Emilio de Villota Motorsport have signed 19-year-old Japanese racer Yu Kanamaru for the 2014 European F3 Open season.
Kanamaru moves to the F3 Open after two years apiece contesting the Formula Renault NEC and the Eurocup Formula Renault Series with KTR, during which he scored one victory at Spa-Francorchamps.
His best finishing position in Formula Renault was a 16th place he achieved in the NEC in 2012; however this year proved less successful for the Tokyo native. In Eurocup he failed to score a single point, while settling for 26th overall in the NEC following only a partial campaign.
After tests in Jerez, Kanamaru was clearly delighted with his move to de Villota Motorsport, commenting that: “I am thrilled to join Emilio de Villota Motorsport. I have confidence in myself and looking forward to finding out what kind of results I achieve in the European F3 Open for my team.”
De Villota added to Kanamaru’s comments by saying: “Yu has demonstrated his maturity to approach next season with guarantees of success. We value positively his outstanding background in go-karts and his two seasons in Formula Renault championships. His preseason results have been excellent and we shall keep working at Jerez, Catalunya and Valencia to prepare next year, as the European F3 Open is getting harder every season.”
Although the F3 Open does not have the highest of reputations when it comes to championship quality and competition, it will be interesting to see how Kanamaru develops as he steps up to Formula 3.
Meanwhile, Diego Borrelli has been participating in private tests with Campos Racing this week, with the final day of running to come tomorrow. Borrelli recently tested for the Campos squad in Valencia and the Venezuelan returned to the squad for further running on Wednesday. Along with RP Motorsport and Emilio de Villota Motorsport, Campos Racing also conducted an additional test at Jerez last week.