GB3 awaits Heuzenroeder after race-winning NZ campaign
With the final round of the Toyota Castrol Formula Regional Oceana series dusted, Aussie Patrick Heuzenroeder heads for another season in the British GB3 Championship in some winning form and some important miles under his belt.
With Heuzenroeder set to spearhead the GB3 campaign for Xcel Motorsport, a shakedown awaits in his new Tatuus MSV GB3-025 machine (also new to the series), joining fellow young Aussies Alex Ninovic and Gianmarco Pradel on the grid.
The series opens with two Formula 1 GP supports at Silverstone then Zandvoort, and is punctuated with three more European rounds at Spa, Hungary, and Monza, along with visits to UK track Donington, Brands Hatch, and second trip to Silverstone.
It was a stellar final weekend in the CTFROC series in the Mtec team, taking a memorable Race 1 win, which also secured second place in the Trans-Tasman Drivers Championship, as well as fourth overall in the CTFROC.
His stats over the five rounds read: 4 podiums, finishing in the top 5 in 9 out of the 13 races, a victory, and over 35 on-track passes in a Championship known for the difficulty in passing.
More impressive was Heuzenroeder achieved these stats against a field that included Formula 2, Formula 3, Indy NXT, and Supercar drivers.
His pole getting performance for Race 1 in Q1 on the New Zealand Grand Prix weekend saw him top Red Bull talent Arvid Lindblad, before beating him to turn one and holding him off for a victory. Not a bad effort considering that Lindblad is heavily earmarked for a Formula 1 career with the giant Milton Keynes squad.
Heuzenroeder holds off the highly fancied Lindblad to take a win at Highlands Motorsport Park in the CTFROC
He protected his tyres keenly whilst building his pace after a lightining start to take that win in a mature drive, whilst Lindblad was forced to defend after he couldn’t keep on with the Aussie teenager.
Whilst things didn’t work out after being denied his earned P3 start in the NZ GP owing to causing a crash in Race 2, his 3,500 covered kilometres in the FR Tatuus machinery was the perfect reward for his upcoming GB3 campaign.
Last season in the GB3 for JHR Developments, he made steady gains toward the middle of the year where his sole podium came, but this year it’s a different story, carrying in miles and confidence after matching it dome of junior formulae’s best talent.
The opening round of the GB3 championship is on April 26-27 as part of its two round F1 support dates.
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