23 cars entered for Euroformula Open´s season opener in Portugal. 16 different nationalities provide a new record-breaking high. The main novelties are the arrivals of two new teams: Carlin Motorsport and Fortec Motorsports, which joins forces with Team West-Tec.
The Euroformula Open´s new season starts on 23 April at Estoril and all the signs are there showing that 2016 will bring even more excitement to the series, which will again include eight two-race events on the most prestigious tracks in Europe, and is consolidating itself as a key ladder in the single-seater formulae pyramid.
The curtain-raiser to the season takes place at Estoril, which made a return to the Euroformula Open calendar last year and provided head to head battles. Vitor Baptista and Konstantin Tereschenko won the two races and Estoril saw one of their several nail-biting title duels.
The 23-car entry list revealed ahead of the first round of the Euroformula Open brings excitement and another top F.3 team, Fortec Motorsports, enters the series joining forces with Team West-Tec. RP Motorsport will enter five cars for a stout driver line up. Poland´s Antoni Ptak, Thailand´s Kantadhee Kusiri and Italy´s Damiano Fioravanti will be joined by Tanart Sathienthirakul and Jack Aitken. Sathienthirakul joins RP Motorsport to drive one of its Dallara-built cars after finishing 7th and 4th the past two seasons, claiming two podiums finishes last year. Aitken made his first steps on the F.3 ladder in the Winter Series and finishing 7th twice at Paul Ricard.
Campos Racing displayed strong performance in Winter Series. Four cars will be driven by Italian Leonardo Pulcini, Mexican Diego Menchaca, Ecuadorean Julio Moreno and Azerbaijani Gulhuseyn Abdullayev. Pulcini and Menchaca will contest their second consecutive full season in the series and go into the 2016 campaign having high expectations as they both won the two races held at Paul Ricard in winter. Moreno and Abdullayev will make their debut in the series.
Teo Martín Motorsport took over the Euroformula Open entry of Emilio de Villota Motorsport and the Madrid-based team already has a strong presence in the Euroformula Open. Colombian Tatiana Calderón makes F.3 comeback and with Teo Martín Motorsport she can launch a title bid. Romanian Petru Florescu, Mexican José Manuel Vilalta and Russian Nikita Zlobin, son of Minardi Formula 1 test driver Sergey Zlobin, are other names to be confident about a strong season.
Carlin Motorsport confirmed it will enter the Euroformula Open last January with a three-car effort. Colton Herta, the son of US IndyCar and Champ Car driver Bryan Herta, Germany´s Keyvan Andres and India´s Ameya Vaidyanathan, an international and extremely young driver line up. Despite youth, they all already performed well in Winter Series.
DAV Racing will also enter three Dallara F312 cars. Chinese Kang Ling will team up with Italian Daniele Cazzaniga with a third driver still to be announced. Ling has made steady progress since joining the Euroformula Open and 2016 will be his first full season in the series. Cazzaniga will make his debut after achieving success in other feeder series.
BVM Racing will field two cars for Russia´s Daniel Pronenko and China´s Ye Hongli. Pronenko showed excellent pace throughout winter and Hongli made an impressive debut in Barcelona, last Euroformula Open´s Winter Series stop.
Drivex and Austrian Ferdinand Habsburg are another strong combination of team and driver. Habsburg made his first appearance in the Euroformula Open in the championship-deciding season-finale. There, Habsburg qualified 2nd and earlier this year, he climbed to the second step of the podium at Paul Ricard.
Fortec – West-Tec will put a strong Euroformula Open program. Fortec is one of the best-established outfits in open-wheeled single-seater motorsport and the Daventry-based team has a rich racing pedigree in several junior formulae categories. By working with Team West-Tec, they will form strong alliance for the upcoming 2016 season. Poland´s Igor Walilko was announced as their driver for 2016. Walilko visited the podium two times in 2015. Besides, Fortec and Team West-Tec are working to line up a second car later this season.
The Estoril premium schedule includes the Euroformula Open and its sister series, the International GT Open, the TCR International Series, the SEAT León Eurocup, the Radical European Masters and Portugal-based series CN Classicos and Legends Cup.