Yesterday, we rounded up all of the junior announcements in three of Formula 1’s most prominent feeder series – GP2, GP3 and Formula Renault 3.5 – as the beginning of the new racing season draws ever closer.
The grid in GP3 has today become more complete with six drivers in total being announced. All will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of 2014 champion Alex Lynn, who now has a GP2 drive and Williams reserve role under his belt for the new year.
Here’s a complete round-up of Friday’s announcements in GP3.
KIRCHHOFER CONFIRMED WITH ART
As noted in yesterday’s round-up, it had been reported that Germany’s Marvin Kirchhofer was set to balance a season racing in both GP3 and the FIA F3 European Championship. Today, that story has now been confirmed, with Kirchhofer – who finished third in GP3 last year – announcing that he will be remaining with ART Grand Prix for 2015.
“I’m really happy that I will be racing with ART Grand Prix again this year,” the German said. “The targets are quite clear for this season and I’m really looking forward to it. I’m very proud to be a part of the team again and I’m quite confident that we can do something good this year, as we have already shown some good performances together last year.”
Kirchhofer has also been named on the FIA’s entry list for its leading F3 series. The 20-year-old will however be forced to miss the fifth round of the year at Spa due to a clash with the GP3 race in Austria.
KOIRANEN GP ANNOUNCES 2015 TRIO
Killing three birds with one stone (or one announcement, at least) on Friday was Koiranen GP, who confirmed its full line-up for the 2015 season. Jimmy Eriksson returns for 2015 with the Finnish team, and will be hoping to better his fourth place finish from last season in what will be his third year in the series.
The Swede is joined by Adderly Fong, who raced for Jenzer Motorsport until the Hungarian round of last year’s championship. He then enjoyed a somewhat surprising practice run-out with Sauber F1 Team in Abu Dhabi, but will return to GP3 in 2014 with Koiranen.
Completing the line-up is British youngster Matthew Parry, who won the prestigious McLaren Autosport BRDC award back in 2013. He has previously completed two races for Koiranen in Formula Renault 2.0 Alps, but now joins the team for a full year in GP3.
JENZER’S HOME COMFORTS
The final two driver announcements of the day come courtesy of Swiss team Jenzer Motorsport, who has confirmed that it will run two natives in 2015 in the form of Matheo Tuscher and Ralph Boschung.
Tuscher has been racing in single seaters since the age of 14, and spent 2014 in GP3 with Jenzer as he claimed one podium finish en route to 12th in the final standings.
After an impressive test for the team in Abu Dhabi last November, Boschung will make his GP3 debut in 2015 at the age of 17.
“With Matheo and Ralph in the team we already have two strong drivers and we are convinced we can achieve top level results with both of them,” team boss Andreas Jenzer said. “We are very motivated and will do our best to make this a successful season.”
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The 2015 GP3 Series season kicks off on May 8 in support of the Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix.
