William Buller gets set to kickstart European F3 title challenge
William Buller has his sights firmly set on a title challenge as he prepares to get his FIA Formula 3 European Championship bid underway this weekend with two days of official testing at the Catalunya circuit in Spain.The 20-year old Northern Irish racer, from Scarva in County Down, will be seeking to maintain his impressive record in Formula 3, having previously secured race victories in both the British F3 International Series and the F3 Euroseries - where he finished fifth in the standings last year.During 2012, William also competed in the F1-supporting GP3 Series, taking arguably the most impressive victory of the season with a stunning drive from the back of the grid in poor weather conditions at Silverstone.For 2013, William will focus solely on the FIA Formula 3 European Championship having signed up to spearhead the ThreeBond with T-Sport challenge on the ten-round, 30 race series.Having firmly established himself as a front-running championship contender in the Euroseries last year, William goes into the 2013 campaign seeking to once again challenge at the head of the field, with hopes high of launching a bid for the title.The two day test in Spain, which takes place on Friday and Saturday (8/9 March), will give William the first chance to see how he shapes up against the rest of the field, having previously spent a day at the wheel of his ThreeBond Nissan-powered Dallara F312 at the Anglesey circuit in Wales prior to the first group test of the year.Im delighted to have been signed up by ThreeBond to compete in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship this season and am looking forward to the challenges of the season ahead, he said. I had my first chance to drive the car at Anglesey to get used to my new environment and it well.T-Sport are a very professional team that have been successful in the past, and I felt at home straightaway working with them and the engineers from ThreeBond. We were up to speed quickly and lapped under the lap record, so Im now looking forward to seeing how we shape up against the rest of the F3 field in Spain. For me, this is a really big season as I have shown I am capable of fighting for victories in the past, and I feel I was able to learn a lot as a driver from my programme last year. It certainly wont be easy this season as there are some top teams and drivers on the grid, but we have a package that is more than capable of challenging for honours at the head of the pack and Im confident that we will be amongst the contenders at the end of the year.Williams first race for the ThreeBond with T-Sport team will come at Monza on the weekend of 23/24 March, with a two-day test scheduled at the Italian circuit before the first race meeting of the season.