Brazilian teenager Caio Collet was one of two new names announced to the Renault Sport Academy for 2019, alongside Guanyu Zhou, and has been placed by the French marque into the Formula Renault Eurocup championship with R-ace GP.
Sixteen-year-old Collet moves into Eurocup as the 2018 French Formula 4 champion and is R-ace GP’s second confirmed driver for 2019 alongside Australian racer Oscar Piastri, and the Brazilian is over the moon to be a part of Renault’s academy line-up.
“I’m really pleased to join forces with the Renault Sport Academy, especially with all the history they have in motorsport,” said Collet, who lines up alongside Zhou, Anthoine Hubert, Max Fewtrell, Christian Lundgaard and Victor Martins in the Academy. “It’s a big opportunity for me to work with support from a Formula 1 team and use their facilities to ensure I extract the best from myself.”
Collet will attack just his second season of single-seater racing in 2019 but showed impressive speed throughout 2018 to seven victories on his way to the French F4 title, defeating fellow Eurocup graduate Ugo de Wilde (who will race for JD Motorsport) by sixty-six and a half points.
“It was a great achievement in my career, especially as it was my first season in single-seater racing,” said Collet of his French F4 triumph. “For it to end in a championship win, shows that we are working in the right direction.
“I’m really looking forward to racing in the Formula Renault Eurocup. This year the championship will be very competitive with the new car, and I will push hard to reach my goals. The calendar has nine Grand Prix tracks and that shows the level of the championship. It’s definitely a step forward in my career.”
Another driver on his way to Eurocup is Czech youngster Petr Ptáček, who has become BhaiTech Racing for their first season in the category. Ptáček raced for BhaiTech in the Italian Formula 4 championship in 2018 and is currently racing in the Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand for Giles Motorsport.
