The FINANCIAL — Daniel Juncadella (21, Spain, Prema Powerteam) is the new Formula 3 Euro Series champion.
The Spaniard claimed the title at the final race weekend of the season in Hockenheim. From 24 races this season, Juncadella has achieved 5 wins, 5 pole positions and ten podium finishes powered by the Mercedes-Benz Formula 3 engine. This is the Spanish driver’s third season in the championship, and he finished third overall in 2011.
Juncadella’s former team-mate Roberto Merhi (21, Spain) won last year’s Formula 3 Euro Series title, also at the wheel of a Dallara-Mercedes prepared by Prema Powerteam. Merhi made his DTM debut this season in the Junge Sterne Mercedes AMG C-Coupé. He now competes as a member of the Mercedes-Benz Junior Team in the DTM together with Christian Vietoris (23, Germany, Mercedes-Benz Bank AMG C-Coupé) and Robert Wickens (23, Canada, stern Mercedes AMG C-Coupé).
Mercedes-Benz has a long and successful track record of nurturing young driving talent in motorsport. Since the inception of the Formula 3 Euro Series in 2003, teams running the Mercedes-Benz Formula 3 engine have won the team championship nine times. Mercedes-Benz engines have now powered eight drivers’ titles in the Formula 3 Euro Series – Juncadella, current Mercedes-Benz DTM drivers Jamie Green (Champion, 2004) and Roberto Merhi (Champion, 2011), Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton (Champion, 2005), DTM Champion Paul Di Resta (Champion, 2006), Formula 1 drivers Romain Grosjean (Champion, 2007) and Nico Hülkenberg (Champion, 2008), and Formula 1 test driver Jules Bianchi (Champion, 2009). In this time, Mercedes engines won 170 of 209 races.
During the same period, from 2003 to 2011, 13 drivers who competed in Formula 3 with Mercedes-Benz engines graduated to Formula 1. 33% of the 2012 Formula One grid started out in Formula 3 using a Mercedes-Benz engine – reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel and former champion Lewis Hamilton, 2010 DTM Champion Paul Di Resta, Kamui Kobayashi, Romain Grosjean, Nico Hülkenberg, Daniel Ricciardo and Bruno Senna.
As Daimler AG. reported, in the 2005 season, Lewis Hamilton, who went on to become Formula 1 champion in 2008, won the Formula 3 Euro Series championship in a Dallara-Mercedes prepared by the ASM Team. In that season, Hamilton achieved 17 podiums in 20 races, securing 15 victories, 13 pole positions and ten fastest race laps. Lewis will partner Nico Rosberg in Formula 1 for the 2013 season at the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS works Silver Arrows team.
Daniel Juncadella: “Winning the Formula 3 Euro Series is like a dream come true. But I am also aware that it’s a tremendous responsibility, being asked to follow in the footsteps of such successful drivers as Lewis Hamilton, Jamie Green and Paul Di Resta, who now compete in Formula 1 or in the DTM. After winning the Formula 3 Euro Series title with Mercedes-Benz, my team-mate from last year, Roberto Merhi, also made the transition to the DTM, and another of my dreams would be realised if one day I too could be promoted up into the DTM or Formula 1. I would particularly like to thank Mercedes-Benz, since this success would not have been possible without their junior development programme and their support over many years. I owe a lot to Mercedes-Benz and promise to live up to their expectations.”
Norbert Haug, Vice President Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: “Daniel is following in famous footsteps and I would like to offer him our congratulations on winning the title. Before Daniel’s success, Mercedes-Benz engines powered drivers like Lewis Hamilton, Paul di Resta and Jamie Green to the Formula 3 Euro Series title. In fact, one third of this season’s crop of Formula 1 drivers competed with Mercedes engines in this hard-fought junior championship, and have since graduated to the highest level of motorsport. Just like his predecessors, Daniel has the potential to do the same.”
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