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Bratt set for Spanish debut
6:21am Tuesday 29th April 2008
BRITISH single-seater driver Will Bratt is set to embark on the toughest challenge of his motor racing career this weekend, when he makes his international race debut during the opening round of the 2008 FIAT Spanish Formula 3 Championship.
Driving for the EmiliodeVillota.com Motorsport team, the 20-year-old racer from Banbury graduates to Spanish F3 from the ranks of Formula Renault UK where he finished third overall in the 2007 championship, taking four race victories along the way.
While this weekend's action is set to mark Bratt's first run at the wheel of the team's new Fiat-powered F308 Dallara chassis, the British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC) Rising Star is confident the package will be competitive.
"I can't wait for the weekend to start", said Bratt, "It's a really exciting prospect thinking I'll be making my international race debut just a few days from now, I'm confident we'll be able to challenge strongly. We're certainly not underestimating the competition though, as Spanish F3 looks like it's going to be very tough this year."
Prior to the opening two races of the 2008 FIAT Spanish F3 Championship, Bratt has undertaken only a handful of tests in an older F306 chassis - four to be exact - but he has shown very impressive pace, emerging fastest at Jarama in March by an incredible six 10ths of a second during only his second ever Formula 3 run.
"The few tests we have done have been good and although I haven't had an opportunity to drive the new car, I'm confident I'll be able to adapt very quickly", added the Oxford University scholar, "It's certainly going to be the toughest challenge of my career but that's what I'm looking forward to most."
Racing in Formula Renault UK for the past three years, he has followed in the wheel-tracks of reigning Formula One World Champion Kimi Raikkonen and 2007 F1 runner-up Lewis Hamilton; both former Formula Renault UK Champions.
With his graduation to Spanish Formula 3, Bratt is following the route taken by current GP2 front-runners Alvaro Parente, Javier Villa and Roldan Rodriguez and World Series by Renault and GP2 racer Borja Garcia. GP2 is, of course, the prestigious support category to Formula One and is where Bratt plans to be racing in 2009.
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Challenge: Will Bratt
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