It was announced last week that Colombian driver Carlos Munoz will drive for Mucke Motorsport in the 2010 Formula 3 Euro Series.
Carlos, 17, spent the 2009 season in the Formula Renault 2.0 category, driving in both the Eurocup and the WEC. He finished 8th overall in the Eurocup and 7th overall in the WEC. Munoz had 3-2nd place finishes in 2009 and 10-top-fives. He also added a little seat time in a F3 car via the European F3 Open Championship.
Munoz has always been very impressive in the karting ranks but has failed to really have a breakout year in cars… I have a feeling this may be his year. He will be teamed up with Roberto Merhi under the Mucke tent and the duo will likely push each other to be better race-in-and-race-out.
Alexander Sims, 21, signed with ART to compete in the 2010 Formula 3 Euro Series.
In 2009, his rookie year in the F3 Euro Series, he finished 4th overall in the championship driving for Mucke Motorsport. He ended the season with 1 win, 5 podiums, and 1 pole position. After looking at his results, his numbers put him inside the top-ten in 70% of his 2009 F3 Euro Series race starts. He finished runner-up on four occasions.
I’ve always been impressed by Sims and obviously ART has a good handle on the F3 Euro Series (winning the last six titles)… so, it sort of goes without saying, the combination looks good for 2010.
Antonio Felix da Costa has signed with Motopark Academy to compete in the 2010 Formula 3 Euro Series. It was announced earlier this week that the other two seats at Motopark Academy would be filled by Adrian Quaife-Hobbs and Matias Laine.
Da Costa was very impressive this season in Formula Renault 2.0 competition. The 18-year-old Portugese driver dominated the Formula Renault NEC (Northern European Cup), compiling 9 wins, 11 podiums, and 3 pole positions. Those numbers have him on the podium in 78.6% of his race starts. He also ran 14-races in the 2009 Formula Renault Eurocup, where he finished 3rd in the overall championship. In Eurocup competition, he claimed 4 wins, 10 podiums, and 3 pole positions. He should do very well next season in the F3 Euro Series.
Motopark Academy signed Adrian Quaife-Hobbs and Matias Laine for the 2010 Formula 3 Euro Series. The team plans to announce their third driver later this week. Both Quaife-Hobbs and Laine spent the 2009 season in the Formula Renault 2.0 category.
Motopark Academy also announced that they will be making the switch to Volkswagen power for the 2010 season.
Mucke Motorsport signed Roberto Merhi earlier today for 2010. Merhi drove for Manor Motorsport in 2009 but decided to make the move to Mucke in 2010 as Manor will be dropping their F3 Euro Series program to focus on GP3.
After the jump, I will add a few details on each driver and some thoughts on their career decision. [Continue Reading...]
Edoardo Mortara did everything he needed to do this weekend in Macau. The 22-year-old Italian had one option heading into this weekend; WIN. He did just that after the-always-impressive Jean-Karl Vernay made a rare mistake—missing a shift—- heading out of the Melco Hairpin. The error allowed his Signature teammate, Mortara, to slip by and take the win.
This was a big win for Mortara. The Italian made the move to GP2 competition this season where he started off winning in only his second career GP2-Main Series start (Cataluyna). Following his first GP2 win, he had a relatively uneventful year in GP2 competition. Last season, he finished 2nd in the 2008 F3 Euro Series and 2nd in the 2008 F3 Macau Grand Prix. Determined to keep his goal of having an open-wheel racing career alive, he set-out to win the Macau Grand Prix in 2009. He did just that by crossing the stripe 1.146 seconds ahead of Jean-Karl Vernay. Sam Bird, driving for ART, had a solid run to finish 3rd claiming the final podium spot.
It was a big weekend for Volkswagen power as well, VW claimed the top-two spots in the world’s most prestigious F3 race. Yesterday’s win marked the first time Volkswagen has won the Macau Grand Prix since their return to F3 competition. They last won in Macau with Michael Schumacher behind the wheel of a West WTS Racing-Volkswagen powered F3 car in 1990. Overall this was a pretty solid year for Volkswagen as they also swept the F3 Euro Series round at Brands Hatch in September.
