5
with an eye on next year. In effect, a more
powerful car might well cause the same sized
tyres to wear out more quickly, but we have
not yet reached the effective limit of the GP3
tyres so we don’t know to what extent, if any,
they will degrade».
What is the expected working life of this car?
«
Three years, as usual».
In future, will we see a decrease in the
number of single-seater categories, as
Gerhard Berger suggests, or do you think it is
in the interests of the teams and drivers to
ensure that the various championships
continue to survive?
«
It’s difficult to say. Everyone has been saying
that there are too many single-seater categories
for seven or eight years now. In reality, only
the SuperLeague and A1 GP have disappeared,
and even that was replaced by Auto GP. I think
that the advent of GP3 caused the decline of
Euroseries Formula 3, but was also responsible
for the development of a number national
championships. The number of places in GP3
is limited, the budget is quite large, therefore it
was only natural – unfortunately – that
Euroseries would become less important, while
the German, British, Spanish and, hopefully,
Italian F.3 competitions became more
important, even though, at the present, the
latter championship is not in the best of
health. There’s no denying that the crisis has
affected everyone. In the future I would expect
the FR 2.0 , F.3, GP3, World Series and GP2
categories - and naturally Indycar in America
–
to do well. To be honest, I don’t know how
the rest survive, since they have to face the
same difficulties as the categories I just
mentioned, but without the benefits of a large
organisation to support them. I think that it’s
important to maintain some degree of variety,
although a little pruning may be necessary.
Ideally, everyone should ask themselves how
they can reduce costs. At Dallara we are
always being asked to keep costs to a
minimum, and we do whatever we can. If
everyone were to follow this lead it would not
be a bad thing, despite the inherently high
costs involved in this sport, and the increasing
difficulty of finding drivers at the right budget.
To summarise: discover good drivers, the true
talents, on the right budget».
Stefano Semeraro
