Matthew Rees will return to the GB3 Championship for the 2023
season, remaining with JHR Developments with whom the youngster
claimed a maiden victory at Brands Hatch last year.
In just his first season of car racing in 2021, Matthew was
outstanding in the F4 British Championship, securing the Drivers'
and Rookie titles, while helping JHR to the Teams' honours in the
process.
Moving up to GB3 in 2022, the 17-year-old finished on the podium
on the opening weekend of the season at Oulton Park, adding pole
positions and a race win on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix
circuit in September, where he set the circuit's fastest lap of the
year and was named the Sunoco Fastest Driver of the Weekend.
Aiming for the overall title in 2023, Matthew, who is a member of
the prestigious BRDC SuperStars programme, will continue to compete
with JHR Developments, having built a strong relationship with the
team over the past two years.
Matthew Rees said: "My aspiration for 2023
is to be consistently in the top three and challenge for the title.
We had a great start to last year with a podium straight off the
bat at Oulton Park, so I'm hoping to repeat that and continue the
good form we had at the end of last season, as we had a win at
Brands Hatch.
"We will have a lot more expectation than last year, so we need to
live up to that. However, we have the experience of knowing the car
and how it handles in a race and working with the engineers to
develop the things that we like, so we should have a strong start
to the year. I know the team really well and the team knows me
really well, so we know how to get on with each other. I have to
give Steven Hunter a lot of credit as he does know how to make a
car go fast.
"Looking at the calendar, Zandvoort will be interesting. It means
we have three F1 venues on the calendar, so it's quite nice to be
racing on those circuits and getting experience, because as we move
on up the ladder we can use that experience to our
advantage."
JHR Developments Team Principal Steven Hunter
said: "We're very happy to have Matthew back with the
team for the third-straight season. We've known about his skill and
talent from as far back as 2020, when he started testing with us in
F4 machinery, and of course we had that incredible season in the F4
British Championship, winning the Drivers', Rookie, and Teams'
Championship titles with him.
"Last year in the GB3 Championship he showed his ability again,
claiming an opening weekend podium and adding double pole position
and our maiden series victory at Brands Hatch. With three drivers
in the team this year we'll have triple the data to work with and
that means we're feeling confident about how we will do, though of
course we'll keep working hard every weekend to achieve our goals
together."
02 February 2023
