Current British F3 champions Carlin will field a three-car line-up for the opening round of the 2013 Cooper Tires British Formula Three International Series at Silverstone later this weekend.
Trevor Carlin’s squad – who won the British championship in the hands of current GP3 driver Jack Harvey in 2012 – will bolster the grid further for the revised four-event championship, running their trio of regular European Formula 3 drivers Jordan King, Nicholas Latifi and Jann Mardenborough.
Racing director Trevor Carlin himself commented: “We’re very pleased to be joining the British Formula Three International Series again; as a team we’ve been a long term supporter of the series. It always delivers close and exciting racing over the course of the weekend and we’re happy to be part of it once again.
“As the season progresses we hope to add more cars to our British Formula Three line-up and look forward to the opening round at Silverstone.”
Last year’s Formula Renault NEC series runner-up King had already planned to dovetail the British series with his European championship commitments, and feels confident that his recent visit to Silverstone – in which he netted a fifth place finish along the way – proves that the team will be in contention for wins this weekend, saying: “We’ve already raced at Silverstone once this year so it’s given me a heads up to the track and what to expect in the Formula Three car.
“I think that this, along with a decent amount of testing there, puts us in a good position so I’m feeling confident”, he continued. “The only real unknown is going to be traffic – I think there’s going to be a mixture of cars on track so we’ll wait and see but it’s going to be good to be on track there again.”
Fellow British driver Mardenborough will join in a season that sees the 2011 GT Academy winner switch from GT racing to single-seaters, the Darlington-born 21-year-old having notched up a GT3 race victory in last season’s British GT Championship towards a sixth place finish in the final standings, with Le Mans also firmly on his radar.
Latifi meanwhile raced in the Italian F3 series in 2012, and will also add the British F3 championship to his 2013 schedule with Carlin alongside the European series, the Canadian racer already having shone at Silverstone after also scoring a fifth place finish during the European F3 championship’s recent visit to the home of the British Grand Prix.
