Promising young Aussie Jayden Ojeda has been selected to take part in the Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing Young Driver Test in Spain
The 24-year-old will head to Valencia for the factory-run test next week, having been hand-picked by DTM squad Landgraf Motorsports.
He will join young driving talent from around the globe with the field initially split in two for separate half-hour sessions on Thursday November 9.
The fastest 10 drivers from each of those sessions will then run again on the Friday with the top five receiving a fresh set of Pirelli rubber.
From that, two drivers will be honoured at the AMG Champions United event on November 11 and also receive a drive in the Gulf 12 Hours, the final round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge in Abu Dhabi in December.
The opportunity has come off the back of Ojeda’s impressive debut season in GT World Challenge Australia with Mercedes squad Volante Rosso.
It also marks a pivot in Ojeda’s career, given that he has been knocking on the door of a full-time Supercars chance for several years.
“I’m rapt,” said Ojeda. “I’m really looking forward to getting over there and enjoying every moment of what is an awesome opportunity.
“I’ve really enjoyed my racing this year, and this only adds to it.
“Considering I hadn’t driven a GT3 car at the start of the year, to now be selected to compete in the Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing Young Driver Test in Spain is amazing.”
“I can’t thank Chris Papadopoulos, Josh Hunt and Matt Harvey from Volante Rosso Motorsport enough for giving me the chance to race in GT World Challenge Australia this year, along with all the work they’ve done in the background to make this all happen.”
Papadopoulos, Volante Rosso co-team principal, said giving Ojeda the platform to earn this chance was an honour.
“I first saw Jayden racing Formula 4 and recognised his ability straight away,” he said.
“Since that time, we’ve looked for a way to get him into one of our programmes. Finally, the opportunity came to place him in our Mercedes-AMG GT3 machine with Ross Poulakis and the support of Harrolds.
“With Jayden’s talent and our engineering we scored a pole position and a win by his second outing in our car.
“Between Josh and I, the Volante Rosso Motorsport management team has scaled some great heights in motorsport and a core objective for us is to give back and help the next generation rise in the sport.
“With our pathway and his talent, [Ojeda] has been identified by a Mercedes-AMG DTM team to go into the Young Driver Test and potentially have his opportunity internationally.
“It is fantastic that Volante Rosso Motorsport has been able to play that part in helping him get the recognition he richly deserves to hopefully make the next step in his international racing career.”
