A pair of the new Lola B05/30 Formula Three cars will be racing this weekend in the prestigious Marlboro Masters International Formula Three event at Zandvoort in Holland as the official Marlboro backed team.
Powered by Neil Brown prepared Mugen-Honda engines, the JB Motorsport entered cars will be the last ever to feature Marlboro identification before the Netherlands tobacco treaty is enforced. Lola regular Steven Kane and local driver Ferdinand Kool will head the Lola attack and both are looking to race and beat the cream of Europe’s F3 talent. This includes current Euroseries leader Lewis Hamilton and Williams F1 test driver Nico Rosberg.
After a shakedown test conducted at Oulton Park last Friday, both Kane and Kool are keen to show what they can achieve on the International stage.
“It will be a good experience for me because in a sense we are up against it, as I have never been there before and the Euroseries drivers and most of the British runners have,” said Kane. “Having said that I am reasonably confident as I had to learn tracks in a very short space of time in Spain last season. We also had a really positive test at Oulton last Friday when I was evaluating the Kumho rubber. All in all I think that these tyres have a slightly softer sidewall that will give grip in different areas. I am sure that if we hit the ground running then there is no reason why we should not be at the sharp-end this weekend.”
Kane is managed by Damon Hill, who himself won at Zandvoort in an Intersport entered Ralt RT31 in 1987, and will be giving advice on the run up to the weekend. Steven has also consulted his Playstation games consol in order to familiarise himself with famous corners, such as Tarzan, Bos Uit and Gerlachbocht.
For Ferdinand Kool, learning the track will not be a problem, as he has raced at the circuit throughout his career and lives in nearby Oud-Beijerland. However, what he can tell his team mate about the track, he will be able to trade for information about the car when they work together at the weekend. But the test at Oulton gave the Dutchman added confidence for the coming weekend.
“It was quite positive but I would have loved to have more time,” said the 24 year old. “But what I did learn was that the car feels very good in the fast corners and just as good as my usual Dallara in the slow speed turns. The engine felt great too and I think that JB and myself can drive a very strong race this weekend.”
While Kool will work with his engineers from the German based Recaro F3 series, Kane will be with his usual Promatecme engineering squad this weekend, overseen by experienced team boss Chris Weller. Both drivers will also benefit from the expert eye of Lola’s F3 project manager Adam Airey, who believes that while the different tyres and lack of circuit knowledge is a disadvantage, particularly for Kane, he also believes that the Lola could also score a good result.
“ It will be an interesting weekend and we will work hard to neutralise the disadvantages that we naturally have with the lack of circuit knowledge and the tyres. The test at Oulton was useful and we know already that Steven is certainly a real fighter in the races. That, allied to Ferdinand’s experience of the track, means that we could feature strongly this weekend.”
JB Motorsport is a regular and successful entrant in the German Recaro Formula 3 Cup. In April, Ho Pin Tung, who will also drive a Marlboro backed car won the opening round of the current season at Oschersleben for the team from Belgium. In the 2003 season, Brazilian driver João Paolo de Oliveira won the title in the German Formula 3 Cup and last year, Jan Heylen and Michael Devaney were regular winners for the team.
In earlier years, JB Motorsport competed in the German Formula 3 championship with race wins for Belgian driver Yves Olivier (who is also Team director for JB now) and good results for Dutch driver Walter van Lent, who won the “rookie-title” in German Formula 3 with JB in 1999. Robert Doornbos, the current test driver of the Jordan Formula 1-team, also raced with JB Motorsport.
“We have a good tradition with Dutch drivers”, says JB Motorsport’s team manager Sven Platteeuw. This tradition also involves the co-operation with Philip Morris Holland for the Marlboro Masters of Formula 3: in 2002, JB Motorsport already raced in Marlboro-livery with drivers Stefan de Groot and Rob Austin.
This year, there will be three drivers competing with Marlboro support for JB Motorsport. Ferdinand Kool from the Dutch village of Oud Beijerland comes from a real motor racing family – his father Cock also competed in single-seaters – and is now in his second year in Formula 3 after a few years in Formula Ford and Formula Renault. Last season, Kool raced in the Spanish championship, this year, he is a regular entrant in the German Cup.
The timetable for the Marlboro Masters weekend sees qualifying taking place in two groups on Saturday morning from 09.00 to 10.50 cet and then a second session in the afternoon. The race starts on Sunday at 14.00 cet and will be run over 25 laps.
Previous winners of the Marlboro Masters include current Grand Prix drivers David Coulthard, Christian Klien and Takuma Sato.
