India's racing star Karun Chandhok has confirmed that he will be moving up to the ' Championship class ' of the British Formula 3 championship with his team from last year, T-Sport. The team and Karun had a successful year together in 2003 in the ' Scholarship class ', winning 8 races and finishing a close third in the Championship standings, making him the most successful Indian at this level of racing.
Chandhok was delighted to finally seal his racing programme for this year, " I'm really happy to announce that I'm back with T-Sport (who were awarded the "Team of the year for 2003" ) for the 2004 season. For the Championship class we use a new chassis and it'll mean a lot of hard work developing it and finding the right setups to suit my driving. I have a fantastic relationship with the team and my engineer Alan Woodhead and I'm very excited at the prospect of working on the new car. I've worked really hard over the winter on various angles right from driver coaching, PR work, commentary, raising sponsorship and of course my fitness, and now I feel ready and more motivated than at any other time in my career - I can't wait to get going ! ".
Leading the consortium of sponsors who are contributing towards the mammoth 3.2 crores rupees required for the F3 championship is JK Tyre who have been the backbone of Karun's career. Kingfisher and V3 Fun carry on their association from 2003 as the other primary sponsors and they are joined by UCAL Mikuni, another long time supporter of the Madras born driver. " The last few months have been really hard work putting the money together for the season. At the moment we're almost there with a full budget and a big thank you to my sponsors for carrying on their support. The budget for the British championship alone is over 3.2 crores and to do races like the un-official World Cup's in Holland, Macau, Korea and Dubai we're going to have to chase around again. "
T-Sport team manager Russell Eacott is equally pleased to have his Indian charge back for this year; " It'll be great having Karun back. He was the first driver to sign a contract with us when we started the team and it's great that he's also the first driver who'll drive for us in the Championship class. As a team, we've all been waiting to graduate up to 'A' class and over the winter we've been gathering information about the new car. Now we are itching to start testing with Karun next week - he's very much a part of the T-Sport family and we're looking forward to another great season together."
The 2004 season kicks off on the 4th of April, but as Karun explains, there's a lot to be done before that; " While the actual races start only in April, we'll have to do atleast 4000 km of testing before the first race at different circuits across the country to ensure that we're competitive this year. The first test is on the 16th of this month and we'll be out twice a week till the first race."
And what of the competition ? This year's F3 championship promises to be as competitive as ever. Nelsonho Piquet, son of the 3 time world champion Nelson Piquet leads the challenge. The Brazilian, who has been testing for the Williams Formula 1 team this week, starts as firm favorite having finished 3rd last year. Other serious threats include Karun's 2002 team-mate Clivio Piccione and his Carlin Motorsport team-mates Danilo Darini and Alvaro Parente, last year's Scholarship class champion Ernesto Viso, Williams F1 test driver Marko Asmer, Renault F1 development driver the Brazilian di Grassi, the Ausies Will Power and Will Davison both of whom will be testing with the Minardi F1 team later this year as well as the highly rated Malaysian Fauzy Fairuz.
As ever Karun, a former National and Asian Formula Champion, chose to shy away from predictions but said that his " aim for this season is to win 3 races. If I can do that with a team that are new to 'A' class, and against the quality field that we have this year I think that'll be really good and will hopefully give me a platform to talk to teams in higher levels of racing for 2005 - be it Formula 1 or Formula 2."
2004 BRITISH FORMULA 3 CHAMPIONSHIP CALENDAR
Round Date Venue1 & 2 4th April Donington Park National3 & 4 18th April Silverstone International5 & 6 2nd May Croft7 & 8 16th May Knockhill9 & 10 6th June Snetterton11 & 12 20th June Castle Combe13 & 14 27th June Donington Grand Prix15 & 16 18th July Oulton Park17 & 18 15th August Silverstone Grand Prix19 & 20 29th August Thruxton21 & 22 12th September Spa23 & 24 3rd October Brands Hatch Grand Prix
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