Hanley to Join Cram for Estoril
Ben Hanley will make a surprise step up to the World Series by Renault at this weekend's race at Estoril driving for Cram Competition
The opportunity arose after Cram's regular driver Eric Salignon had been given a 10-place grid penalty for this weekend's first race after stewards decided the Frenchman had caused an avoidable collision at the start of the second race at Donington Park.
Hanley has been competing with Cram in Italian Formula Renault, securing five victories, while still continuing his successful karting career. He has also made selected appearances in the Formula Renault UK and Eurocup series but has only started 19 single-seater races.
The Briton is not daunted by moving up from 200bhp Formula Renaults to the 425bhp World Series machines.
He told Autosport-Atlas: "It is a big jump but it is too good an opportunity to turn down. This weekend will be about gaining useful experience in the World Series and more powerful cars.
"I haven't had any testing but there will be free practice on Thursday. Kimi Raikkonen stepped out of Formula Renault into Formula with only a few car races too. We'll take it as it comes."
The World Series by Renault grid will have 30 cars for the first time this weekend, with Frenchman Patrick Pilet taking the vacant seat at GD Racing. Pillet drove the first half of the season with Jenzer Motorsport.
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments