Gustavo Menezes the first Carlin driver for the 2015 season

The year 2014 is not yet over but US-American Gustavo Menezes already has wrapped up his future by signing a deal for the coming FIA Formula 3 European Championship season. The 20-year old young gun with Brazilian roots will contest his second season on the grid of the planet’s most competitive young-driver series for the British Team Carlin.

Menezes made his debut in European motor racing in 2013 by contesting a season in the German Formula 3 Cup. In the following year, he advanced together with his team, Team Van Amersfoort Racing, to the FIA Formula 3 European Championship and succeeded in making for some highlights. His best race weekend was the one at Spa-Francorchamps where he secured two podiums by finishing third twice.

We have been watching Gustavo for quite a while, now, and we are convinced that he has got a lot of potential.

Gustavo Menezes

In addition, he finished fifth in one of the races both at Nuremberg’s Norisring and Spielberg’s Red Bull Ring. Altogether, the Californian made it to the points in 16 races and finished 11th in the drivers’ championship.

“It’s my dream to race in Formula 1, DTM, IndyCars or sports-car racing, some day,” he says. “And the more races you win in the young-gun series, the faster you will make it up to the top categories. Therefore, securing many wins is my goal for the coming season. Carlin is providing me perfect conditions for achieving this goal and I will try as hard as I can and give my very best to make it as far to the top as possible.”

And his new Team Principal, Trevor Carlin, also is looking forward to the new season: “We have been watching Gustavo for quite a while, now, and we are convinced that he has got a lot of potential. He already familiarised well with our team and in the tests, he impressed with competitive performances. I’m sure that we will be able to jointly secure many decent results.”

FIA F3