Sekiya replaces Verstappen at Willows for 2019

As the FF1M circus descends on Hungaroring the Willows team confirmed their line up for the 2019 season with the shock departure of Max Verstappen who will be replaced by the team’s test driver Daisuke Sekiya who made a one off appearance in Macau at the end of last season.

Team boss Joseph Willows said he was “delighted” to announce Sekiya’s promotion, saying that the Japanese had been “part of our academy for a good few years now and has been very impressive in the Junior Formulas, and even last season when he made a one off appearance at Macau, just missing out on a points finish.” Sekiya comes into the weekend 4th in the FF2M standings, 21 points behind championship leader Lando Norris, but has yet to win a race this season.

Willows also confirmed that “Romain Grosjean will be remaining with us for another year.” He “has been brilliant for us this season, especially at Road America where he achieved our highest finished this season of 4th, showing the progress the team is making on our mission to becoming front runners again in the future. He also provides a lot of experience, which will be a benefit for when Daisuke steps in the car next year.”

“We are really delighted with our lineup next year,” Willows continued. “And we hope with the progress we’ve made this year, we can continue and build on that into next year, even with the chassis reset.”

When asked by reporters for a word on Verstappen’s upcoming departure from the team Willows said “It has been an absolute joy to have him at the team for the last 3 seasons, and he has done an exceptional job, getting us great results during the difficult period that we are currently in. Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to keep Max for next year, we sadly couldn’t come to an agreement to keep him on for a 4th year, but that doesn’t mean he leaves us on bitter terms. Far from it. I wish him all the very best in the future, and I have no doubt another team on the grid will pick him up, because I do believe he can go far in FF1M. We are now focused on the rest of the season, to try and progress even further to hopefully put us in a good position for 2019.”

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