Nick Cassidy to join European F3 for final five races of 2013

The New Zealander, who has beaten a number of the European series frontrunners on the way to the TRS titles in his homeland in 2012 and '13, will join Red Bull-backed Tom Blomqvist at the Italian EuroInternational Dallara-Mercedes squad for the final five events of the series.

Team boss Antonio Ferrari told AUTOSPORT: "We always wanted to run two cars and the time is right to do it.

"Nick is joining for the rest of the season and we hope he can stay with us next year."

The deal for Cassidy, who had been lined up to race for Manor in GP3 this year, follows a successful first F3 test with the T-Sport team at Spielberg at the start of June.

Cassidy shook down his EuroInternational Dallara at the Autodromo San Martino del Lago circuit near Cremona on Tuesday.

He told AUTOSPORT: "I spoke to Antonio at Spielberg because they wanted to run a second car alongside Tom's.

"T-Sport are a very good operation, but I couldn't run the rest of the season with them.

"I want to learn as much as possible and by doing the remaining five rounds will hopefully gain vital European experience.

"It will be tough at the Norisring as I haven't exactly had loads of track time, and with only four corners, not knowing my car isn't going to help me.

"With the team I hope to speed up this learning process and see what's possible."