Standout junior formula car driver Gabby Chaves will take the next step of his motorsports career in 2010 when he enters the competitive Italian Formula 3 Championship. Piloting a Eurointernational-prepared Mygale M-10 chassis, the young American racer will make his European debut driving for the team that led him to a championship-winning season in 2009.
With Formula 1 as his ultimate goal, Chaves has elected to make the move to European formula car competition full-time this year. After two promising tests with leading F3 teams over the holiday season, Chaves and his supporters determined that the time was right to advance to that category. As a result, Chaves has reunited with Eurointernational to contest the Italian Formula 3 Championship. One of the leading national F3 programs in Europe, Eurointernational cars also took Chaves to five race wins and a clean sweep of podium finishes for the season in 2009, in which he captured the final Formula BMW Americas title.
“I'm excited to be joining the Italian Formula 3 Championship with Eurointernational,” Chaves said. “The series is very difficult and all the races will be held on tracks that are new to me, but Eurointernational is a team that races only to win, and it has the technical expertise to provide me with tools to succeed. I know the engineers and the team very well, and I am confident we can win races and challenge for the series title. I would like to thank all my sponsors, my family and Antonio Ferrari for allowing me to race."
"I believe Gabby Chaves is a great talent,” said team principal Antonio Ferrari. “Last season, we worked perfectly together, winning the Formula BMW Americas title. I am very happy to continue the work already started in the Italian Formula 3 this season, providing Gabby with everything that is needed to keep on winning. Our technical director Nicola Sgotto will have at his side Ferdinando Ravarotto, renewing a historic and winning partnership of ‘90s. Both have been working with Gabriel since 2008.”
Chaves enters the Italian Formula 3 Championship not only as the reigning FBMW Americas champion, but also having achieved a great deal of success in his young racing career. In addition to a championship-winning career in the karting ranks, the Miami-native has been at the forefront of several championships, including Colombian Formula Renault, Skip Barber Regional, Skip Barber National and Formula BMW Pacific, winning numerous races and two championship titles.
The 2010 Italian Formula 3 Championship gets under way on April 24-25 at Misano.