Riccardo Agostini will join MP Motorsport in Auto GP for 2013, it was announced today.
Agostini, who is currently 18, has enjoyed a fairly impressive beginning to his single-seater career. After two years of Formula Abarth (where he finished 11th and seventh, taking one win in 2010), he moved to Italian F3 last year and triumphed in both categories in what would be the last year for the series. On his way to the title, he beat the more-experienced pair of Eddie Cheever, Jr. and Brandon Maisano.
Agostini took part in post-season testing for both GP2 and Formula Renault 3.5, with Scuderia Coloni and International Draco Racing respectively. He was fairly impressive in FR3.5, finishing one of the test days in second.
Regarding his Auto GP move, Agostini said: “My goal for the next season is to grow familiarity with a powerful car? much more powerful than a F3, and to fight for the title in an extremely selective international championship with many top teams. I am satisfied with the two-year agreement I’ve signed with MP Motorsport, which will offer me the opportunity to grow the necessary experience to race in the GP2 in 2014, when the new cars will debut in the series that is a compulsory step to F1.”
Team boss Sander Dorsman added: “We’re proud to have Riccardo in our team for the 2013 season. He’s a young and very promising racer with great skills and lots of ambition. Last season, he demonstrated his full potential by winning the Italian F3 series and we’re sure he will be among the frontrunners in Auto GP.”
MP Motorsport finished second in last year’s teams’ standings, employing Daniel de Jong (who will be promoted to the team’s new GP2 squad full-time this year) and bringing Chris van der Drift along as his driver coach. Van der Drift, despite missing the final round of the championship, took fourth in the standings, with a win at Marrakech, while de Jong was not far behind in fifth.