F3: America's Ferrucci makes full-time Fortec switch

Fortec Motorsport will return to the Formula 3 European Championship with Santino Ferrucci, after the American teen switched from the EuroInternational team.

Ferrucci has been competing with Italian squad EuroInternational since early June, when he had turned 16 and was eligible to race in F3. But he has now quit the team which ran him in European and German F3 in favor of a switch to Fortec, with which he will also contest the Macau Grand Prix.

Ferrucci took two wins in a British F3 one-off at Brands Hatch last weekend with Fortec, which missed the last European F3 round at the Nurburgring after Mitch Gilbert and John Bryant-Meisner switched to GP3.

Fortec principal Richard Dutton said that his team has been interested for a long time in Ferrucci, whose career has been overseen by ex-Formula BMW USA boss Simon Kirkby – a Briton who used to race with Dutton in the 1970s and '80s.

"We've been trying to rebuild our European team and we've been talking with him for a while," said Dutton. "We've kept an eye on him through his karting career."

British F3 Championship leader Martin Cao also has a deal in place with Fortec for Macau, and according to Dutton is one of a handful of drivers who could join Ferrucci in the European F3 team for the final two rounds at Imola and Hockenheim.