Stefano Coletti will miss this weekend’s Formula 3 Euro Series race at Brands Hatch after suffering a slight fracture of the sternum via a crash in his latest GP2 outing at Spa. The 20-year-old driver was battling for a top-ten finish, after starting from pitlane, when he lost the car and impacted the barriers. The incident occurred with only a few laps remaining. Coletti is currently participating in a rehab program with hopes of returning later this month for the Barcelona round. The season concludes October 23-25, 2009 at the Hockenheimring in Germany.
Prema Powerteam signed Tim Sandtler as a replacement for Coletti at this weekend’s event at Brands Hatch. It was initially reported that the team would be fielding three cars, but I’m assuming they wanted to get a backup driver ready in case Coletti wasn’t able to return. Sandtler has previous experience in Formula BMW, F3 Euro Series, and International Formula Master.
It’s that time of year when drivers start to evaluate every option to keep themselves in a race car. Teams are doing the same,… trying to make sure all their cars are in use. There have been quite a few rumors circulating about rotating drivers in the Star Mazda series. Here is what I have come up with. [More]
This is a bit dated now, but still worthy of mention…. Formula 3 Euro Series driver Stefano Coletti will replace Davide Valsecchi at Durango for the GP2 Round at Valencia.
Coletti, who is a former Red Bull Junior, has been running in the F3 Euro Series for the last two seasons. He made one start in the World Series by Renault earlier this year (at Monte Carlo–where he finished 10th). In the F3 Euro Series, he has had a decent year. He is currently ninth in the championship with 6 top-tens, 1 win, and 2 podiums. Obviously, GP2 will be a huge jump for him, but not an impossible transition.
Davide Valsecchi will be moving into the GP2 seat at Barwa Addax vacated by Romain Grosjean. Grosjean will be moving to Formula 1 as a replacement for Nelson Piquet at Renault.
Valsecchi was really strong in GP2 Asia while driving for Durango but failed to really carry that success over (on a consistent basis) to the GP2 Championship this spring. His best finish is 3rd, which came at Istanbul in early June. He started 10th in that race. His average finish in GP2 this season has been 13.5 (which includes 2-DNF’s). It will be interesting to see how he performs at Barwa Addax. Obviously, it should prove to be a beneficial move as he will now be part of the Renault Driver Development program.
(photo: www.stefanocoletti.com)
Greg Mansell has parted ways with Ultimate Racing in the World Series by Renault. It is currently being reported that he will join Comtec Racing for the final two events at the Nurburgring and Motorland Aragon. That said, there hasn’t been any official confirmation of the move to Comtec.
The motivation for the departure isn’t clear, but there is quite a bit of speculation going on among fans of the World Series by Renault.
Ultimate boss Barry Walsh said: [More]
Dani Clos will be driving for Epsilon Euskadi this weekend at Le Mans. The team hasn’t made an official announcement, but, the rumor is that Clos will be replacing Chris van der Drift. Chris has been struggling to find the necessary funding all year, so it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see him replaced. That said, it would be really disappointing to see him out of the car as he has shown so much promise. Another possibility, which is also quite likely, is that we will see Spaniard Adrian Valles out of the car at Epsilon for the Superleague Formula race at Belgium. Valles is currently leading the Superleague Formula championship in the Liverpool FC car.
Edoardo Mortara will join Tech 1 Racing this weekend as Brendon Hartley focuses on the F3 Euro Series race at Zandvoort.
John Martin will be running Superleague Formula this weekend, which opens up a seat at Comtec. Earlier today, the team announced that Cristiano Morgado will replace Martin for the Formula Renault 3.5 race at Le Mans. Morgado has been racing in the South Africa Formula Volkswagen series, where he is currently third in the championship.
Former Indy Car/ Indy Lights competitor Franck Perera will be back in a race car this weekend for the GP2 event at the Nurburgring. He will be replacing Italian Giacomo Ricci in the DPR seat. As of right now, this is a one-off opportunity.
It will be interesting to see what kind of results Perera is able to post after being out of the car for so long.
Jonathan Summerton has had a busy summer driving in both the Indy Lights series and the Atlantic Championship. Both drives were on a race-by-race basis as the 21-year-old Florida resident struggled to find the necessary funding. It was announced today that he will be able to put all his focus on the Atlantic Championship for the remainder of 2009.
After a few weeks of rumors regarding the departure of Markus Niemela from Newman-Wachs Racing…. it was announced today that Niemela is out with Jonathan Summerton taking over the duties for the remainder of 2009. Summerton will partner fellow American John Edwards under the team tent.
Summerton spent the first part of the 2009 Atlantic Championship with Genoa Racing. With Summerton’s departure from Genoa, the team will have an open seat heading into the Lime Rock Park race. I was planning on starting a rumor about who will fill the seat, but decided against it, stay tuned for future announcements.
As far as Markus Niemela’s situation goes, I’m still waiting on some information from a few inside sources. I will post an update, when the information becomes available.
**update** According to inside sources, Markus Niemela’s departure from NWR is funding related… as speculated. He will join Jensen Motorsport for the remainder of the 2009 season.
After making what many assumed was a one-off debut with Kolles & Heinz Union in last weekend’s Formula 3 Euro Series event at Norisring, Nick Tandy has signed a contract with the team to compete in the remaining 2009 F3ES events. The catch is, he will be dropping his British F3 efforts with JTR. Tandy was currently in third place in the British F3-International Class after 8 Rounds. He claimed his first BF3 win just over a month ago at Rockingham.
JTR has announced that they plan to continue their 2009 British F3 campaign and are actively looking for a replacement driver. Many are wondering if American Josef Newgarden, who drives a JTR entry in the British Formula Ford series, will step-in and fill the seat.
American Star Mazda driver, Joel Miller has left JDC Motorsports and will join Andersen Racing for the remainder of the 2009 SM season. He tested with the team yesterday at Autobahn in Joliet, Illinois.
The move may have something to do with Andersen Racing’s recent success in the Indy Lights series. Miller has made it quite clear that he hopes to run in the IndyCar feeder series for 2010. His latest press release indicates that we may even see him in a Andersen FIL car later this year…
Just as a point of interest, Miller did test an Indy Lights car with Andersen Racing at Sebring last November.
The 2006 F2000 Championship ‘Champion’, Matt McDonough, will be competing in this weekend’s F2000 race at Watkins Glen International Raceway. The former champ will be filling a seat vacated by Jesse Yorio.
The F2000 Championship will be racing alongside the IRL this weekend at Watkins Glen. You can read the series’ preview here>>.
