TBK-Light.com

AUTOSPORT says
Marcus Simmons, British F3 correspondent
(Twitter: @MarcusSimmons54)

What a shame that it's come to this.

There's a book waiting to be written on the behind-the-scenes machinations faced by Formula 3 over the past 12 months.

The end result is a European championship that looks phenomenally strong for 2013, but British F3 has taken hits on nearly every front.

With only a handful of drivers signed up for the International class, it is right that SRO, the teams and Cooper acted at this point rather than delaying until the last minute - as happened with Formula Renault UK in 2012.

But now, with only two British F3 rounds set to be held in the UK in 2013 (and even that depends on this initiative working), racegoers in this country are effectively left with hardly any chances to see single-seater racing above the very junior levels.

That leaves further worrying implications for the British motorsport industry.

Do the British-owned teams in F3 and FRenault need to stay in the UK any longer? If not, what are the knock-on effects for the small technology companies that underpin the sport, or even the circuits that rely on income from test days?

It would be easy to be blinded by the relative strength of our national Touring Car and GT championships, but there are some critical issues that need addressing in single-seaters from the very highest levels of our sport's governance.