Over the next two days, Friday and Saturday, the Euroformula Open approaches its dress rehearsal for the next season. Twenty cars on the entry list for this Andalusian Winter Series round devoted to private testing exclusively
In the very few hours that remain for the official kick-off to the 2015 Euroformula Open season, to be held at the Circuito de Jerez in Southern Spain, teams and drivers are busy putting the final touches on their cars. Both Friday and Saturday are going to be days of much movement as there are eight hours of testing scheduled.
The entry list includes twenty cars, with some well-known names and other new ones but they all aiming at achieving major objectives. RP Motorsport, which won both drivers´ – with Thailand´s Sandy Stuvik- and teams´ standings, will enter five cars for this test. Andrés Saravia, wearing the number one on his car, Igor Walilko, Damiano Fioravanti and Vítor Baptista were already confirmed by the team based in Piacenza a few weeks ago, and they were joined by Poland´s Antoni Ptak, young blood coming from Central Europe.
Campos Racing, one of the toughest rivals for the title, will have three cars in Jerez. Russia´s Konstantin Tereschenko and Brazil´s Henrique Baptista, in their second year in the series, and Mexico´s newcomer Diego Menchaca will pilot their Dallaras F312. Mexico will have a strong presence at Emilio de Villota Motorsport as well, as José Manuel “Sefo” Vilalta, who is approaching his first racing season in Europe, will be team up with his fellow country man Michael Dörrbecker – of German origin and perhaps joining the starting grid-. Yu Kanamaru will also drive for Emilio de Villota Motorsport.
Yarin Stern and Tanart Sathienthirakul, an experienced duo for Team West-Tec, will also appear in Jerez driving for the British squad. There is a third car whose driver will be announced shortly. Then at BVM and DAV Racing – they have two cars each- their confirmed drivers are Colombia´s William Barbosa and Leonardo Pulcini respectively. The latest addition to the entry list is a Swiss driver, Edi Haxhiu, who was born in Kosovo. Haxhiu, as young as 16 years of age, will be at the wheel of a Dallara entered by Corbetta Competizioni. John Simonyan, who claimed his maiden podium last year at Spa-Francorchamps, returns driving for MKTG.
Jerez is the first of three Winter Series meetings planned this year – the next ones will be Paul Ricard and Barcelona-, with some novelties coming in the forthcoming meetings. This new season looks tremendously exciting and the Euroformula Open has become a key link for young drivers to the pinnacle of motorsport: Formula 1.