Felipe Nasr dominated the 2011 British F3 season (Photo Credit: SRO)
British F3 champion Felipe Nasr is to race in the GP2 Series this year with the DAMS team, it has emerged tonight.
The news has been broken by Brazilian website GloboEsporte.com, and will see 19-year-old Nasr join series veteran Davide Valsecchi at French outfit DAMS for the coming season. DAMS won the drivers' title with Romain Grosjean in 2011.
Nasr won the Formula BMW Europe title in 2009, and has competed in British F3 for the past two years, winning the title last year with Carlin. A lack of personal backing however had threatened his career progression. Nasr's personal website has been updated this evening, showing sponsorship from Banco do Brasil and oil firm OGX.
“The decision came after weighing up the options in this category of teams that we had, and the best conditions were in GP2,” Nasr is quoted as saying by GloboEsporte.com. “It is a very advanced car, very close to a Formula 1 car, including very similar tyres. This year we will also have the option of using soft, medium and hard compounds, so it is a step closer to achieving our goal.
“I do not see the pressure to win the championship; I’m not desperate to do this in the first year. The will to win is in me, of course, but this will depend on my adaptation, because the car has 600 horsepower, versus the 250 I was used to. I am assured that I go into GP2 with a two-year plan, and I think the biggest challenge is to understand the car and to fit with the team, and then look for results. If we fails to win now, we go to the next year.”
