GP3 champion Alex Lynn joins Williams as development driver

By Jan 29, 2015, 1:00 PM EST
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GP3 champion Alex Lynn has joined Williams Martini Racing as a development driver for the 2015 Formula 1 season.

Lynn, 21, won last year’s GP3 championship in Abu Dhabi, but missed out on a full-time race seat in F1 at Toro Rosso for 2015 when Red Bull elected to promote Carlos Sainz Jr. and Max Verstappen into the race seats.

In spite of this setback, Lynn turned his attention to moving up to GP2 for this coming season, securing a seat with defending champions DAMS alongside Red Bull junior Pierre Gasly.

However, he will balance his GP2 commitments with a development driver role at Williams which will see him offer support to full-time drivers Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas.

“Williams Martini Racing is pleased to announce that British racing driver Alex Lynn will be joining the team as Development Driver for the 2015 Formula One World Championship season,” a statement read yesterday.

“In this role, Alex will become fully immersed in the race team and gain a full understanding of its various functions. As Development Driver his primary role will be using the team’s simulation tools to help with the ongoing development of the Williams Mercedes FW37 and assisting the race engineers in setting up the car for each Grand Prix.

“Alex will also get behind the wheel of the FW37 for one day’s testing in Barcelona following this season’s Spanish Grand Prix in May.”

Lynn was delighted to confirm the news, and is hoping that it will give him a chance to move up into a full-time F1 seat in the near future.

“I am extremely excited to be joining Williams, a team with such incredible history and amazing potential,” he said. “Over the past year the team has made huge strides forward and it’s clear to see their determination to fight for more success in the future.I hope that with a strong year in GP2, while also helping to develop the F1 car throughout this season, I can follow in the footsteps of Valtteri Bottas who joined the Williams team in exactly the same Development Driver role. Through hard work and determination, he has gone from winning the GP3 title to earning his place as a Williams F1 race driver.

“I hope that with a strong year in GP2, while also helping to develop the F1 car throughout this season, I can follow in the footsteps of Valtteri Bottas who joined the Williams team in exactly the same Development Driver role. Through hard work and determination, he has gone from winning the GP3 title to earning his place as a Williams F1 race driver.”

With this move, Lynn has cut ties with the Red Bull junior programme of which he was a part of in 2014, and he will now be focusing on a strong season in 2015 to put himself in the mix for an F1 seat next year.

Ford Mustang GT3 test has Austin Cindric dreaming of Daytona: ‘I want to drive that car’

By Mar 22, 2023, 2:30 PM EDT
Cindric Ford GT3 test
Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images
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Austin Cindric wasn’t the “mystery” test driver behind the wheel of the new Ford Mustang GT3 at Sebring International Raceway, but the Team Penske driver desperately wanted to be.

Ford CEO Jim Farley, an amateur sports car driver himself, made the big reveal via a Tuesday tweet that provided the first video evidence of the GT3 Mustang on track.

“I’ve watched the video in question about a million times,” Cindric said Wednesday during a Ford Performance Zoom news conference to promote NASCAR’s first road course weekend of the season at Circuit of the Americas. “Definitely exciting times for sure. I want to drive that car. It suits my experience level and also the relationships that I have.”

Ford will enter the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship next season with its GT3 Mustang, entering a two-car factory effort (that will be managed by Multimatic) in GTD Pro and making customer cars available in the GT Daytona category.

That increases the likelihood of seeing more NASCAR drivers crossing over to IMSA. Cindric has been the only full-time Cup driver in the Rolex 24 at Daytona the past two years, but Ford Performance global director Mark Rushbrook has said the GT3 Mustang will provide more opportunities.

Ford has used its GT4 Mustang as a NASCAR driver development tool in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge with Harrison Burton and Zane Smith combining to win the season opener at Daytona International Speedway in January.

“We’re excited about the Next Gen car and the new architecture there and the similarities between that car and GT3 and even GT4 cars,” Rushbrook said at the announcement of the Ford GT3 program in January 2022 at Daytona. “We think it’s a great opportunity and to do be able to do that in a 24-hour race and get NASCAR drivers even more time is something we need to consider taking advantage of that opportunity.”

Given his sports car background, Cindric probably still would be in the Rolex 24 regardless. He has eight IMSA starts since the 2017 season opener at Daytona, racing a Lexus RCF GT3 and Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the GT category. The 2022 Daytona 500 winner made his second LMP2 start this year with Rick Ware Racing.

But Cindric’s preference naturally would be in a Ford, particularly with sports car racing enjoying convergence and crossovers in both GT and prototype racing.

“It’s an exciting time in GT racing, just as it is now for prototype racing with a lot of new regulations and manufacturers building new GT3 cars,” he said. “And also the opportunity with WEC (the World Endurance Championship) and Le Mans and how that all lines up for that category of car. It’s definitely an exciting time. I want to be as much of a part of that as possible.”

Though those odds seemingly will increase with multiple Ford entries in the Rolex 24 field next year, Cindric said NASCAR drivers still have to put in the networking to land rides as he has in recent years.

“Now how (the GT3 Mustang) relates to specifically NASCAR drivers and how often they want to be in the Rolex, could it be an influence? Absolutely, as far as the tie-in with the manufacturer,” Cindric said. “But the challenge and the drive and the logistics of getting an opportunity for a race like the Rolex 24 will be just as challenging as it always is to find your one-off ride for the race. At least from my experience, that’s what I still anticipate.”

It turned out the “mystery” test driver wasn’t from NASCAR (Farley revealed the driver to be 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Joey Hand after a fan asked whether it was Joey Logano).

But Cindric believes there could be more Cup drivers — and perhaps himself — behind the wheel of Mustang GT3s in the future.

“There’s definitely more of a pathway than I think there would be before as far as Ford drivers are concerned,” he said. “Hopefully, I’ll get the opportunity to drive that thing. It’s obviously a great looking car. That’s the first box you’ve got to check. And it’s cool (to have) a guy like Jim Farley, no doubt he’s a racer just as much as he is steering the ship for Ford. It’s cool to see he’s just as excited as the rest of us about it.”