2013 Challenge Austrian Grand Prix

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Flag of Austria.png   2013 Challenge Austrian Grand Prix
Race details
Round 3 of the 2013 Formula Challenge season
A1-Ring.png
Date 26th March, 2013
Event 2013 Challenge Austrian Grand Prix
Location Red Bull Ring, Spielberg, Styria, Austria
Course Permanent racing facility
2.688 mi / 4.326 km
Distance 18 laps, 48.384 mi / 77.868 km (each race)
Weather Race 1: Damp track; Race 2: Dry
Pole position
Driver England Oscar Hardwick BackMarker Brigade
Time 1:20.712
Race One Podium
First England Oscar Hardwick BackMarker Brigade
Second Romania Emanuel Gaczella Storm Racing Team
Third Finland Ari Nieminen Karjala Racing
Race One Fastest Lap
Driver England Oscar Hardwick BackMarker Brigade
Time 1:19.925 (on lap 18)
Race Two Podium
First Romania Emanuel Gaczella Storm Racing Team
Second Sweden Martin Palm Karjala Racing
Third England Ryan Gilmore SimInk Motorsport
Race Two Fastest Lap
Driver Romania Emanuel Gaczella Storm Racing Team
Time 1:18.829 (on lap 17)

The 2013 Challenge Austrian Grand Prix – the third round of the 2013 season – took place at the Red Bull Ring near Spielberg, Styria, on the 26th of March. The round consisted of 2 races of 18 laps each. The customary Surprise Winner this week was Oscar Hardwick, driving for the inaptly named BackMarker Brigade, who took pole as well as victory and fastest lap in Race One. Race Two victory and fastest lap went to Emanuel Gaczella, who ominously shot through the field in the early laps and disappeared into the distance.

The round marked a key point in the championship, with Gaczella making a decisive move in Race One to get ahead of main rival Ari Nieminen. Nieminen, who had in the first two rounds developed a reputation, and a championship lead, through consistently finishing on the podium, then had a terrible Race 2, finishing well outside the points. Gaczella, who heading into the Round trailed Nieminen by just a few points, now shot into the lead.

Besides Hardwick's great showing, there were several stand-out performances including from newcomers David Fidock, the latest driver in at SimInk, and Martin Palm who partnered Nieminen for the first time. Menno Klont was very unlucky to miss out on a podium in Race 2, literally being forced into the pit lane, through no fault of his own, by a spectacular crash just before the final corner.

Austria marked the first round of the season in which neither race was affected by rain. Nevertheless, Race One started with a damp track. Despite the constant sunshine, with ambient temperatures well below freezing, the track, especially off the racing line, remained damp for virtually the entire race. Race Two however was completely dry.

Unfortunately, the round was still plagued by startline controversies, with the start of Race One appearing like there had been a unfortunate scheduling clash between the race itself and a re-enactment of 1987 Austrian Grand Prix. With 9 drivers out before the end of the first lap, there was considerable criticism from some quarters that the race was not restarted, although perhaps it was a fear of further continuing the 1987 theme with the potential for many, many restarts, that affected the decision not to do so. As it happened, the start of Race 2 was considerably less destructive; furthermore, the league's administration would announce a review of start procedures following the round, which ultimately led to the mandatory use of launch control being introduced for the next round at Hungary.

Report

Background

If there had been any thoughts that a slight decline in the number of participants seen at Malaysia may have constituted a trend then Austria proved them premature, with the number of participants at the A1-Ring matching those seen at the opening round at Melbourne. However, like Malaysia, the numbers present represented a mix of returning drivers and newcomers. Erik Tveit was the only driver after Malaysia to leave an empty seat.

There were a number of driving changes between the two rounds. Perhaps most notably, Ghovand Keanie, who had infamously split with SimInk minutes after the previous race, had signed to drive for Sisu Grand Prix. He took the seat that had been occupied to that point by reserve driver William Neron, who left the team and joined Viking Racing as a permanent replacement to the absent Fabio Fontana. At Epic Racing, Louis Wedekind replaced Lee Davidson.

Nadir Khan, originally a SimInk driver, and who missed Malaysia, reappeared in Austria driving for the topically-named Multi21 Racing Team, which appeared to be a SimInk offshoot. He was one of several drivers, along with several teams, to reappear at Austria, having missed Malaysia. Others included Wopke Hoekstra, relieving Bradley Vanian at Optimum SimRacing; Tim-Oliver Wagner at Velocity Racing; Lee Palmer at Viking Racing and Jack Nichols at JRT, both marking the return of their respective teams as well; the Antec Racing team of Sven Schubert and Jan Schwitter made their comeback, though technical problems left them unable to compete in Race One; Jon MacLean also returned at Measuric Racing.

