Schumacher stays in F3 as Prema expands to five cars

The 18-year-old son of seven-time Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher finished 12th in his rookie F3 season in 2017, scoring one overall podium at Monza, and ended the year by taking fastest lap in the Macau Grand Prix.

Prior to that he contested two seasons in Formula 4, taking the runner-up position in the German and Italian championships with Prema in 2016.

Schumacher joins the Ferrari junior trio of Guan Yu Zhou, Marcus Armstrong and newly-crowned Toyota Racing Series champion Robert Shwartzman in the Prema line-up, as well as Ralf Aron.

“The competition in Formula 3 is tough, strong and tight – it is enriching to fight at this level; that’s why I very much look forward to racing here for another season,” said Schumacher.

“The fact that I can continue to work with a professional team such as Prema can only help me move forward – the team is great to work with and I am convinced we can experience some more exciting moments together.

“I am committed to advancing further and want to fight at the top with the best drivers.”

Team boss Rene Rosin added: “We are happy and proud to have Mick with us again for 2018.

“Last year he faced a challenging debut season, moving up from Formula 4, but he showed great personality and huge potential, so we fully expect him to make further gains this season.

“We will be lining up five cars in an increased effort for 2018 and we expect this to be an exciting season.”

Prema’s expansion to five cars is thanks to the FIA relaxing its limitation on four cars per team, which enabled Carlin and Motopark to field extra drivers at late-season races in 2017.

Both Carlin and Motopark, which have each announced four drivers so far, are expected to run as many as six this season.

VAR names first driver for 2018

F3 mainstay Van Amersfoort Racing has confirmed its first driver for this season.

German-American Keyvan Andres shifts over from Motopark to the Dutch squad for his second season in the series.

He finished his rookie campaign in 2017 without any points, but reportedly showed much-improved form in post-season testing with VAR, which is understood to have at least one other driver on board for this year.

Team boss Frits van Amersfoort said: “We like to give Keyvan a warm welcome in our team.

“Considering he is only 17 years old, he has collected quite some experience in single-seater racing around the globe – it is our goal to help him use his experience and talent to be competitive in the forthcoming European F3 season.”

2018 European F3 line-up so far:

Team	Drivers
Carlin	Devlin DeFrancesco  Jehan Daruvala  Sacha Fenestraz  Ferdinand Habsburg
Prema	Marcus Armstrong  Robert Shwartzman  Ralf Aron  Guan Yu Zhou Mick Schumacher
Motopark	Fabio Scherer  Dan Ticktum  Marino Sato  Jonathan Aberdein
Hitech GP	Enaam Ahmed  Alex Palou  Ben Hingeley
Van Amersfoort	Keyvan Andres Soori