Mardenborough continues GP3 campaign

Jann Mardenborough will combine his Nissan LMP1 progra with GP3 in 2015, announcing a move to Carlin as pre-season testing kicked off at Estoril.

The GT Academy winner was ninth in the 2014 GP3 standings with Arden, having won the reversed-grid race at Hockenheim. For his second season in series, he reunites with Carlin, with which he tackled the Formula 3 European Championship in 2013.

"It's great to go back to Carlin for GP3," the 23-year-old said. "I made my single-seater debut with them and they are a very professional outfit.

"I want to be a winner, so I'm going to be using what I learned last year to improve my performance and to challenge for podiums and lots of points.

"I was thinking at the start of the year that it would be amazing to do both LMP1 and GP3 so I'm very happy and surprised that this has happened. The championships are relevant to each other – all racing is – but they do require different skills. GP3 is short sprints so the racing is very aggressive from lap one until the flag, whereas in LMP1 the races are between six and 24 hours long so the ability to quickly change strategy is required along with the obvious need for physical and mental endurance."

While Nissan has withdrawn its radical GT-R LM NISMO from the first two rounds of the World Endurance Championship, it has placed Mardenborough in its lineup for the Nurburgring 24 Hours, and he will contest a GT3 VLN race at the circuit on March 28.

With 23 cars in action this week during GP3's first pre-season test, he joins Antonio Fuoco and Mitchell Gilbert at Carlin, which took Alex Lynn to the 2014 title.

"Jann completes an extremely strong lineup for us," boss Trevor Carlin said. "Having worked with him in F3 and seeing him continue to develop in GP3, I have no doubt that Jann will be a potential race winner from the start.

"It's fantastic to see the path his career has taken; from a gamer at home to a competitive GP3 racer on track and we're thankful to the GT Academy and Nissan for entrusting us with this next step in Jann's single seater career."

GP3 LINEUP

Carlin
Jann Mardenborough, Antonio Fuoco, Mitchell Gilbert

ART Grand Prix
Alfonso Celis Jr, Marvin Kirchhofer, Esteban Ocon

Status Grand Prix
Alex Fontana, Seb Morris, Sandy Stuvik

Koiranen GP
Jimmy Eriksson, Adderly Fong, Matt Parry

Arden International
Emil Bernstorff, Aleksander Bosak, Kevin Ceccon

Jenzer Motorsport
Matheo Tuscher, Ralph Boschung, Pal Varhaug

Trident
Luca Ghiotto, Artur Janosz, Oscar Tunjo

Campos Racing
Alex Palou, Zaid Ashkanani, tba

Originally on Autosport.com