Jarl Teien made a fleeting reappearance, driving for the new nFinity eSports Racing, though he started neither race. Besides nFinity and Multi21, another new team was SGP Racing, represented by newcomer Jonathon Provost. Provost was one of several new drivers. The other new names included the previously-mentioned Wedekind at Epic Racing, David Fidock at SimInk Motorsports and Martin Palm at Karjala Racing, Simon Smith in the BackMarker Brigade and Danny Asbury in the returning Rapid Raptor Racing.

In terms of grid penalties being carried over from previous rounds, Keanie had a 15-place penalty, while Patrick Fogel, Benjamin Zerche, Mike Schroten, Matt Webb and William Neron all had 5-place penalties. Bradley Vanian also had a 5-place grid penalty from Malaysia, but did not attend Austria. Tim-Oliver Wagner also had a 5-place penalty, carried over from the Australian round.

Qualifying

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Race One

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Race Two

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Post-race

Immediately after the meeting, the decision not to restart Race One proved to be a topic for heated debate. Various suggestions were put forward in order to help solve the seemingly irreparable state of race starts in Formula Challenge. Some suggested splitting the field into different classes – and ergo different races – with others talked of limited grid sizes and/or private qualifying to better sort the grid, while others sought to address improving the reliability of the server, strained by the vast number of users. The Administration was quite adamant against the idea of splitting the grid up, and showed no regret in not restarting the race; however, the issue of poor starts was acknowledged and an internal review launched. This review ultimately ruled that for the following round onwards, all FC cars would be required to use Launch Control at the start of each race, ideally to minimise wheel spin and allow all cars to accelerate away from the grid at relatively-equal speed. These changes were seen at Hungary, and although not flawless, the starts were greatly improved.

Penalties following the race were less profound, compared with at Malaysia, with only two drivers receiving time penalties; Mike Schroten and Nadir Khan were both penalised 20 seconds for chatting during one of the races; as it happened, only Schroten had been in a point-paying position at the time anyway. William Neron was also penalised for this offence, however as it was clear that he had genuinely attempted to "whisper" and only displayed live text by accident, he was only given a Warning. Jonathon Provost was also served with a Warning for an unsafe re-join during one of the races. Qualifying proved to be the source of the majority of the penalties. Ghovand Keanie, Calvin Hermse and Tuomas Koriala were given 5 grid place penalties each for breaking Pit Lane Etiquette, while Keanie, Jan Schwitter, Ed Williams and Adrian McNaughton were similarly penalised for Escaping & Rejoining. Keanie was in fact given a double penalty for this, as it was his second offence in that regard.

The Austrian round would prove to be Keanie's last race in FC to date. Following further blatant transgressions in the World GT and World Sport Series rounds the following week, the league's admins had had enough and revoked his racing licence, effectively banning him from all official GPVWC competitions. Keanie parted ways with Sisu and Tuomas Koriala, but was encouraged to stay with the Vod:Bul organisation, and currently serves as the team's Testing Manager, no doubt surprising, and quite possibly alarming a few drivers when he reappeared driving a Tanskanen during unofficial test sessions leading up to the Hungarian round.

Cumulative penalty table

Driver Team Penalties Violations Notes
Ghovand Keanie Sisu +15 grid places, 3 Penalty Points Escape & Rejoin; Pit Lane Etiquette (Qualifying) Second offence (Escape & Rejoin)
Jan Schwitter Antec +5 grid places, 1 Penalty Point Escape & Rejoin
Ed Williams Tanskanen +5 grid places, 1 Penalty Point Escape & Rejoin
Adrian McNaughton Storm +5 grid places, 1 Penalty Point Escape & Rejoin
Calvin Hermse Wauters +5 grid places, 1 Penalty Point Pit Lane Etiquette (Qualifying)
Tuomas Koriala Sisu +5 grid places, 1 Penalty Point Pit Lane Etiquette (Qualifying)
Mike Schroten Wauters +20 seconds, 1 Penalty Point Chatting Unclear which race and results
Nadir Khan Multi21 +20 seconds, 1 Penalty Point Chatting (x2) Unclear which race and results
William Neron Viking Warning Chatting Warning given due to failed whisper attempt
Jonathon Provost SGP Warning Unsafe rejoin Unclear which race

Results


Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings
Pos Driver Points
1 Romania Emanuel Gaczella 120
2 Finland Ari Nieminen 97
3 England Ryan Gilmore 84
4 England Adrian McNaughton 44
5 Netherlands Wopke Hoekstra 34

Constructors' Championship standings
Pos Constructor Points
1 Romania Storm Racing Team 164
2 Finland Karjala Racing 125
3 Australia SimInk Motorsport 107
4 England Optimum SimRacing 46
5 England Royal Blue Racing 46

  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

Image Gallery

External links

Preceded by:
2013 Challenge Malaysian Grand Prix
GPVWC Formula Challenge season
2013
Succeeded by:
2013 Challenge Hungarian Grand Prix