Speaking of the F3 Euro Series, this year’s Macau Grand Prix podium was filled with F3ES competitors. (see above)
Trevor Carlin, who owns Carlin Motorsport or Carlin, as it’s now known, announced this morning that the team will no longer compete in the Formula 3 Euro Series. Instead, they will focus on GP3 in 2010.
The team was recently restructured when Capsicum Motorsport invested a lump sum of money into the team. Capsicum Motorsport is owned by Max and Tom Chilton’s father; Grahame Chilton.
F3 Euro Series
Mirko Bortolotti
Mirko Bortolotti will replace Brendon Hartley under the Carlin Motorsport tent this weekend in the Formula 3 Euro Series season-finale at Hockenheim. Hartley will instead contest the Formula Renault 3.5 (WSR) finale at the new Motorland Aragon circuit in Alcaniz, Spain.
Bortolotti won the 2008 Italian F3 championship and has spent this season in the FIA Formula Two series. The 19-year-old is backed by Red Bull. Last year, in Italian F3 competition, he finished all but one race on the podium. His podium percentage rounded out at 94% last year. This season, in Formula Two, he finished fourth in the overall championship with 5 podiums and 1 win in 14-starts.
Thus far into the weekend, he is slightly off the pace. He ended up 21st out of 24 in the first practice session and subsequently qualified for Race-1 in 17th out of 24 drivers. Fellow Carlin teammates, Victor Garcia and Jake Rosenzweig, qualified 4th and 15th–respectively.
World Series by Renault
Esteban Guerrieri
In World Series by Renault news, Esteban Guerrieri will return to the series with RC Motorsport. The 24-year-old Argentine driver ran two WSR races in 2007 with Fortec Motorsport and 12 races last season with Ultimate-Signature. During his 2008 campaign, he finished 8th in the overall championship with 1 win and 2 podiums despite missing 3 events. This year he has been competing in Superleague Formula and the TC2000 Argentina championship. I expect Guerrieri to do pretty well this weekend. He is replacing Pasquale di Sabatino, who reportedly ran out of funding.
Spaniard Bruno Mendez will also join RC Motorsport this weekend for his Formula Renault 3.5 debut. Mendez, who finished 5th in the 2008 Spanish F3 Championship, has been competing in the European F3 Open Championship in 2009. He has 3 wins and 9 podiums in 12-race starts, driving for Campos Racing. This will be a pretty big jump for Mendez, but good experience nonetheless.
As noted above, Brendon Hartley will be running Formula Renault 3.5 rather than the Formula 3 Euro Series. Hartley should have some momentum coming into this weekend after finishing a (WSR) career best-2nd at the Nurburgring last month.
No real surprises here, Jules Bianchi will graduate to GP2 with ART Grand Prix, the team he won the F3 Euro Series title with. This announcement fits in nicely with this morning’s edition of ‘Monday Morning Reading’.
The 20-year-old will “warm-up” in the GP2 Asia series by competing at both Abu Dhabi and Bahrain.
Jules Bianchi claimed the 2009 Formula 3 Euro Series title on Sunday by winning the reverse grid race at Dijon-Prenois. The Frenchman drove from 7th on the grid to win by 0.351 seconds over Sam Bird.
The F3 Euro Series will wrap up their 2009 season on October 23rd-25th, 2009 at the Hockenheimring.
Keith Collantine of F1Fanatic.co.uk put together a nice piece on Bianchi. The story looks back at the success of ART Grand Prix, Bianchi’s F3ES career, as well as Jules’ racing heritage. Enjoy.
The Formula 3 Euro Series website posted a similar story entitled Champion: Jules Bianchi in a brief portrait.
The 20-year-old race driver has been impressive this season to say the least. Heading into the final weekend, he has finished inside the top-five in 78% of his race starts. To date, he has 8 wins, 11 podiums, and 5 pole positions in the 2009 Formula 3 Euro Series.
Tim Redmayne of (PMW) Professional Motorsport World magazine published a piece that takes an in-depth look at the Formula 3 Euro Series.
It’s an interesting read that gives you background information on the Formula 3 Euro Series and cars. Redmayne also touches on series’ competition from around the junior formula world and hints at cost reduction measures being taken for future success of the program.
