Photo: FIA Formula 3 European Championship
GP3 title contender Alex Albon will return to Formula 3 for the Zandvoort Masters event this weekend, with Colton Herta and Thomas Randle also among the entries.
Albon will drive for the Hitech GP team, with fellow Britons and squad regulars George Russell and Ben Barnicoat opting to miss the event. Albon, who competed in European F3 for Signature last year, will drive alongside team protege Nikita Mazepin.
With Prema skipping the event altogether, Van Amersfoort Racing – with Callum Ilott, Anthoine Hubert and Pedro Piquet – and Motopark, which has its regular quartet of Joel Eriksson, Sergio Sette Camera, Niko Kari and Guan Yu Zhou, will be favourites. Mucke Motorsport fields a single car for David Beckmann.
Carlin has its usual lead driver Alessio Lorandi along with its Euroformula Open pairing Herta and Ameya Vaidyanathan, who will be making their debuts in full-on F3 machinery.
British squads Fortec Motorsports and Double R Racing will contest their first F3 races since last November’s Macau Grand Prix.
In the first of its two cars, Fortec will run Sam MacLeod with an eye on fielding him in Macau, where he ran near the head of the field with West-Tec in 2015. He previously competed for Fortec in Formula Renault BARC and British F3.
Joining him is Australian F3 champion Ricky Capo, making his European debut.
Another Australian Randle lines up for Double R, having raced against the team in BRDC British F3 this year. He will drive the car Alexander Sims took to a podium in Macau last year.
“This is just a great opportunity and despite the short notice when it came up I jumped at it,” said Randle.
“I loved?every second of driving the Dallara F3 when I did the Valencia test late last year [with T-Sport] and?the Zandvoort circuit looks like it will suit my style. It won’t be easy with so many
talented, and more experienced F3 drivers in the field but I will be doing my very best to achieve?a solid result.”