NEWS

20 FEBRUARY 2012: Brazilian hot-shot Pietro Fantin says he is confident of success in the forthcoming season of the Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series after learning his craft in 2010.

Fantin, 20, enjoyed a successful first full season in the championship last year with the Hitech squad, winning one race, but is switching to Carlin for 2012 in the hope of becoming the 13th Brazilian driver to win the British F3 title.

“I did my first full season last year and was eighth in the championship with Hitech,” said the Curitiban. “It was OK - what I expected. I gained a lot of experience, learned a lot of tracks. Now I feel confident, I feel prepared, I know that I have the best car on the grid and this gives me extra confidence also.

“I feel really confident: I am very well prepared, I know the tracks and I will go the meetings knowing that I am capable of being in the top three. But sometimes you don’t have to win to be the guy who takes the most points in a weekend. I will need patience; you cannot win the championship in the first race, you need to be patient and work until the end, like we saw Felipe [Nasr] do last year.”

Fantin is looking forward to the challenge of having four rapid team-mates at Carlin – third-year man Jazeman Jaafar, second-year drivers Jack Harvey and Harry Tincknell, and relative rookie Carlos Sainz Jnr. “I have really strong team-mates, which will help me. I know from winter testing that I have the speed to be competitive. I’m not saying that I’m the best, the others are really good… Carlos is an amazing driver, Jazeman has huge experience, Harvey and Tincknell also, so it will be a really good year, really interesting, and a real challenge – but that is the good thing about this championship.

“I have no other objective but to be the champion. Of course, you need to have luck, I need to give my best performance, and the car needs to be great – and it is a new car, so that is an unknown. I want to be the next Brazilian champion of British F3. I feel that is possible, it’s just a matter of working hard, training hard and doing my best. If I do, then I can be the 13th Brazilian champion.”