Felipe Nasr will race with the Carlin team in
GP2 in 2013, the team announced this weekend.
The 20-year-old Brazilian put in some eye-catching performances in his rookie season in
GP2 driving for the DAMS team, after having previously captured the 2011 British Formula Three championship with Carlin the previous year.
“I'm so happy to be coming back to Carlin," said Nasr. "Not only is it the team that I won the British
F3 championship with, but it's also a team that I feel very comfortable with."
Nasr claimed a hat-trick of third place finishes during his maiden year in the feeder series, starting with his very first sprint race at Malaysia and then collecting more podiums at
Silverstone and Hockenheim. His best finish of the year came at Spa when he clinched second place in the Sunday race.
"We have had the pleasure of working with Felipe before and we know what he is capable of when he's happy in the car," said team principal Trevor Carlin. "He is an incredibly talented driver and to finish on the podium in his first weekend in the series shows his outright speed and potential."
Since the end of the 2012 championship, Nasr has worked with Carlin at all four of the post-season test days at Barcelona in October and
Jerez last week at Jerez, although he skipped the last the final afternoon session in order to fly to Brazil in time to attend the 2012 F1 Grand Prix at Interlagos.
"Testing so far has gone very well," said Nasr. "The Barcelona test was about getting used to the team and the Carlin car, and we were able to build on that this week in
Jerez and show some real speed.
"I can't wait for the 2013 season to get underway," he added. "For sure we're going to have a really strong package."
Carlin's 2012 driver line-up consisted of Britain's Max Chilton and Indonesia's Rio Haryanto, who finished fourth and 14th place respectively in the standings. Chilton claimed two wins during the season, including the final feature race of the year in Singapore. Carlin itself finished in fifth place in the team championship.
"We have had two very productive seasons in GP2, which thanks in particular to Max who has been with us from the start, have seen us develop and improve as a team," said Trevor Carlin. " We're aiming to start 2013 where we left off in 2012.”
Chilton is tipped for a move to F1 with the Marussia team next season, while Haryanto was one of the drivers to work alongside Nasr in the post-season tests. Carlin also gave Johnny Cecotto Jr. and Ramon Pineiro a trial at Jerez.