Maxi to contest 2016 FIA F3 Championship with Prema
A great team
It’s official – Maximilian Günther will be challenging for the 2016 FIA Formula 3 Championship as a member of the Prema Powerteam squad. For his second season in the world’s strongest junior racing series, the talented youngster from Rettenberg (Bavaria) has joined one of the most successful racing outfits in Europe: “It was my great wish to compete in the 2016 FIA Formula 3 Championship as a member of Prema Powerteam. This is a great team with an excellent record in motorsport.”
The 18-year-old has already driven for the 2015 team championship winners in the grand finale at Hockenheim this year and obviously made a good impression with the Italian outfit. In his very first qualifying session, he took second place on the grid and also lined up for the other two races in the Top Five. Maximilian Günther then proceeded to show his class in the races, finishing on the rookie podium each time. These achievements and his overall fifth in the rookie championship were clearly enough to convince Prema Powerteam.
“I’m especially impressed by the highly professional and meticulous approach of this team,” said Maximilian. “I’m very pleased that we will now be pushing for top finishes together in 2016. Obviously, expectations are very high, both from the outside as well as my own. Prema Powerteam won the drivers’ and team championships in 2015. Everyone in the team is eager to repeat this great result in the coming season, and I’ll be doing my best to contribute.”
Prema Powerteam are one of the most successful racing stables in Europe. They have claimed five consecutive championships in the most competitive Formula 3 series in the world with Roberto Merhi (2011), Daniel Juncadella (2012), Raffaele Marciello (2013), Esteban Ocon (2014) and Felix Rosenqvist (2015). Jacques Villeneuve, Robert Kubica, Kamui Kobayashi, Merhi, Juncadella, Marciello and Ocon are just a few of their former drivers who subsequently made the step up to Formula 1 or the DTM. Prema Powerteam will once again be using the Formula 3 engine supplied by Mercedes-Benz in 2016. The 250-horsepower F3 414 has won both the FIA Formula 3 Championship (in 2014 and 2015) and the prestigious Macau Formula 3 Grand Prix.
The 2016 FIA Formula 3 European Championship will be contested over ten race weekends in seven countries. The season starts in early April at Le Castellet in southern France, moving on three weeks later to the Hungaroring in Hungary. In mid-May, the competition returns to France for the Grand Prix de Pau, a real classic on the Formula 3 calendar. The season then continues with visits to the Red Bull Ring in Austria, the Norisring in Nuremberg and another foreign excursion to the North Sea dunes of Zandvoort in the Netherlands. An additional highlight of the season comes in late July on the Formula 1 racetrack in Spa-Francorchamps. This is followed by the Nürburgring and Imola in Italy. As is now traditional, the grand finale in mid-October takes places at Hockenheim.
Foto: Mario Bartkowiak