F3 Euroseries racer Alexander Sims will join Carlin for this weekend's World Series by Renault test at Jerez, but only to help out while one of the team's confirmed signings races elsewhere.
The 20-year old Briton will test Jake Rosenzweig's car while the American competes in the final
GP2 Asia round in Bahrain, partnering Carlin regular Mikhail Aleshin at the second official session of the season.
Having tested in Barcelona last week, both Aleshin and Rosenzweig gathered important data and worked on car set-up ahead of the first race of the season, the American enjoying his first full test in the Carlin car and impressing with his ability to adapt to the machine in the challenging track conditions.
“Alexander is a welcome addition to the team this weekend in Jake's absence," race director Trevor Carlin commented, "Obviously, Alexander's focus is the
F3 Euroseries, but this test will give him additional testing experience. Alexander is a very talented driver and I'm sure he will be able to provide the team with some very useful feedback. I'd like to thank Jake for the opportunity to run a substitute driver while he competes in Bahrain.”
Rosenzweig will rejoin Carlin and team-mate Aleshin at the final World Series test of the season at Motorland Circuit in Spain at the end of the month, but Sims is excited to get the opportunity to try and category before concentrating on the season ahead.
“This is a great opportunity for me to gain experience of the Formula Renault 3.5 car for the future and also the
Jerez circuit, which I've never driven on before," he noted, "The most powerful car I've driven so far is F3, so it's going to be really exciting to see how much of a step up this is.”