At Zhuhai International Circuit, Asia Formula Renault 2.0 top team Asia Racing Team (ART) Motorsports carried out further evaluations tests prior to next season. The team topped this week open test with driver Yoshitaka Kuroda. This test was only the beginning and a reflection of the drivers potential as things got off to a very good start.

Former Nissan Drivers Development Program driver Yoshitaka Kuroda took the ART Motorsports car to the top spot in both the morning and afternoon sessions on the Wednesday 13 and Thursday 14.

The Japanese ace showed an impressive pace, improving his best times lap after lap. 21 years old Kuroda set the fastest times of the two days.

Fifteen years old GoKart driver Rio Haryanto had his second chance to drive a single seater. Rio comes from a racer family, his brother is a karting driver and his father drove single seaters in Asia long-time ago. The first day didn't go quite as expected for the young Indonesian, but things got better for him on the second day when he was immediately on the pace. Haryanto continued his progression on day three, and finished his four days of intensive testing with promising times until the rain came in.

In the week before the Chinese New Year, Asian Rotax Max Senior Class runner up Luca Ferigutti had his first single seater experience with ART Motorsports. Despite the rain and slippery conditions, the Hong Kong karting driver settled in quickly and had no major accidents during two tough days of testing.

Philippe Descombes was very satisfied with the performance of his entire team throughout the tests: ”It’s gone really well for all the cars and was a good test for the team. Kuroda did not drive for 6 months and he was quick to pick up the front pace. After the two days, we achieved some decent lap times. Anyway we still need get few tenths out of him to be really competitive. Rio has sixth days of single seaters in his life. He did really well. If you compare him to a top driver, he is around 5-7 tenths off. That is not a problem now. He is a very young, and no doubt this kid has everything to go all the way to the top. With Mr Wei Leong managing his career I am sure we will take him somewhere…

“Luca was not really lucky with his two days. The track conditions were awful; therefore it was a very hard for him to feel what the car is capable to do….”
The ART Motorsports team will be back on track February 27 and 28 at Zhuhai International Circuit for one more pre-season test.