The Masters of Formula 3 race at Zandvoort will be run this year for cars with old-spec engines, and can no longer be called “F3.”

The retitled Zandvoort Masters, which takes place on July 6, will be for cars from British and German F3. Both series this year admit new chassis alongside previous-generation cars, all using the older engines.

Teams from the FIA F3 European Championship cannot contest the race this year, because it is impossible to transport the cars from the Netherlands to the following weekend’s Moscow Raceway round in time to arrive in the paddock in Russia on the Thursday.

The FIA’s warning that competitions not using the new-spec FIA engines cannot call themselves F3 means a change of name for an event that has run annually since 1991.

Race coordinator Barry Bland said: “As soon as the European calendar came out it was obvious that teams couldn’t race at Zandvoort. It takes a week to get from there to Moscow. We’ve put together a set of regulations that will appeal to British F3 and ATS German F3 Cup teams.

“What has helped us is that the ATS Cup have been stopped from doing more than one race outside their own country. They were going to go to Zandvoort but have had to drop that date. We had arranged a test day for the British teams, but now there will be no testing allowed, as usual.”

Bland, who is hoping for a grid of between 22 and 24 cars, says it is too early to know whether this is a temporary solution or whether the event can be restored for top-level F3 cars in 2015.

“You just have to work around things,” he said. “It’s always been very difficult to find a suitable date for the Masters that fits in with everybody else’s requirements.”

MASTERS ROLL OF HONOR

In its 23-year history, the Masters has been won by drivers bound for F1 12 times.

2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton (pictured after winning the ’05 Masters) and fellow current grand prix racers Nico Hulkenberg, Jules Bianchi and Valtteri Bottas are among the victors, while David Coulthard triumphed in the inaugural event in 1991.

1991  David Coulthard
1992  Pedro Lamy
1993  Jos Verstappen
1994  Gareth Rees
1995  Norberto Fontana
1996  Kurt Mollekens
1997  Tom Coronel
1998  David Saelens
1999  Marc Hynes
2000  Jonathan Cochet
2001  Takuma Sato
2002  Fabio Carbone
2003  Christian Klien
2004  Alexandre Premat
2005  Lewis Hamilton
2006  Paul di Resta
2007  Nico Hulkenberg
2008  Jules Bianchi
2009  Valtteri Bottas
2010  Valtteri Bottas
2011  Felix Rosenqvist
2012  Daniel Juncadella
2013  Felix Rosenqvist

Originally on Autosport.com