The Oschersleben Thriller
(07.10.2010) Seven months after the season kick-off held at the same venue, on the first October weekend, the eighth ATS Formula 3 Cup season also ended at the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben. Throughout its 18-round season, Germany’s fastest single-seater series provided the spectators thrilling races - but even a gifted thriller author would have had his problems to come up with something more dramatic than the season finale. It just couldn’t have been more thrilling and exciting. And on Sunday evening, two young men could celebrate: the new champion Tom Dillmann and rookie-cup winner Kevin Magnussen.
The event
The ATS Formula 3 Cup season finale again was held within the framework of the ADAC Masters Weekend. Just as it had been the case in the previous seasons, the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben staged both season kick-off and season finale. And the ATS Formula 3 Cup wasn’t the only series providing the crowds thrilling motor racing as the battle for the titles ADAC GT Masters and ADAC Procar also was taken down to the final rounds on Sunday.
Even the weather gods seemed to be fascinated: despite the rather low temperatures, the entire race weekend could be held in dry and mostly sunny conditions. And on Sunday, the final day of the season, teams, drivers and crowds even were delighted by clearly higher temperatures.
Paddock news
The German Formula 3 Association set the course for the future, at Oschersleben: from 2012, the ATS Formula 3 Cup will be contested with exclusive control engines supplied by Volkswagen Motorsport. The typical 2-litre Formula 3 engine is called ‘Volkswagen Power Engine’ and delivers 250bhp. It’s a design without expensive and fragile lightweight-construction components and so, the revision intervals could be extended to 10,000 kilometres. Furthermore, a ‘Push-to-Pass’ system is supposed to make for even more excitement and overtaking manoeuvres. By pressing the boost button, the horsepower output is increased for 10 seconds from 215 to 248bhp.
Traditionally, the ATS Formula 3 Cup held its end-of-season party on Sunday evening in the Motoparkhotel Oschersleben. During the course of the event, the top-eight of the Cup ranking, the top-five of the Trophy-ranking and the best team, HS Technik Motorsport, were presented with their trophies. Some of the teams left the gala rather early as they wanted to be fit for the tests on Monday while others partied the night away.
Driver of the weekend
...was Tom Dillmann - the new ATS Formula 3 Cup Champion. He deservedly clinched his title in the arguably most dramatic race of the entire season. Altogether, he secured 6 race wins, a total of 9 podiums and 7 pole positions and set 10 fastest race laps. And only once, he failed to score points in a race.
Grid news
The Oschersleben grid featured three new drivers, with the debut of Klaus Bachler representing a particular delight. In a massive crash during the pre-season tests at Hockenheim, the Austrian had suffered serious back injuries. So, he had to wait for his debut up to the season finale. But what a debut it was: he contested the two rounds of the season finale with URD Rennsport and secured the fine fifth place in both races.
At the same time, Dutch Nigel Melker also made his Cup debut and Russia’s Mikhail Aleshi contested his maiden Trophy races. In the season to date, Melker had competed in the GP3 with Mücke Motorsport. Aleshi replaced Germany’s Riccardo Brutschin at the wheel of the Arttech F24 OPC-Challenge as the Trophy Champion raced in the Cup ranking, for STROMOS Artline.
With Willi Steindl, another driver could add his name to the ATS Formula 3 Cup winners’ list. Now, a total of eight winners made it to the series’ record book. It was the first Formula 3 win for the 18-year old Austrian - the perfect way to conclude a season.
The races
In race one, Daniel Abt succeeded in keeping his championship chances alive. He passed the pole-sitter, his team-mate Stef Dusseldorp, right at the start and took the lead, with Tom Dillmann following in second position. Furthermore, Abt scored the extra point for the fastest race lap, thus reducing the lead of Dillmann to just seven points.
The second round on Sunday proved to be a true thriller. The first start resulted in a serious crash. Stef Dusseldorp had stalled his engine and Jimmy Eriksson just couldn’t avoid hitting the Dutchman’s car. Following the re-start, Abt held the lead with Dillmann again following in second position. Later, the German dropped back due to a technical problem but then, he witnessed Dillmann retiring due to a fuel-pump failure. But in the closing stages of the race, his Dallara Volkswagen also was forced into early retirement - by a broken lambda sensor. A particularly bitter blow for Abt as he did not only lose the championship but the rookie title, too. The latter was surprisingly won by Kevin Magnussen while Willi Steindl was the lucky race winner.
The results in the different rankings
In the championship, Tom Dillmann scored a total of 120 points in the 18 races, eight more than the runner-up, Daniel Abt. Due to his early retirement in the Sunday round, Dutchman Stef Dusseldorp lost his third position to Kevin Magnussen and had to settle for finishing fourth. While Felix Rosenqvist came fifth, in his first Formula 3 season. Altogether, 18 drivers succeeded in scoring points, with Cup newcomer Klaus Bachler scoring eight points in his debut weekend at Oschersleben.
For Kevin Magnussen, it was a particularly pleasant season finale. Due to Daniel Abt’s retirement in the final race, the Dane surprisingly won the ‘SONAX Rookie-Pokal’ with 128 points on his tally. Three points behind, Abt followed in second position, with Felix Rosenqvist (106 points) finishing third.
The battle for the ATS Formula 3 Trophy title had been over as early as at the Nürburgring: Riccardo Brutschin won the title and his team-mate Alexey Karachev finished runner-up, ahead of Aki Sandberg. The ‘AvD Speedpokal’ was dominated by Tom Dillmann with 17 points for 7 poles and pole positions and 10 fastest race laps. Daniel Abt again came second - with 11 extra points - and a total of five drivers succeeded in scoring points for this ranking.