Turvey targets GP2 next season
Oliver Turvey believes he can be a contender for next season's GP2 title, despite losing the British Formula 3 championship to Jaime Alguersuari in the final race of the season last weekend
The Briton went into the event at Donington Park with a 12-point lead, but a poor qualifying performance for the second race effectively handed the title to Alguersuari, who won both races to become the youngest ever British F3 champion and the first from Spain.
Turvey's racing is funded by the Racing Steps Foundation, which has pledged to support him again next season and he is hoping to land a drive in one of the top GP2 teams following recent tests with ART Grand Prix and iSport International.
"GP2 is where I want to be," Turvey told this week's Autosport magazine. "I felt really positive after the tests and I think ART were impressed with what I did.
"If I can get in with a top team, I'll want to go for the title in the first year and I don't see why we couldn't. This year with Carlin has shown what's possible with the best team."
Racing Steps founder Graham Sharp added: "We will continue to support Oliver and he'd like to move up. It's our philosophy to only work with the top teams in each formula and we will continue to follow that.
"A lot of people want to drive for the top teams and they rightly have the freedom to pick whoever they want. I hope that Oliver has impressed them and, if they want to take him, there's a decent chance that the money will be raised."
Turvey also admitted that he has received several offers to race in Formula Renault 3.5 next year, but is determined that GP2 is the first choice.
"I want GP2, but we will only do it with a team that can win it," he said. "We have people interested and World Series is definitely an alternative option."
But Alguersuari is less certain that GP2 is the right move after only one year of F3, even though he did win the championship.
"I'm still only 18 and I've only had one year in F3, so there is still a long way to go - I haven't arrived anywhere yet," he told Autosport. "I've never driven a GP2 car so maybe a test would be nice to feel the car.
"But I think when you choose the time to do GP2, you really have to be able to win straight away. The impression you make on everyone is very important and I would want to do it like Lewis Hamilton did it, you don't want to go there too early and not do a good enough job straight away.
"If you do World Series and can win many races or the championship, you're in a very good position to win GP2 in one year after that."
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