KEY POINTS:
Newly-crowned Formula Renault Euro Cup champion New Zealander Brendon Hartley's year keeps getting better. The 17-year-old Palmerston North driver clinched the title with successive wins in Portugal and had an unassailable lead in the championships with two rounds left.
This season Hartley had four race wins, four pole
positions, two seconds, two thirds and set the fastest lap three times. He was the first New Zealand driver in 23 years to win a European single-seater championship since Mike Thackwell won the European F2 title in 1984. It is no wonder that, after such a dominant season, Hartley was offered a drive in the Macau F3 Grand Prix on November 17-18. He will drive a Dallara-Mercedes, run by leading UK team Carlin Motorsport.
On his F3 debut at Zolder, Belgium, this year, he surprised many by taking fourth place in one of the toughest races of the year, the Masters.
Hartley has also tested in the New Zealand's A1GP car at Silverstone, setting some impressive lap times.
By amassing such an impressive CV in such a short time, it came as no real surprise when it was confirmed Hartley would be Carlin's driver for the 2008 British F3 season.
"I'm really excited," said Hartley. "As the best team in the championship, I know they will give me the best possible chance of challenging for race wins and the title. British F3 is a great step up, it's a very well respected championship, with good links to F1 and I can't wait for testing."
Carlin are three-time winners of the British F3 title and have finished runners-up five times. The Hampshire-based team is also the most successful in British F3 history.
"We are proud Red Bull have chosen Carlin Motorsport as the team to return to the British F3 championship with," team boss Trevor Carlin said. "And we are confident that we will provide Brendon with the best possible car to challenge for the championship."
Hartley's plans for 2008 were to have been announced next week. However, Dr Helmut Marko, the Austrian who runs the Red Bull junior programme, brought the announcement forward after watching Hartley's recent performances.
Hartley visited the Carlin factory on Tuesday for a seat-fitting and is scheduled to have his first test at the Snetterton circuit next week. The British F3 championship consists of 11 rounds and starts at Oulton Park on March 24 and finishes at Donington Park on October 5, and includes circuits such as Brands Hatch, Spa-Francorchamps, Monza and Silverstone.
British Formula 3 has long been a training ground for future F1 legends such as Jackie Stewart, Emerson Fittipaldi, Nelson Piquet, Ayrton Senna and Mika Hakkinen, who all took the F3 title before going on to become world champions.
The last New Zealand driver to race at the top level of the British F3 championship was Paul Radisich, who teamed up with Damon Hill in 1986. Radisich claimed pole position at his first F3 race in Britain.
The well-respected and influential motorsport publication F1 Racing described Hartley as "a Kiwi who could really take flight".
In a feature about Red Bull's junior programme the magazine singled out Hartley for attention.
"Red Bull Racing have backed some good drivers over the past decade," stated the F1 Racing article.
"But maybe, just maybe, they've finally found their real star: 17-year-old New Zealander Brendon Hartley."