Carlin ready to race in British F3

Championship winning British F3 team Carlin Motorsport will be back on track this weekend, for the first race of the 2007 season at Oulton Park. It will be the team’s first race with Mercedes engines, after several successful seasons with Honda power. With a five drivers in the championship class, Carlin has one of its strongest ever driver line-ups.

Maro Engel and Mario Moraes rejoin Carlin for a second season, while Formula Renault graduate Sam Bird, and Formula BMW UK Champion Niall Breen make their British F3 debuts this weekend. 2005 South American F3 Champion Alberto Valerio also enters his first race with the Carlin team.

Team Principal Trevor Carlin commented, “We have five drivers who are all capable of winning races, so I am expecting some good results this weekend and throughout the year. This will be our first race with Mercedes engines and based on our preparation in testing, I think we have a great package for the new season."

Carlin has won the BF3 championship on three occasions; 2001 with Takuma Sato, 2003 with Alan Van der Merwe and 2005 with Alvaro Parente and has recorded more race wins than any other team in British F3. In an effort to continue this level of performance, Carlin has recently established Carlin Advanced Technologies, a new division based at the team’s Chessington facility. The first project conducted was the in-house development of a Formula 3 Dallara aero model, for use in the on- site 3:1 scale wind tunnel with the ambition to refine the Dallara product for British F3 circuits. Through analysis of wind tunnel results and the use of PTC software solutions, the Carlin team will be able to design new elements for the team’s five F3 cars.

Speaking about the effect this will have on the team’s efforts, Carlin commented, “We have only just started conducting wind tunnel tests on the ’07 spec F3 car, but we should start to see some alterations on the car based on our wind tunnel program within a few months."

The first of three practice sessions at Oulton Park will commence at 10.00 Friday morning, followed by two qualifying sessions on Saturday at 11.00 and 15.05. There will be no racing on Sunday, racing will begin at 11.15 on Monday and resume at 16.30 in the afternoon for Race 2.