Photo: Colin McMaster/FIA Formula 2
Sergio Sette Camara will join Carlin for the first pre-season IndyCar test of 2020, ahead of an expected move to the series.
The Formula 2 race-winner, who acted as McLaren’s Formula 1 test and development driver last year, raced for Carlin on its F2 return in 2018 and in the Macau Grand Prix two years prior.
Sette Camara’s McLaren link was understood to be in part connected to the team’s sponsorship deal with Petrobras, but the partnership with the Brazilian fuel company broke down before the end of last season, making Brazilian driver Sette Camara’s role less secure.
“Thanks Carlin Racing for the opportunity to do my first IndyCar Series test!,” said Sette Camara on his Instagram.
He will be joined in Carlin’s #31 car at the Circuit of the Americas test by fellow Brazilian and former F1 driver Felipe Nasr.
The 2018 IMSA champion, and alum of Carlin in British Formula 3 and GP2, is also linked to a single-seater return in IndyCar after dabbling in Formula E last year.
“We’re so excited to get the IndyCar season rolling at the COTA Open Test and even more excited to announce that two Carlin alumni will round out our testing lineup for the weekend,” Carlin said in a release.
It is known that Sette Camara, who took two wins on the way to fourth in the 2019 F2 points and helped DAMS to the teams title, has visited several teams across F1, F2 and IndyCar while evaluating his plans for the upcoming season.
For some time he was linked to Hitech’s new F2 entry, and could potentially still race for the squad given its signing Luca Ghiotto has also committed to a clashing GT World Challenge Europe campaign with R-Motorsport.
A F2 return would make it four years in the series for Sette Camara, whose single-seater career began with a winless three-year spell in F3 highlighted by two Macau podiums.