Prema for Armstrong? 2019 plans slowly take shape

Meanwhile ‘our’ F3 star Marcus Armstrong may stick with Prema for 2019 and if so is likely to join Robert Schwartzman in the team’s squad for the new F3.

The Motorsport.com website notes that the pair were both race winners this year in F3 [and of course Toyota Racing Series], with Russian Shwartzman claiming the F3 rookie title and third in the overall standings and Armstrong reversing the position at Macau, finishing eighth overall and finishing best rookie.

While staying with Prema is logical in both cases, overseas media speculation has also linked New Zealander Armstrong with a switch to Hitech GP, whose boss Oliver Oakes gave him his chance in international karting and has mentored much of his career.

All-up, I’d say Prema is nevertheless the most likely destination for Armstrong, who led the Euro F3 rankings for much of the season before Mick Schumacher surged through later in the season. The other driver in the three-car team is expected to be another European F3 race winner in the form of Jehan Daruvala –shaken survivor of contact with Sophia Floersch at Macau.

Daruvala has been with Carlin for his two F3 seasons and is likely to lose his Force India connection now that the Formula 1 team is under new ownership.

Mark Baker has been working in automotive PR and communications for more than two decades. For much longer than that he has been a motorsport journalist, photographer and competitor, witness to most of the most exciting and significant motorsport trends and events of the mid-late 20th Century. His earliest memories of motorsport were trips to races at Ohakea in the early 1960s, and later of annual summer pilgrimages to watch Shellsport racers and Mini 7s at Bay Park and winter sorties into forests around Kawerau and Rotorua to see the likes of Russell Brookes, Ari Vatanen and Mike Marshall ply their trade in group 4 Escorts. Together with Murray Taylor and TV producer/director Dave Hedge he has been responsible for helping to build New Zealand’s unique Toyota Racing Series into a globally recognized event brand under category managers Barrie and Louise Thomlinson. Now working for a variety of automotive and mainstream commercial clients, Mark has a unique perspective on recent motor racing history and the future career paths of our best and brightest young racers.

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