Championship winning single seater driver, Alice Powell, has confirmed she will complete a full season in the F3 Cup Championship with Mark Bailey Racing.
The 20-year-old from Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, has proved to be one of the most talented single seater drivers in the UK with the 2010 Formula Renault BARC title already among her list of achievements. After a season of GP3 which supports Formula One, she has decided to switch her attention to Formula 3 racing in the F3 Cup Championship due to lack of budget. She is also the only female to score points in GP3 following an eighth place finish at Monza with Status GP last season.
Powell, who is also a BRDC Rising Star, is delighted at the prospect of getting behind the wheel of F3 machinery for the first time and has been impressed by the evolution of F3 Cup.
Previously she has contested Formula Renault, both the TOCA support and BARC series. She came out on top of a three way fight for the BARC Formula Renault Championship in 2010, taking two wins on the way to securing the title.
She said: “I have been keeping a close eye on the F3 Cup last season and I have to say it is a great championship. It is a great way to race Formula 3 cars and drivers are able to do it in a cost effective way. F3 Cup has been getting stronger over the last few years and I’m looking forward to be racing in a competitive championship with a great team in Mark Bailey Racing. I am still looking at trying to do GP3, but the season starts soon in F3 Cup, so my sponsors and I decided it would be good to sign up and get racing. There is a huge difference of budget between F3 Cup and GP3, with F3 Cup being much, much cheaper. “
While Alice is yet to compete in a competitive F3 race, she is already intending to make an impact on the 2013 F3 Cup title race.
She added: “The championship is really competitive but I want to be targeting a top three finish in the title race come the end of the season. There is a long way to go and a lot of racing to be done but I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
The F3 Cup championship will head to Cheshire’s Oulton Park on April 1 for the first round of the season where it will share the bill with the popular British GT Championship.
