DAMS GIVES UP ON GP3 AS MP TAKES OVER ENTRY

LEADING SINGLE-SEATER squad DAMS will stop racing in the GP3 Series at the end of the 2017 season, with the MP Motorsport team taking over its entry for next year.

DAMS is quitting GP3 to devote additional resources to its e.dams Formula E entry, which it runs in partnership with Renault.

“It’s mainly because we were too stretched between F2, GP3 and Formula E,” said DAMS managing director Francois Sicard. “Renault is reinforcing to develop in Formula E and they asked us to be stronger. The idea is to be focused only on F2 and Formula E and to reinforce the staff of Formula E, especially the development and the racing team.”

DAMS, which only joined GP3 in 2016 and has scored two wins – both courtesy of Jake Hughes (below) that year – is sixth and last in the teams’ championship so far this year.

“We would have preferred to finish as we did in World Series by Renault,” said Sicard. “We won the last race and the championship twice – job done. Here we have the feeling that we are leaving a bit too early. But it’s a strategic decision we had to take. We had the opportunity that MP was interested to jump in, so we made the deal.”

DAMS will operate its GP3 cars at the end-of-season test at Abu Dhabi alongside MP. The Dutch squad’s team principal Sander Dorsman called the GP3 expansion to its existing F2 team “a very exciting development”.