STEVEN KANE – CV
Name: Steven Kane
Nationality: British
Date of birth: June 5, 1980
Place of birth: Newton (GB)
Marital status: single
Residence: Milton Keynes (GB)
Hobbies: jogging, fitness
Favourite circuit: every circuit
Hobbies: motocross, karting
Northern-Irish Formula Ford Zetec championship
British Avon Junior Formule Ford championship
Winner of the 2001 BRDC McLaren Autosport Young Driver of the Year-Award
2nd place Scholarship class British Formula 3 championship
3rd place Spanish Formula 3-championship
British Formula 3 championship with Promatecme F3 (Lola Mugen-Honda)
Marlboro Masters of Formula 3 with JB Motorsport (Lola Mugen-Honda)
FERDINAND KOOL – CV
Name: Ferdinand Kool
Nationality: Dutch
Date of birth: April 24, 1981
Place of birth: Rotterdam, Netherlands
Marital status: single
Residence: Oud-Beijerland, Netherlands
Hobbies: football, running, food
Favourite circuit: Jerez (Spain)
Dutch champion mini-junior karting
Formula Ford Benelux
2nd place Benelux Formula Ford championship
German Formula Renault championship
2nd place Benelux Formula Renault championship
13th place Spanish Formula 3 championship
German Recaro Formula 3 Cup with JB Motorsport (Dallara Opel)
Marlboro Masters of Formula 3 met JB Motorsport (Lola Mugen-Honda)
Zandvoort Entry List
1 Lewis Hamilton (GBR) ASM F3- Dallara Mercedes-HWA2 Adrian Sutil (GER) ASM F3 - Dallara Mercedes-HWA3 Marko Asmer (EST) Hitech Racing - Dallara Honda-Mugen4 Alvaro Barba (ESP) Hitech Racing - Dallara Honda-Mugen5 Ferdinand Kool (NED) JB Motorsport - Lola Honda-Mugen6 Ho-Pin Tung (NED) JB Motorsport - Dallara Honda-Mugen7 Steven Kane (GBR) JB Motorsport - Lola Honda-Mugen8 Mike Conway (GBR) Fortec Motorsport - Dallara Opel-Spiess9 James Walker (GBR) Fortec Motorsport - Dallara Opel-Spiess11 Ronayne O’Mahony (IRL) Fortec Motorsport - Dallara Opel-Spiess12 James Rossiter (GBR) Signature-Plus - Dallara Opel-Spiess14 Guillaume Moreau (FRA) Signature - Dallara Opel-Spiess15 Loic Duval (FRA) Signature –Plus Dallara - Opel-Spiess17 Fabio Carbone (BRA) Signature - SLCRI Opel-Spiess18 Esteban Guerreri (ARG) Team Midland Euro Series - Dallara Toyota-Toms19 Richard Antinucci (USA) Team Midland Euro Series - Dallara Toyota-Toms20 Alvaro Parente (POR) Carlin Motorsport - Dallara Honda-Mugen21 Christian Bakkerud (DEN) Carlin Motorsport - Dallara Honda-Mugen22 Keiko Ihara (JPN) Carlin Motorsport - Dallara Honda-Mugen23 Charlie Kimball (USA) Carlin Motorsport - Dallara Honda-Mugen24 Lucas di Grassi (BRA) Manor Motorsport - Dallara Mercedes-HWA25 Paul di Resta (GBR) Manor Motorsport - Dallara Mercedes-HWA26 Giedo van der Garde (NED) Team Rosberg - Dallara Opel-Spiess27 Kohei Hirate (JPN) Team Rosberg - Dallara Opel-Spiess28 Maximillian Götz (GER) HBR Motorsport GmbH - Dallara Opel-Spiess29 Hannes Neuhauser (AUT) HBR Motorsport GmbH - Dallara Opel-Spiess30 Alejandro Nunez (ESP) HBR Motorsport GmbH - Dallara Opel-Spiess31 Filip Salaquarda (CEZ) Team I.S.R. - Dallara Opel-Spiess32 Bruno Senna (BRA) Double R Racing - Dallara Honda-Mugen33 Dan Clarke (GBR) Double R Racing - Dallara Honda-Mugen34 Sebastian Vettel (GER) ASL Mücke Motorsport - Dallara Mercedes-HWA35 Atila Abreu (BRA) ASL Mücke Motorsport - Dallara Mercedes-HWA37 Ross Zwolsman (NED) Ross Zwolsman - Dallara Opel-Spiess38 Franck Perera (FRA) Prema Powerteam - Dallara Opel-Spiess39 Marco Bonanomi (ITA) Prema Powerteam - Dallara Opel-Spiess40 Greg Franchi (BEL) Prema Powerteam - Dallara Opel-Spiess41 Stephen Jelley (GBR) Menu F3 Motorsport - Dallara Opel-Spiess42 Ryan Lewis (GBR) T-Sport - Dallara Honda-Mugen43 Thomas Holzer (GER) AM-Holzer Rennsport GmbH - Dallara Opel-Spiess
