Red Bull Junior Team’s Jehan Daruvala is recovering from COVID-19, as he is likely to compete in 2021 F3 Asia Championship.
Daruvala reveled about a positive COVID-19 result through his social media on Monday morning, as the Indian informed that he is on the recovery mode after catching it. He is presently in his home in Mumbai, with mild symptoms of the virus.
Together with that, Daruvala alerted about an upcoming news, which is likely that he will be competing in the 2021 F3 Asia Championship. The series usually takes place on Asian tracks like Malaysia, Thailand, China, etc, but due to COVID-19, it won’t be held there.
Instead, the 2021 series will be held in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, starting from January 29-30 weekend until February 19-20, with five rounds in store. Daruvala is likely to race for Mumbai Falcons, an Indian entry which took over the slot from MSport Asia.
Mumbai Falcons competed in the Indian X1 Racing championship in 2019, and F3 Asia will be its first international adventure. The team is set to be operated by Prema, but won’t feature their name, unlike the ‘Abu Dhabi Racing by Prema’ operation.
The line-up is to feature another upcoming Indian racer, Kush Maini, who was part of Mumbai Falcons’ outfit in the X1 Racing series. The Bangalore-born driver ended up second in the 2020 British F3 Championship, while racing for Hitech GP.
With Toyota Racing Series not allowing international drivers and MRF Challenge not happening, the F3 Asia championship becomes the only winter series, where drivers can keep themselves in shape for the 2021 season, and even score superlicense points.
So far nine drivers have been confirmed to compete with more F2 racers slated to join, where the likes of Guanyu Zhou and Roy Nissany, are high on the list. For Daruvala, though, it will be re-unification with Prema after their success in F3.
He is expected to stick to F2 in 2021 with Carlin, where Dan Ticktum is speculated to join, considering the British racer tested with them in Bahrain. It is unclear at the moment if Daruvala will retain his Red Bull slot, with the decision yet to be taken on that front.
“Hey guys, Firstly, I’d like to wish you all a very Happy New Year! I’ve been away from social media as I’m currently recovering from Covid. I’m doing fine now and recovering well. Besides that, I’ve got some really exciting news coming your way. So STAY TUNED,” wrote Daruvala.
Here’s the details regarding 2021 F3 Asia season: http://www.f3asia.com/
Here’s tier categorisation of F2 and F3 drivers