Sharp Motorsport joins British F4 grid for ’17

A brand new team will enter British F4 next year, pledging to help drivers short of money in the north west of the country.

Sharp Motorsport is the brainchild of transport company boss Joe Sharp and was created to give his son Jamie a chance to race in the British Touring Car Championship support category.

Jamie is a member of the Arden Young Racing Driver Academy but struggled to raise the budget to race in the series.

“We are starting our own F4 team to give kids a chance,” said Sharp.

“Jamie’s been racing karts for six or seven years and has been part of the Young Racing Driver Academy for about 18 months and has been testing with them. But he couldn’t get the budget to do it. We looked into it and decided to do it ourselves. We are setting up a privateer team and are starting to put the wheels in motion.”

Sharp Sr added that the team could potentially run as many as three cars next season, but without charging the high budgets the top teams demand.

“We ordered the first car last week so it’s starting to get real,” he said. “We want to give the kids the best chance we can so if that means buying brand new cars, we’ll buy brand new cars.

“There’s not any teams in the north west and we want to give kids in that area that a chance.”