F3: West-Tec goes 'cut price' trying to stay in Euro series

The team with which Sam MacLeod starred in the Macau Grand Prix is days away from having to quit the Formula 3 European Championship. Team West-Tec has no drivers signed for 2016 and is now offering half-season deals in a bid to get someone on board before the championship's Feb. 15 entry deadline.

"There's no way we're going to give up - we've been here 28 years but this is the most difficult time we've ever experienced, at a point where the team has never been better, both technical and resource-wise," said West-Tec founder Gavin Wills. "A lot of drivers are frightened that they have to sign a one-year contract, so we have to be realistic and give them a good package that fits [in the current financial climate]."

MacLeod ran second in the Macau GP in one of West-Tec's brace of Dallara-Mercedes cars, but touched a wall and sustained a puncture.

"Sam is desperate to carry on with us but his sponsor is Castrol and this is not a good time for oil companies," added Wills. "He's still working on it, we talk daily and it would be our dream to run him - it's unfinished business, especially after Macau. It would be a travesty if we didn't get him out."

Wills, who added that the European F3 cars have undergone R&D work by West-Tec chief engineer Mick Kouros over the winter, says that he is also prepared to offer similar half-season deals and even one-offs for West-Tec's four-car Euroformula Open team.

The squad won that title in 2013 with current Indy Lights star Ed Jones.

Originally on Autosport.com