Roberto Merhi will return to the Formula Renault 3.5 Series in 2015 after agreeing to race for Pons Racing.
The twenty-three-year-old Spaniard moves to Pons having raced for the unfancied Zeta Corse outfit in 2014, winning three times and taking the championship battle with DAMS driver Carlos Sainz Jr down to the final round of the season at Jerez.
Ultimately a double retirement (taken out in a first lap crash in race one and a mechanical failure in race two) ended his chances, but he had done enough by then to warrant the Caterham F1 Team to approach him to drive in three free practice sessions in Italy, Japan and Russia.
Merhi had returned to single seater racing in 2014 after two years racing for Mercedes-Benz in the DTM Touring Car series, having won the 2011 F3 Euro Series with Prema Powerteam and being a podium finisher in the 2010 GP3 Series with Atech CRS GP.
Pons Racing announced previously that Oscar Tunjo has left the team due to a budgetary shortfall, but Merhi’s arrival will boost the team.
The team have yet to announce Merhi’s team-mate, although Indonesian driver Philo Paz Patric Armand will join the team for the forthcoming pre-season test at Jerez on 5/6 March.