Catalan teenager Marc Gonzalez will make his single-seater racing debut with top team SWR during the upcoming Duo BRDC Formula 4 Championship event at Snetterton in East Anglia this weekend, 11th/12th July, boosting the Oxfordshire squad’s entry back up to a capacity three cars.
The 17-year-old, who is part of the Oucinde Racing Management stable headed by Mariano Oucinde, will arrive in BRDC F4 off the back of a strong maiden test in SWR’s third MSV F4-013 at Snetterton just over a week ago where he delivered an impressive performance.
With a strong karting pedigree at domestic, European and World level, while Barcelona native Gonzalez will be making his car racing debut at the Norfolk track, he does bring a small amount of single-seater experience from tests at Formula 3 level in the EuroFormula Open.
Although the deal with Gonzalez is only for rounds 10, 11 and 12 at Snetterton for the time being, SWR is hoping to retain the Spaniard into the second half of the BRDC Formula 4 season alongside regular drivers Jordan Albert and Zubair Hoque.
“It’s great to have signed Marc for Snetterton, he’s a young driver with a lot of promise and in last week’s test at Snetterton he did a good job”, commented SWR team owner Sean Walkinshaw, “It’s going to be a big step-up for him, his first races in single-seaters and first time racing in the UK, but we feel confident he’ll deliver some strong performances.
“The main thing is for Marc to learn as much as he possibly can, work closely with Jordan and Zubair, and keep building and making progress throughout the weekend. It’s fantastic for SWR to be back up to three cars at Snetterton too, we’re very pleased.”
Gonzalez started out in karting in 2009 at Cadet level in the Catalan region before progressing into the national Spanish championship the following year. Stepping-up to the Junior Championship of Catalonia in 2011, the youngster also raced in the Spanish KF3 Championship and was third in the Viana do Castelo in Portugal.
Continuing in Spanish KF3 in 2012, Gonzalez also contested the WSK Euro Series and a year later continued his karting education in the Rotax Winter Cup, Mojo Iberian Cup, European Rotax and the World Rotax Grand Final in the USA. He remained in the Rotax classes in 2014 before turning his attention to cars with his single-seater race debut now just days away.