ADAC Formula 4 champion Juri Vips has sealed a full-time step up to European Formula 3 with the Motopark team.
After winning the ADAC crown in his second season of F4 with Prema, Estonian driver Vips made his F3 debut with Motopark in the final round of 2017 at Hockenheim and scored a pair of 12th-place finishes.
He has now been confirmed as the team’s fifth driver for the coming season, alongside Fabio Scherer, Dan Ticktum, Kimiya Sato and Jonathan Aberdein.
“The cooperation with Team Motopark ran smooth as silk right from the word go,” said Vips.
“My early experiences reassure me that I?ve found the right environment with a very strong support to help me learn my trade in Formula 3, which is a totally different world from F4.
“What I found at Hockenheim and in our early off-season prep programme makes me very confident of a good start to my F3 life.”
Timo Rumpfkeil said: “We took a good, hard look at Juri?s progress in the 2016 and 2017 Formula 4 seasons because we had heard about the reputation which preceded him ? and his two years did, indeed, show he is an extremely promising talent.
“He may well have what it takes to go all the way. Following our extensive testing after his first race weekend in 2017, I?m certain he will only need a very short period of time to find his feet in F3 and be successful there, too.”