Samaia joins Jamie Chadwick and Harry Hayek at 2016 champions

Promising Brazilian driver Guilherme Samaia has today, Monday, 10th April, been officially confirmed as Double R Racing’s third driver signing for the BRDC British Formula 3 Championship which gets underway this coming weekend at Oulton Park in Cheshire.

Completing the reigning champion squad’s line-up ahead of the Easter curtain-raiser, Samaia joins Australian racer Harry Hayek and British driver Jamie Chadwick – the sole female racer in British F3 this year – at the Woking team.

Samaia, who hails from Sao Paulo, arrives in British F3 with a strong track record in single-seaters having won the Brazilian F3 Light Championship in 2015 before graduating into the Brazilian F3-A category last year, where he became Vice-Champion. This year, he has already finished on the top step of the podium in F3-A in Brazil with the Cesario F3 squad.

Now, the 20-year-old is ready to make the step into the ultra-competitive British F3 series with Anthony ‘Boyo’ Hieatt’s highly respected Double R team which ran Samaia’s compatriot Matheus Leist to championship glory last season.

“I’m really happy to have joined Double R Racing”, said the Brazilian, “They are not only champions, they are truly motivated to keep pushing as I am. I feel I have been taken into the family with a warm welcome and have 100% trust in the team as they worked last year with my coach Danilo Dirani, who then coached last year’s champion Matheus Leist. I used to, and still am at the moment, race in Brazil with the Dallara F308 car with a 250hp engine and now I face an entirely new challenge with the British F3 car. I have quite a lot to learn, it’s my first time in Europe and the tracks, the car and climate are all new to me. The team is helping me to adapt fast, due to my late arrival in the UK at the end of March, and I’m confident we will be strong.”

Samaia joined Hayek and Chadwick for the official pre-season British F3 ‘Media Day’ at Snetterton 300 Circuit in Norfolk a fortnight ago and, after learning the track during the first couple of sessions, he ended the day 12th fastest overall and within just 0.7 seconds of fifth placed team-mate Hayek.

Welcoming Samaia to the squad, Double R team principal Hieatt said: “We’re delighted to have completed a deal with Guilherme to join the team, he did a good job at the Media Day test and he’s more than proven his ability in Brazil. He’s been brought over to the UK by Danilo Dirani, who we obviously know very well indeed and have worked with a long time, and we’re all quietly confident Guilherme will make strong progress with Double R.”

Qualifying for the opening event of the BRDC British Formula 3 Championship will take place at 11.05 on Saturday, 15th April, with round one following at 15.45. After a day away from track action on Easter Sunday, round two will take place at 09.55 on Easter Monday, 17th April, with round three beginning at 14.45.