Carroll to race for Team Ireland

The GP2 race winner had been linked to the team since he tested for them at Silverstone in August, but he was unable to race in the season opener at Zandvoort due to a clash with the GP2 finale.

"At the end of the day, I want to drive as much as I can," Carroll told
autosport.com at the pre-season test. "It doesn't really matter what you are doing, but if you are winning then it is good for you."

The Ulsterman added in a release on Monday: "My aim is simply to win races and challenge for championships. In A1GP I have the additional motivation of representing Ireland.

"I've been very impressed with the team that has been put together for the season and our testing pace has shown that we should be racing at the sharp end of the field."

Ireland are currently seventh in the A1GP standings after the first round of the season, and team boss Mark Kershaw believes that the points scored by Ralph Firman at Zandvoort could prove crucial at the end of the season.

"I'd like to thank Ralph for the superb job he did for us at Zandvoort," said Kershaw. "He has been a loyal member of our driver squad, and come the end of the season we may well find out how important the points he scored for us were."

On the subject of Carroll joining the team, he added: "To attract a driver of Adam's calibre shows just how serious we are about mounting a championship challenge.

"We're delighted to have Adam join us this season, and I'm confident that we'll be making the step up to battle with the front-runners this season."

Carroll will make his A1GP debut at Brno this weekend.