SMP Racing executive Dmitry Samorukov has revealed the reasons to why they will not continue their partnership with AF Corse into the 2017 World Series Formula V8 3.5 season after making the switch to the AVF by Adrian Vallés team.
Last year, SMP Racing partnered with AF Corse and fielded Matthieu Vaxiviere and Matevos Isaakyan, taking three wins, but Samorukov revealed that technical issues and problems with car preparation made it clear that the future lay away from AF Corse, and the partnership with Adrian Vallés’ team was formed.
Isaakyan remains part of the programme for 2017, and will be joined by fellow SMP Racing-backed Egor Orudzhev, with the championship certainly a part of SMP Racing’s plans for their junior drivers.
“We were working quite closely with AF Corse in 3.5, and the way it turned out was that the level set by AF Corse probably wasn’t quite acceptable for us,” said Samorukov to Motorsport.com. “There were technical issues with the car, issues with the preparation. So this year AF Corse will not be taking part in the 3.5 series.
“Actually, there was a whole separate story – the team was created with the hope that there would be a restructuring in formula racing, and other classes would be created where the team could be moved. But that, unfortunately, didn’t happen, and the way that AF Corse was tackling 3.5, it was probably not competitive – that’s how we feel.
“Today the class is undoubtedly of interest, it has a fast car and exciting battles, so for our programme it is of interest for drivers’ individual progress.”
