Lloyd withdraws from F3

The 19-year old, who had planned to contest the premier Championship class of the series with former title-winning team Alan Docking Racing, made the announcement after Autosport magazine closed for press on Tuesday.

He had most of his budget for 2004 in place, and was relying on a couple of other sources to see him through the year. But one major source, which Lloyd understood would be available to him, has now fallen through and another is in grave doubt.

Lloyd, runner-up in the 2003 Formula Renault UK championship, said: "It is so disappointing to find ourselves in this situation, having worked so hard to try and put ourselves in a position where we could feel confident in our funding this year.

"We feel it prudent to stop now before we start to incur the costs of the season proper, and we will therefore work to try and put a budget together for the latter part of the year, and a full budget next year.

"In the meantime, any outings for us with whomsoever, are likely to be on a race-by-race basis.

"I have really enjoyed my all-too short time at ADR, and would like to thank them for the help and support they have given me, particularly Paul Antony and Alan Docking himself."

Lloyd completed several official F3 test sessions with ADR and compared favourably with his more experienced team-mate Will Power at many of them.