DECEMBER 27, 2002

Mercedes-Benz signs Heylen

The Belgian press is getting very excited about the news that Jan Heylen, who won the Formula Ford Festival in November, has been signed on a four-year contract with Mercedes-Benz.

The Belgian press is getting very excited about the news that Jan Heylen, who won the Formula Ford Festival in November, has been signed on a four-year contract with Mercedes-Benz, with the aim of getting into Formula 1 in 2006. The 22-year-old Belgian will race this year in the planned European Formula 3 series with a Mercedes engine and will then move up to Formula 3000 if all goes to plan.

Heylen has been racing since 1992, enjoying a full and varied career in karting before moving into single-seaters in 2001 in the British Formula Ford series. After a season with Tim Sugden Motorsport he moved to the Van Diemen factory team this year and finished ssecond in the British series.