MP Motorsport have announced that Daniel de Jong will race alongside Formula Renault 3.5 Champion Oliver Rowland as part of their 2016 GP2 Series campaign.
The Dutchman had his third season in the series cut short after an accident at Spa Francorchamps last year caused a broken vertebra, but a speedy recovery from the horrific accident allowed De Jong to return for the final events in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi.
“Last year, we began looking at what the future holds for us,” admitted the Dutchman. “We looked into LMP2 pretty seriously, and I did a test that really pleased me. Then I saw that the World Endurance Championship prototypes and GP2 race on the same weekend in Bahrain and I thought, GP2 is such an amazing category with cars battling through the entire field.
That is why I decided to stay in this hugely competitive championship for one more year before a possible switch to prototype racing.”
Although he competed with MP Motorsport throughout the majority of his 2015 season, De Jong joined Italian team Trident Racing for the final two rounds of the season in 2015 but will return to the MP Motorsport team as he enters his fourth year of competition in GP2.
“With Oliver as a team-mate, we have a fantastic year ahead of us. He is a good racer and extremely motivated, and we’ve known each other for a long time. Everyone in the team is buzzing with enthusiasm and that feels really great.”
Sander Dorsman, MP Motorsport Team Principal, said: “…With Oliver and Daniel, we have two drivers that we nurtured ourselves in our Formula Renault 2.0 squad.
The two have a strong working relationship and get along very well. Daniel had quite an eventful GP2 season in 2015, so with our exciting new driver pairing we are looking forward to a season of stability and, hopefully, success as well.”