Carlin open to Japanese F3 involvement after supporting team's test

Carlin sent technical staff and Ferrari junior Callum Ilott out to the pre-Christmas two-day official test at Suzuka to help the OIRC Team YTB squad, which has just bought two of the team's cars.

OIRC Team YTB is run from the Okayama International circuit - which is owned by the father of Japanese F3 racer Yoshiaki Katayama - and the squad is managed by 2004 Formula Nippon and Super GT champion Richard Lyons.

Katayama joined Carlin for November's Macau Grand Prix, where he partnered Ilott, Sacha Fenestraz and Jehan Daruvala.

The team subsequently acquired the cars raced by Ilott and Daruvala on the Guia circuit.

Ilott shared the ex-Daruvala machine at Suzuka with 2017 BRDC British F3 runner-up James Pull, Katayama drove the ex-Ilott weapon throughout.

Carlin boss Trevor Carlin told Autosport: "We had a good time in Macau together with the Katayama family - Yoshiaki learned a lot and he's a nice kid.

"His father bought two cars from us, and we said we'd happily go out and run them for the first time.

"It's early days to see if anything else will happen, but it went very well and we're happy.

"The guys enjoyed it and perhaps we can do some more with them next year - we're very pleased to be associated with them."

According to sources, Ilott will graduate from the GP3 Series to Formula 2 in 2019 with Charouz Racing System, and is therefore not under consideration for a Japanese F3 seat.

"They asked me if I knew someone who could do the test and help with the development," said Carlin.

"I asked Callum because he was doing BoP testing with us for Euroformula Open [at Barcelona] and we sent him out.

"Bless him - he's just like Alexander Sims: you can bolt him in and know he's going to do a good job."

Rain affected the afternoon session on the first day and Ilott only drove in one of the three dry sessions, but ended up third-quickest overall.

"It's great to come to Japan and help out the team," said Ilott.

"Day one was difficult with the conditions and there were quite a few red flags on day two that compromised my first push laps, which was a bit unfortunate, but our speed was good throughout.

"I'd really like to thank the team for inviting me out here, giving me the chance to learn Suzuka and visit Japan."

Toyota protege and 2018 Japanese F3 runner-up Ritomo Miyata set the fastest time for TOM'S on the final afternoon.

This eclipsed the previous fastest effort, set by Sacha Fenestraz with the Motopark-assisted B-Max Racing squad on the second morning.

TOM'S/Toyota F3 newcomer Kazuto Kotaka was fourth from Harrison Newey, who was learning the circuit with B-Max ahead of an intended Super Formula campaign, and ex-ThreeBond Racing ace Ukyo Sasahara in a B-Max-run car for the test.