New IndyCar team Carlin Motorsport will not participate in the 2018 British Formula 4 Championship. Their focus is on IndyCar.
For the first time in British Formula 4 Championship history, Carlin Motorsport will not be fielding a team for the 2018 season. However, this news really does not come as much of a surprise when all things are considered.
A huge reason why this is the case is the fact that Carlin Motorsport are set to make the jump from a full-time Indy Lights Series team to a full-time IndyCar team this season. They have never fielded an IndyCar team before, much less a full-time team, and much less a full-time team with two full-time drivers. They are also set to return to Formula 2 following a one-year absence.
The team’s two full-time IndyCar drivers are both former full-time Chip Ganassi Racing drivers. Both drivers have been teammates in each of the last two IndyCar seasons.
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The driver of the team’s #23 Chevrolet is set to be 32-year-old Charlie Kimball, who is set to enter his eighth career IndyCar season and first not driving for Chip Ganassi Racing, while the driver of the team’s #59 Chevrolet is set to be 26-year-old Max Chilton, who is set to enter his third career IndyCar season and also his first not driving for Chip Ganassi Racing.
That said, it is still interesting to see Carlin Motorsport pull out of British Formula 4 Championship competition given the fact that they have been in the sport in each of the three seasons since its inception.
Plus, they had the sport’s champion driving for them in each of those three seasons. Lando Norris won the 2015 championship for the team, Max Fewtrell won the 2016 championship for the team and Jamie Caroline won the 2017 championship for the team.
Here is what a Carlin spokesperson said about the subject of leaving the British Formula 4 Championship, according to Autosport.com.
"“Due to an increase in the number of programmes the team is involved in this season, we will be taking a sabbatical from British F4 in 2018. Having won every teams’ and drivers’ title since the series’ inception in 2015, we’re obviously very sad to miss the 2018 season, but will watch with interest the next batch of F4 stars coming through the ranks.“We will continue to make our F4 cars available for testing throughout the year and in preparation for 2019. We’d like to thank the organisers of British F4 and Ford Performance for their support over the last three seasons and look forward to rejoining the series in the future.”"
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Will Carlin Motorsport’s sacrifices so that they can focus on IndyCar in their first season in the sport in 2018 be worth it? Will they see their two drivers rack up solid results throughout the year? Tune in to the season from its opening race in March until its season finale in September. The season opener, the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, is set to be held on Sunday, March 11th.