The first Vietnamese racer to compete in F3

16-year-old racer Alex Sawer Hoang Dat will compete for the Finnish racing team KIC Evans GP at the 2024 FRECA European Formula Three (F3) race.

"This is a challenge for me on a new car, track and environment," Hoang Dat said on the tournament's homepage.

Joshua Evans - owner of the KIC Evans GP racing team - said he was impressed with Hoang Dat from the 2023 F4 India Championship. "I was impressed with Dat's talent and attitude, with his ability to deliver strong races against experienced opponents," he said. "I want to cooperate to help develop Dat into a professional racer."

Alex Sawer Hoang Dat won the opening round of the F4 China 2024 on April 20. Photo: Asia Racing Team.

Currently, Hoang Dat competes in the Chinese F4 Championship for the BlackJack Racing team. After two races in Shanghai, he won the first race on April 20 and finished second in the second race on April 21. He is currently second in the overall standings with 35 points, two points behind Chinese racer Jiang Fukang. The tournament has 18 remaining races in May, June, September, October and November 2024.

Previously, at the 2023 F4 India Championship, Hoang Dat competed for the Hyderabad Blackbirds team and finished fifth overall with 186 points after 15 races. Dat finished first once, second three times and third twice. Australian racer Cooper Webster won the championship with 282.5 points, with eight race wins.

Alex Sawer Hoang Dat was born in 2008, his father is British and his mother is Vietnamese. His family lives in Ho Chi Minh City and has trained Dat in racing since he was a child. Hoang Dat has Vietnamese nationality and represents Vietnam in many international racing competitions. The 16-year-old talent is trained by former Malaysian F3 racer Mitch Gilbert - one of the first Asians to participate in Formula racing. Before competing in F4, Dat was a familiar face in Vietnamese and international Go-Kart competitions.

F4 is a racing series for amateur racers who want to enter the professional world. It is considered a starting point to catch up with Formula racing, before moving up to F3, F2 and finally F1. The fact that it only took a year to be invited by a team to compete in F3 shows Hoang Dat's potential.

The opening round of the 2024 F4 China Grand Prix. Photo: Asia Racing Team.

The F3 FRECA (Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine) is one of the seven major F3 series, along with the North American, Japanese, Asian, Middle Eastern, Oceanic and Indian series. It has been running since 2019, and was formerly the European Championship and Renault Eurocup.

FRECA 2024 will be held from May 11 to October 27, with 20 stages in 10 countries: Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Hungary, Italy, France, Austria and Spain. The tournament will feature 12 teams with 36 riders. The points system for the top 10 riders is 25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1 respectively. Hoang Dat is one of two Southeast Asian riders alongside Thailand's Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi, also part of KIC Evans GP.

According to the regulations of the FIA, an F3 car is required to have an engine with a capacity of about 380 horsepower. The maximum width is 1.15 m, the minimum length is 2 m and the minimum weight is 550 kg including the driver. Meanwhile, an F1 car weighs 800 kg with an engine capacity of about 900 horsepower.

Hieu Luong

Source link: https://vnexpress.net/tay-dua-viet-nam-dau-tien-du-f3-4737360.html