Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Jenzer Motorsport has announced that James Hedley will take the place of Matias Zagazeta in its FIA Formula 3 Championship line-up for this weekend’s round in Monaco.
Zagazeta currently lies 24th in the standings with no points after the first three rounds of his rookie season, and the 20-year-old Peruvian has been ruled out of action due to an emergency operation yesterday to remove his appendix.
“Unfortunately I will not be able to race in Monaco this weekend. Yesterday I had to get an emergency operation to get my appendix removed when I was on my way to Monaco. I had to stop in Genoa and get the operation here,” he said in an Instagram post.
“It is very painful but even more painful to not be able to race this weekend in one of the best weekends and one I was really looking forward to. But health always goes first. I really hope I will get the opportunity to race there again. I want to thank the doctors for their amazing help.”
Zagazeta plans to be ready to return to the cockpit for the next round at Barcelona on June 21-23.
Hedley, who is also 20, will be stepping up to F3 after racing in GB3 since late 2021. Over his 52 races in the series he has claimed two wins, two third places and qualified fourth five times.
Before that he raced in entry-level sportscar series Ginetta Junior from 2017 to ’19, winning the winter series in his second year and the main championship in his third, then in British Formula 4 where he came fifth in both of his seasons and notched up eight wins, seven other podiums and six poles. He said “it’s a dream come true” to now be making his F3 debut.