Sims targets Euro F3 title with ART

The 2008 McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award winner finished fourth in his rookie F3 campaign with Mucke Motorsport this year. His performances during the middle of the season - where he matched the points haul of runaway champion Jules Bianchi over four race weekends - caught the attention of ART team boss Frederic Vasseur.

With this week's AUTOSPORT magazine revealing that the deal is now signed, Sims could follow in the footsteps of Jamie Green, Lewis Hamilton and Paul di Resta by winning the title in an ART car. The last six F3 Euro Series champions all won their titles with the French squad.

"This is a dream come true," Sims told AUTOSPORT. "Mucke are a good team, but ART have that championship-winning pedigree. So to be in this situation, with the best team in the series, is very exciting."

The 20-year-old will start his winter test programme for the team at Nogaro this week, with further tests scheduled for Aragon and Valencia. Sims believes that by signing his deal early - as he did with Mucke last year - he will have settled in with ART once the season starts at Hockenheim in April.

"There's no other focus than the title," he added. "I don't look at the team's past successes as putting pressure on me, but at the end of the day it's up to me to go out there and win it.

"Part of our success this season was having the deal done early, so I'm really pleased to get going and get a relationship started with ART."