Photo: Fast Lane Promotion
Indian racer Parth Ghorpade has made his Formula Renault 2.0 Alps switch official, joining BVM Racing for a 2013 campaign after taking part in pre-season tests in the category.
Ghorpade, 19, has made his international single-seater debut in 2011, embarking on a campaign in French F4 to finish 15th at the end of the year. His real breakthrough performance came a year later however as he joined Eurasia in Formula Pilota China. While he didn’t quite match series frontrunners Antonio Giovinazzi and Dan Wells, he took a respectable third at the end of the year with three wins, beating Sean Gelael to the series’ Best Asian Driver Trophy. During the winter, he took part in the MRF Challenge, finishing 15th among very strong competition.
“The last few months have been difficult as we have been making the series choice for 2013”, said Ghorpade. “We finally decided that as Formula Renault 2.0 Alps is one of the most competitive series around, it is the ideal platform for me at this stage of my career. I was surprised with how easily I adapted to the car? and I must thank BVM Racing for making this possible.
“Testing left us with a positive feel but there is a lot of work to do and I hope we’ll be competitive at the first race in Vallelunga. The testing also proved the series’ competitiveness with the top 20 cars within a second of each other.”
Ghorpade will be joining Dario Capitanio, whose BVM contract was announced earlier.