The 2019 Asian F3 Winter Series will feature Dan Ticktum and David Schumacher among the drivers to compete for the title.
Along with the two existing winter series, the MRF Challenge and the Toyota Racing Series, the Asian F3 winter championship is now added in the frame with the biggest award of FIA’s F1 superlicense points on offer to the drivers.
The superlicense points on offer has pulled in Red Bull junior Ticktum (Britain) to compete in the series and take away the maximum, so as to have enough to not only be able to test a F1 car but also find a race seat in the future.
The British racer has chosen Asian F3 over TRS as he will race for HitechGP in the inaugural season which starts later this weekend at Buriram (January 13) with two more rounds slated to take place at Sepang circuit (January 20 and January 24).
“I’m really looking forward to taking part,” said Ticktum. “The main reason is to get my hands on some superlicence points, but I will benefit from extra track time over the winter at two prestigious circuits, so overall I’m looking forward to getting started.”
Ticktum will be joined in by reigning Pro Mazda champion Rinus van Kalmthout (Netherlands), 2018 F4 South East Asia winner Alessandro Ghiretti (France) and Pavan Ravishankar (Singapore) in a four-car effort from the British junior outfit.
Elsewhere, former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher’s son David (Germany), will also race in the series with Pinnacle Motorsport alongside 2018 Spanish F4 champion Amaury Cordeel (Belgium) and seasoned single-seater racer Akash Nandy (Malaysia).
Two other teams entering in the series will be Absolute Racing and BlackArts Racing Team with the former fielding Ye Yifei (China) and Eshan Pieris (Sri Lanka) and the latter having the sole women racer in the field, Vivien Keszthelyi (Hungary).
UPDATE: More names were added to the entry list of the Asian F3 Winter Series with B-Max Racing Team fielding its team principal Dragon and Tairaku Yamaguchi while Super License having Tomoki Takahashi.
In addition, HitechGP will also have another Red Bull junior Jack Doohan, son of MotoGP legend Mick, in their ranks but the Australian will only be testing in Thailand with the idea of joining the series for the final three races. His 2019 programme is yet to be revealed.
