Ferrari junior Marcus Armstrong and Red Bull junior Lucas Auer are among the 16 drivers to have entered for the 2019 Toyota Racing Series.
The winter single-seater series where the drivers can earn FIA’s F1 superlicense points will feature 16 drivers in the 2019 season starting later this weekend (January 10-13) at Highlands Motorsport Park in New Zealand.
The season will see four more rounds with Teretonga Park hosting Round 2 on January 17-20, followed by races in Hampton Downs Motorsport Park (January 24-27), Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park (January 31 – February 3) and Circuit Chris Amon (February 7-10).
Among the 16 entered for the season, Ferrari junior Armstrong will be the favourite for the title with the Kiwi racing for M2 Competition for the third consecutive season after having finished fourth and third respectively in 2017 and 2018.
The team will also field the new Red Bull Junior Team recruit Auer (Austria) along with F3 racers Artem Petrov (Russia) & Cameron Das (USA) and F4’s Liam Lawson (New Zealand) & Esteban Muth (Belgium) in a six-driver effort.
Fielding four drivers each will be MTEC Motorsport and Giles Motorsport respectively with the former having F3’s Kazuto Kotaka (Japan) & Calan Williams (Australia) and F4’s Jackson Walls (Australia) in its ranks with the final name yet to be released.
At the same time, Giles Motorsport will field 2018 Asian F3 champion Raoul Hyman (South Africa), F3’s Dev Gore (USA) and F4’s Petr Ptacek (Czech Republic) & Thomas Smith (Australia) in the team.
The fourth and final team Victory Motor Racing will have two drivers in its ranks with Brendon Leitch (New Zealand) returning for his sixth season in TRS after racing in F4 USA in 2018 alongside fellow rival Parker Locke (USA).
Last year saw another Ferrari junior Robert Shwartzman win the title with M2 Competition in a close fight with his teammates Richard Verschoor and Armstrong. Most certainly, this year Armstrong will like to finally win the coveted title.