Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
South Korean single-seater rookie Michael Shin has been revealed as the second signing of Virtuosi Racing in British Formula 4 for this season.
Shin had just over a year of kart racing experience before moving on to testing cars, and last year he came to the United Kingdom under the tutelage of driver coach Callan O’Keeffe and the JHR Developments team to do further testing.
He drove a Formula Renault 2.0 car as well as first-generation F4 machinery, then made his car racing debut in the second-generation Tatuus T-421 car, being used by British F4 this year, with JHR in F4 United Arab Emirates just over six weeks ago.
Shin’s best race result was a 12th place over the five rounds and 20 races, and since then has already returned to testing in the UK and now with Virtuosi. He was sixth fastest in British F4’s official test day at Brands Hatch earlier this week.
“I’m delighted to be joining Virtuosi Racing for the 2022 British F4 season,” said Shin. “They are such a high level team, and I find it so valuable to be able to learn and develop in that proper environment from early on in my career.
“We have made so much progress in the few days we have done so far and I am excited to keep the improvement going for the rest of the year.”
Shin’s team-mate at Virtuosi, which is entering F4 for the first time and is better known for its Formula 2 exploits, is Ginetta Junior graduate Edward Pearson.
“We are delighted to welcome Michael to Virtuosi Racing,” said its team manager Mark Salmon. “We have started very well in our test programme and I’m looking forward to working with Michael for the rest of the season.”