F3: Fortec eyes return with Force India junior

Fortec Motorsport is planning to return to top-level Formula 3 in Europe this season before a two-attack on the Macau Grand Prix – possibly with Force India protege Jehan Daruvala.

The British team, which was one of four of last year's regular squads to fall by the wayside before this season's F3 European Championship, has been testing drivers recently in a pair of its Dallara-Mercedes cars.

Daruvala leads the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup after taking his maiden win at the Hungaroring last weekend, is fifth in the Eurocup and was runner-up in this year's Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand.

The 20-year-old tried Fortec's F3 car at Silverstone earlier this month, returning to the team having taken his rookie car-racing steps with it in FR2.0 last year before switching to Josef Kaufmann Racing for 2016.

Team boss Richard Dutton said: "We've been doing quite a lot of testing with different drivers – Jehan is one of the drivers we're talking to [to race in F3].

"We're talking to quite a few, but he's quick."

Fortec plans to return for August's Masters of F3 at Zandvoort, before hopefully contesting the final European championship round at Hockenheim and then attacking the Macau Grand Prix, where Daniel Juncadella qualified one of the team's cars on the front row last November in its last competitive outing to date in FIA-spec F3.

"We've got to go out and try to convince people that we can do the job," added Dutton.

Running alongside Daruvala in the Silverstone test was Fortec's 16-year-old British Formula 4 driver Frankie Bird, who was getting his first taste of F3 power.

"He's done so little in his career – he did no karting before he raced in Ginetta Juniors last year," said Dutton. "We were just trying to get him up to speed and he did a really good job."

Originally on Autosport.com