmu added a win to his name as he took adantvage with the perfect timing, Terry Fullerton also taking adantvage as well and Petter Solberg Jr. bringing in his best weekend also, but in the Feature, Bartek Szybki finally took the win he was waiting for after Sprint Race Winner Jukka Palmu caused a train after breaking a piece on his car, allowing Szybki to overcut Terry Fullerton who failed to past the ailing Finn and Vincent Ritter who ran a very brave 2 stop instead of a 1 stop but failed to snatch the podium off Melnarowicz. Spa saw Harvey Evans finding his mojo too little too late after a few disasterous meetings, winning both races while dealing with the pressure from Zahara Starwing and leader Rafael Drummond, but the biggest moment was when we saw Bartek Szybki and Jukka Palmu saw both of their title challenges take a turn worst in the Sprint when they collided on the way to Les Combes, taking a few points away when they needed it the most coming into Macau, both of them more than a race win's worth behind Rafael Drummond, Drummond ended their title challenges when he dominated the Sprint and this time dealing with the mixed conditions better when safety car came out at the right time and just never looked back. Now it's time for the driver by driver review.

Rafael Drummond:
Champion, 160 points, best result: 1st (x4)
Won the championship, no surprise but dominate it? Defintely a surprise, against the likes of few who are highly rated, just brought it home when he needed to at the most and just continued showing everyone who's the boss. Took 4 out of 5 pole positions, only time he wasn't on pole was at Spa where he finished 2nd behind Harvey Evans, easily the best qualifier, 4 wins, the most out of anyone, Harvey Evans, 2nd with 3. and 5 fastest laps, again the most, Ludek Valenta behind with 2. He just dominated the whole thing really.

Jukka Palmu:
2nd, 128 points, best result: 1st
Very underrated driver, the calm, cool and chilled Finn was the most consistent driver out of anyone, finished all his races inside the top 10, only 1 DNF was at Monaco due to a mechanical failure, but he was right up there at Pau and took home a sweet win at Zandvoort, getting it right under mixed conditions but was denied the double after a piece on his car fell off causing him to lose drag. Spa was a bit of a turning point to his challenge with the collision with Szybki but he can walk away proud with winning the best of the rest awards.

Harvey Evans:
3rd, 118 points, best result: 1st (x3)
Defintely the unluckiest driver this season, we were kind of robbed a battle against Drummond, collision at the very first corner of the invitational to the costly engine failure at Monaco Feature and a very poor weekend at Zandvoort, only scoring 3 points the whole meeting!!! But check out his final 4 races, won 3 of them and finished 2nd in another one proving that he was the 2nd fastest after all.

Bartek Szybki:
4th, 118 points, best result: 1st, best U24
Started off annoying the big guns constantly asking them to steal some wins, his wish finally got accepted at Zandvoort when he set fast consistent laps at the crucial moment to make the overcut successful, but then things went backwards in the final 2 meetings with a collision with another contender and a strategy mistake (Monaco Sprint deja vu) denying him to have a proper fight for the title but unlike the big guns, he will be back next year to get his title wish and also expands his highly known talents further.

Ludek Valenta Jr.
5th, 94 points, best result: 2nd
Proven that he can fight for wins but the title wasn't there for him as things didn't go right for him (Pau, Zandvoort, Monaco Feature) along with a few errors but he's a very talented driver and he can go further. Didn't have a good start at Pau with that first corner collision with Harvey Evans and as the season progressed, his results progressed too.

Terry Fullerton:
6th, 88 points, best result: 2nd (x2)
Started off poorly at Pau before he started bringing in some decent results in, middle of the road Monaco and then had stunning meetings at Zandvoort when he took adantvage in the mixed conditions. Had a Pau deja-vu at Spa but it didn't knock him down at Macau with another podium to his name again taking adantvage in the mixed conditions, he is really a huge shout in situations like that and can always take adantvage.

Paolo Nannini:
7th, 82 points, best result: (1st), best U22
I don't know how the other U22s with the likes of Alex Reis and Petter Solberg Jr. are feeling when the young Italian Nannini took a win and still managed to finish that high up in the championship, he just showed that his shock win was no fluke and nothing can be said more about his consistency through out the season, the Spa weekend might've ruined things in the standings but doesn't take away in what was a stellar season for him.

Zahara Starwing:
8th, 80 points, best result: 2nd
Zahara Starwing the Swede, she's the only female in the championship but she doesn't play at all, she still gave the boys a very hard time as well as almost winning at Spa and good overtaking at some races too.

Josh Rush:
9th, 74 points, best result: 4th
Started the season on a high and ended the season on a high, however the middle of it was kind of messy. His Lola car saw him struggle at tracks at Monaco and Zandvoort where there's not alot of starights and just corners.

Vincent Ritter:
10th, 73 points, best result: 3rd
After a forgettable home meeting, he scored points at every round as well as being a contender at Monte Carlo and Zandvoort where one lap qualifying pace mattered the most which he nails every time, he's someone to watch next season.

