The weekend at Lausitzring was not only a significant weekend in relation to racing; strings were pulled in the background. After all, it was the occasion of this year’s annual meeting of the ATS Formula 3 Cup. Instead of the meeting in December as in the past, the members came together at Lausitzring at the weekend. On the one hand, the goal was to leverage synergies since all those responsible for the fastest German Formula series were present. On the other hand, it offers the chance to implement decisions more flexibly until the end of the year. Mote than twenty members with voting power gathered for the annual meeting, including the board of the Formula 3 Association, team principals, partners and supporters of the Formula sports. The future of the Formula 3 Cup was one of the topics.
Motorsports is going through some turbulent times. Fewer drivers, fewer sponsors and fewer opportunities for teams to contest different series. This also affects the ATS Formula 3 Cup. “We would like to have an average of more than twenty drivers competing. We do not reach that number at the moment. We have bottomed out though,” says the First Chairman, Bertram Schäfer. “We are expecting 24 cars competing at our season final at Hockenheim.” Just like at Lausitzring now, new drivers are testing themselves and their race cars in the current Formula 3 grid, in order to get a first impression for the 2014 season of the German Formula 3 series.
100% ADAC GT Masters
So far the ATS Formula 3 Cup is a registered national series with the DMSB. The goal is an international registration with the FIA, in order to contest abroad more than once in the future. “We value our professional partner, the ADAC, and would like to make a clear commitment for 2014. We consider the entire ADAC GT Masters package our home,” says Schäfer. “First talks have taken place and we are very optimistic.” It has not been discussed yet if another, additional event will be on the ATS Formula 3 Cup calendar.
Planning reliability for 2014
Those responsible will be holding more talks with the FIA, the DMSB and the ADAC about the future of the ATS Formula 3 Cup and start working on implementing and finalising decisions as soon as possible. Thus, the idea of an early annual meeting brought the first success. After the homework is done, teams and drivers benefit from planning reliability for the next season.