Q&A: Mike Baker, team boss, Menu Motorsport.

This weekend sees the Formula Three contingent in action at Snetterton. The last time out for the F3 young guns was at Donington Park in a weekend with more than a little controversy after disqualifications for Nelson Piquet and Carlin drivers Jamie Green and Richard Antinucci.

Piquet was excluded from race one at Donington for a piece of bodywork that was marginally too big, the Carlin duo were excluded for a mix-up by the team which saw each run on the other's tyres. Here the vastly experienced Menu Motorsport team boss Mike Baker gives his personal take on what went on at Donington and the wider issues brought up.

Q:
There were some disqualifications for what might appear to an outside as petty minor issues?

Mike Baker
"In my view any disqualification in Motor Sports, is not to be taken lightly, this is a serious sport and rules are there for the benefit of every individual licence holder. Every rule and the penalty for transgressing any rule are all contained in the MSA blue book, which is sent to every licence holder."

As for the actual rules broken? "Actually they are on the surface the same," says Baker. "The Piquet one is easier to understand; they fitted illegal shrouds no more, no less. The measurement is in the technical regulations for all to see, they made, I'm sure, a genuine error, they should blame themselves and no one else, petty comments by them don't help their case.

"However Carlin's are trying to throw a smoke screen round the events of the weekend. All the comments about Antinucci's number (?! - he was at Manor last year), the fact that no performance advantage was gained (impossible to prove or disprove) count for nothing, as no one can prove which tyres each driver was on during practice! . You can use a combination, if for instance JG [Jamie Green] had used both sets for practice and maybe RA [Richard Antinucci] had used one set for both practice sessions, then by using RA other set for race 1, it would have been new! - no advantage there then!, You can pick any combination you want, it's a 'minefield', that's why the tyres are marked.

"I don't see any relevance in ifs, buts and maybes, the simple truth is that they have transgressed a law and must pay the penalty.

So what exactly was the law broken? "It might help if, I explain the system that operates at F3 races," Mike says. "You are allowed 4 tyres per race, each tyre has an individual 'moulded' carcass number, this number is then entered into the Championship Tyre Book and both the team and the officials sign the book to certify, it also contains the event details and the cars official race number. The officials keep one copy and the team keeps one copy.

"The official tyre markers, then mark each tyre with the cars number, with official indelible paint. This is and has been the system for the last 6 years.

If, as Carlin are saying on their web site that they marked the tyres up wrongly, this can only mean they have tampered with the official markings of the tyres, however all of this is not relevant as there are ways in which the outside markings can come off, ie wheel rubbing and such like. However even if this is the case the official number is still on the tyre it is 'moulded' number and cannot be altered.

"Whilst the first case is open and shut, the fact that officials allowed them to race on incorrect rubber in the second race is quite frankly a matter the MSA should investigate. If Carlin's admit and the officials believe that the wrong tyres were used in practice, although there is absolutely no way of having this confirmed, then both cars times should have had their times disallowed and they should have been excluded from practice. To give Carlin's dispensation under the rule of force majeure shows that the officials do not understand the concept of force majeure, it was avoidable, force majeure is not!

Q:
What do you make of the rule enforcement so far this year?

Mike Baker
"You have to start how you mean to go on, both Stuart Vincent and Bob Bassett are first class. Its up to each team to present a legal car, that's our job, it's what we get paid to do."