Steve Wallace:
11th, 73 points, best result: 5th (x2)
His best results came at the 2 opening rounds at Pau after being in the middle of battle against Starwing and Rush, Monaco was a disaster following and the Zandvoort Sprint where he only managed 11th when mixed conditions caught him out but then everything was normal and quiet again, he'll be louder next season just watch.

Dawid Melnarowicz Jr.
12th, 62 points, best result: 2nd
Started off okay at Pau before he came to play at Monaco and Zandvoort with 2 feature podiums, saw himself in 5th in the championship before he slipped down to 12th after having scored only 3 points in the next meetings at Spa and Macau..

Alex Reis:
13th, 41 points, best result: 5th
Good qualifying pace but was inconsistent throughout the season and a bit in the races but he's only young, he's managed to show up to the big boys on the big boy tracks like Monaco where he took his best result with 5th, Spa-Francorchamps where he was impressive and Macau also. He'll be hunting for more next season.

Marc Vilanova:
14th, 40 points, best result: 6th
We've seen how fast he is in the Pau Races, Zandvoort qualifying, Spa races too and Macau races in the wet too where he can fight against the big boys but the results didn't prove it and it was totally out of his control, this season was only a test for the young Spaniard but if he can push the black cat off his back then he'll be a key fighter.

Marc Montane:
15th, 33 points, best result: 8th
Quiet, consistent, but was unlucky to miss out on a couple of big scores this season. He'll just save up the fire that he'll be ready to burn next season.

Petter Solberg Jr.
16th, 30 points, best result: 3rd
After that dream meeting at Zandvoort, things kind of dropped at Spa and Macau but doesn't ruin his decent season.

Angel Holguera:
17th, 28 points, best result: 9th (x2)
Consistent points scorer, best result came at a track he always does well at but his homework for next season will be to dig deeper.

Carl Pietrzak:
18th, 24 points, best result: 8th (x2)
Started well but then his season became a complete mess, needs to be more consistent.

Mack Zaggro:
19th, 23 points, best result: 5th
He's the bravest out of anyone in the whole field but when he gets too brave, it doesn't even pay off for him. He's also failed to score a single point in the 2nd half after what was a decent first half.

Zach Austin:
20th, 11 points, best result: 11th
Race pace and racecraft is sublime but you don't see it often because he started way back in the field on tracks where it's proper tough to overtake at (Pau, Zandvoort, etc.), he'll be back next season even more hungrier.

Bernando Reckziegel:
21st, 6 points, best result: 12th, best U19/I]
Only 19 but he was still impressive to watch. Pulled some very good drives at Monaco Sprint, Spa and Macau Features. He'll have a really bright future.

Tomas Pasek:
[I]22nd, 6 points, best result: 13th (x2)
Got snatched the best U19 award in the very last race but another bright youngster nonetheless.

Honzik Volak Jr.
23rd, 4 points, best result: 12th
Delivered at the very last meeting and managed to get points on the cards before it was too late but he can make some improvements for next season, he's only 21 by the way.

Csabi Szasz:
24th, 3 points, best result: 13th
The Romanian was closer to the points on numerous occasions than you can imagine but at least he's got some onboard, another U19 to watch on in a couple of years.

David Lumbreras Jr.
25th, 1 point, best result: 15th
Points contender but he's missed out some other points on almost every occasion, if he didn't get that 1 point in the opener, imagine how frustrating it could be, but he'll defintely score more than just 1 next season.

Abel Kiraly:
26th, best result: 16th
Close to points in the only races he finished but he needs to finish more, that's why he's missed out.

Władysław Bartoszewski
27th, best result: 16th
Missed out on points in Monaco but was so far behind in the others but at least he finished all of them.

Tony Muller:
28th, best result; 18th
The 18 year old Dutchman impressed for only his lack of experience, had the dream weekend at his home track at Zandvoort and will be able to build something big on him.

Running out of time to do the rest so I'll just do this now..

Fun Facts:
Imbui Jones, Alexandre Seda, Alex Beng Chong, Anthony Lelis and Bruno daCosta all got their best results in the final race of the season without scoring a point
Bottom 3 in standings Tommy Smets, Makoto Mizuhara and Susilo Septaviano Jr all retired in their best finish of the season.


Thank you to everyone who joined in this season and read the articles, the champion and the winners of U24, U22 and U19 will get their awards tomorrow and all the guys who finished every race of the season will get their 1 coin as part of their Mr. Reliable Award.
F3 Masters will be back next season but I doubt they'll be any changes but you DM me your feedback on the series and tell me about any improvements that I should make. Also don't send me any donations for the season savings cause I don't want to end up looking like a Jew :P

Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jBxrkc3XxXM_Z1ZxfS0QdOP1RAzzb3R1H-3_bVnEQTc/

Thanks and see you next season guys