Merging with GP3/GP2 organizations is possible?

[schumacher180]

Hi everyone,

There have been rumors about a merge between the GP3, GP2 and IRL for quite sometime and Race Control and I, as the CEO's of the Indy Racing League, finally made the decision that we are open to merge the separate racing league organizations of GP3, GP2 and IRL into one sanction body. If this would happen, both GP3 and GP2 would be sanctioned by the Indy Racing League from 2014 onwards.

If the league owners of both the GP3 and GP2 Series do agree, the merge is going to happen but there are a couple of things which would have to be changed in both the GP2 and GP3 leagues.

The following things have to be changed in both the GP2 and GP3 championships in order to make a possible merge a reality:

- Both series will have to get the name IRL GP2 and IRL GP3 Series instead of just GP2 and GP3 Series
- There has to be at least a 50/50 schedule between European and IRL support races
- If double headers are going to be scheduled on the IRL GP2 and IRL GP3 schedules, there should be one race with a traditional rolling start and one race with a standing start
- At least 4 IRL teams should join the IRL GP2 and IRL GP3 Series
- The IRL GP3 races should have the quarter race distance of an IRL race and the IRL GP2 races should have the half race distance of an IRL race
- The point scoring system for the IRL GP2 series should become the same as IRL's point scoring system and the IRL GP3 series should have a point scoring system where half of the points of the IRL point scoring are going to be rewarded (e.g. a win in the IRL is 50 points, that would be 25 points in the IRL GP3 Series and so on)

We know that this is quite a long list and we can understand that both organizations need some time to think about this and of course we are open to ideas from the CEO's of the GP2 and GP3 Series championships as well.

If the merge is going to happen, both leagues will of course get a place on this forum. Keep in mind that, despite 3 organizations would merge into 1, that it's the CEO's responsibility to keep their championships up to date. This means that I am, despite the fact that I do update the Indy Racing League statistics, not going update the IRL GP2 and/or GP3 Series statistics.

[Carlos12295cf]

Ok, as manager of the GP2 i have to tell you this summer will be the last League i will do, because after this i will give support for GP3 and IRL. If we supose this contract will start in 2014, when we would join the 3 competitions?

[schumacher180]

Well, that's clear for us then. Thanks for letting us know that you're going to give support to both the GP3 and Indy Racing League championships after the GP2 Series championship has been finished.

It's very well known that the GP3 Series became the official support series of the Indy Racing League a couple of months ago and when you guys came with the idea to let the support series join this forum to avoid the problem that people will have to register twice or even more when they want to compete in both championships. Than the idea came to our mind that it would be more logical if we would officially merge and let the IRL become the official sanctioning body of the GP3 Series as well, to become officially one organization too. In our honesty: We don't see the point of letting another league joining our forum and to still remain as two separate organizations. There's a difference between being a championship with a support series or being one organization which is having a feeder series and a series for those who think that they're good enough to compete in the "big car" of the Indy Racing League.

If this merge indeed would become a reality, it would start immediately after the current Indy Racing League season has been completed. Of course the GP3 Series forum section, would be created already right after this GP3 Series season has been completed.

[fisicof1]

Hey guys,

just to make it Public: We, that means Parkuhr, Carlos12295cf (from 2014 onwards) and myself, as the GP3 League Administration came to the decision that we don't want to come together under these conditions. We made a list of what we think what can be improved:
- The name itself is irrelevant, but we prefer to stay with F1C GP3 League, if it's necessary we will change it.
- We want to support all the road/street circuits on the calendar, but except of Indianapolis we don't want to support Oval races. Just for a bit realism.
- Maximum 4 of the IRL teams could join the GP3 Series
- Race Distance is okay with doing quarter IRL Race Distance
- We want to bring the 2012 GP3 Point System to the league just for realism.
- Also we want to have some guest starters from the IRL. Of course we can't force anybody, but we want to invite all of you here.

These are our conditions, we'll hope to see your thoughts about this soon.

[schumacher180]

Hi again,

We want to get a deal done with the GP3 Series and we are pretty enough to accept the fact that the series doesn't want to change everything to the criteria which the Indy Racing League actually prefers to have in their feeder series.

But, despite the fact that we decided accept the fact that most of the criteria which the Indy Racing League wants, isn't going to happen in their feeder series, there's one thing which the series want in return in order to get a done deal. It's not real big thing, we think that it could be realized very easily to be honest and that is that the GP3 Series is going to support the race at the Milwaukee Mile as their second oval race on the schedule. If they do really not want a second oval race, we are also kind enough to say that they can change the Indianapolis Motor Speedway event from the oval to the road course. That means that the Milwaukee Mile would become their only oval race on the schedule. If they're going to support the Milwaukee event, the deal is done already if it was up to us.