Up-and-coming British racing star Alex Lynn is to graduate to the British Formula 3 International Series for 2012 with Fortec Motorsport.
Lynn, who clinched the Certina Formula Renault UK Championship at Silverstone last weekend with a record-breaking 12th win of the season, will therefore remain with the organisation he has driven with since his fledgling steps in car racing at the end of 2009.
With Fortec, 18-year-old Alex claimed the 2010 Formula Renault UK Graduate Cup title (for young rookie drivers) before taking his first three outright race wins on his way to winning the end-of-season Formula Renault Winter Cup. He then stayed on in Formula Renault to take title glory in the same series won by Kimi Raikkonen in 2000 and Lewis Hamilton in 2003.
Next year is the first for F3 with the new generation of cars mandated by the FIA, and Lynn is looking forward to joining the Fortec squad of Mercedes-powered Dallara cars.
“I think the choice to go with Fortec will prove to be the right one,” he said, “especially as my engineer from Formula Renault, Russell Dixon, is moving up with me. As long as we put in the same effort and hard work that we did this year, there’s no reason why we can’t fight the boys at Carlin, who have won the championship four years running.
“I hope we can help to develop the new car quickly. It's a tall order to fight for the championship but I'll be pushing for wins so let's see what happens.
Lynn rushed from winning the Formula Renault title at Silverstone straight to undertake his first day of testing in F3 machinery at the Italian Grand Prix venue of Monza on Monday.
Fortec F3 Team Manager Mick Kouros said: “Alex has been with the Fortec family for two years and it’s great to have him on board for a third season. He has had great preparation in Formula Renault and he will more than cope with the step up to F3.
“For his first test at Monza, he was rushed off his feet from racing at Silverstone. He didn’t arrive at the hotel until after 1am and he was up at 6am. In the circumstances, you have to say that he did a very impressive job – he ended up just three tenths of a second slower than our driver Will Buller, who set a double pole position at Monza this year. That’s fantastic, especially for his first time at the track.”
Alex will continue his testing programme at Donington Park at the end of this week, while he has an exciting time coming up away from F3. He will be assessed as one of the two candidates of the MSA (British motorsport’s governing body) who have been selected for consideration as a member of the FIA Institute Young Driver Excellence Academy, as well as being one of the six finalists in the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award, for which the winner gets prizes including a test in a McLaren Formula 1 car.
He also continues to represent the MSA Team UK scheme and the British Racing Drivers Club’s SuperStars programme, both of which are highly-prestigious young-driver talent initiatives.
