The competitive grid that is being formed for this new FIA F3 European season continues to be composed little by little. One of the teams with fewer confirmed pieces, Van Amersfoort Racing, has announced what will be his second official driver for 2018.
Artem Petrov has been chosen, which will accompany the only confirmed one, Keyvan Andres, in the absence of knowing the rest of the team’s components.
Petrov, of 18 years old, comes to demonstrate a good potential in his short trajectory in single-seaters. Ranked 5th in the Italian F4, he won two victories and nine podiums with DR Formula. In addition, he also competed in ten races of the ADAC F4, in which he triumphed in the last round on Hockenheim with Van Amersfoort.
The Russian started in 2016 his first steps by the SMP F4, where he did not stand out much with the 15th final place. In addition, he also made his first participations in the Italian F4, where he achieved two podiums.
Now he faces the biggest challenge of his career so far. This winter he has already runed to the Formula 3 car of the Dutch team on occasion, demonstrating a good adaptation and a good performance that have earned him the hiring to move up to the category this season.
Petrov is convinced to be able to play a good role in this new category, and this was shown in his words in the official statement of the team:
“I am happy that I can make the step into the FIA F3 European Championship with VAR. I felt right away at home in the team and am looking forward to enter battle together in this competitive championship with very strong drivers, who I have known since my karting days. With the many years of experience of Frits and his team behind me, I am confident that I can be competitive this forthcoming season”.
On the other hand, the founder of the team, Frits van Amersfoort, is also very happy in the announcement of his second driver, from which he expects a good performance in his rookie year:
“It is a pleasure to announce that Artem joins our Formula 3 squad for the 2018 season. We had him on our radar for some time. Last season he came in the team with a “Bang”, being very fast and winning one race. We believe Artem is ready for the next step and we feel his motivation to be successful at the next level. We will certainly give him our full support during his maiden F3 season”.