Andres Mendez gets a drive with Austrian AutoGP outfit Zele Racing for 2015Colombian driver Andrés Méndez will join Zele Racing for the 2015 AutoGP World Series season.
The 22-year-old from Bogotá, whose father and grandfather were both racing drivers, began kart racing in 2008. Former F1 driver and LeMans winner Allan McNish discovered the teenager, and he was selected to join the Ferrari Driver Academy.
Mendez gained early Formula experience in a Tatuus and also tested Formula Renault 2.0 cars. In 2012, he joined IndyCar’s third tier, the Star Mazda Championship.
At the end of the season, he decided to dare crossing the pond and entered Formula Renault 2.0 NEC, before moving up to the German F3 Championship the following season.
“I am very excited to drive a V8-powered car this year. The AutoGP cars have less electronics, so the driver is more important. I am sure, I can learn a lot at Zele Racing and grateful for this opportunity”, Mendez said.
Zele Racing team boss Michael Zele is “pleased to welcome Andrès on board our AutoGP team. He has a lot of potential and we´re looking forward to working with him.”
Mendez is not the first Colombian to race for an Austrian squad – in 1997, a young Juan Pablo Montoya raced successfully for the RSM Marko Team in F3000.
The 2015 AutoGP season opens with the Morocco event in Marrakesh on April 19, where Zele Racing earned the first of a series of podium finishes last season.
Factbox
Andres Mendez #9
30 July 1992, Bogota (Colombia)
2014 German F3
2013 Formula Renault NEC
2012 Star Mazda
2011 Ferrari Driver Academy – Formula Abarth
2010 Jim Russell Racing Driver Academy
