Palmer returns to F2

Ex-F2 Champion Jonathan Palmer’s MotorSport Vision organisation has won the contract to revive the F2 category – with a car designed by the team with which he made his grand prix debut.

Palmer tendered to run the new low-cost one-make category announced in the summer with a project that had been up and running for some time. MSV had been working on the new car with Williams since the beginning of the year.

No details of the new car have been revealed except that it will be powered by a 1.8-litre Audi engine and that it will be built to F1-level safety standards. The first prototype should run in November.

FIA President Max Mosley said that the deal with Palmer would make ”top-level international single-seater racing available to drivers who at present have difficulty in raising enough money to demonstrate their talent”.

The cars will be centrally run in order to meet the FIA’s target budget for a season’s racing of ¤250,000 (£200,000). Palmer hopes that F2 will join the bill at high-profile championships, including the Le Mans Series, the World Touring Car Championship and the DTM. Mosley revealed that drivers will be able to qualify for the superlicence necessary for graduation to F1 in the new series.

Another one-make single-seater series is bidding to take a more prominent step on the ladder to F1 in 2009. International Formula Master, which supports the WTCC this year, is in talks to race in front of F1 crowds next season, rebranded as GP3. Seven of the eight GP3 rounds could take place at Grands Prix in ’09. The Tatuus-Honda Masters engine-chassis combination will be largely unchanged.