HE may have made history by becoming only the second African driver ever to compete in the Formula Two Championship, but Axcil Jefferies’ dreams are much bigger than that.
Report By DANIEL NHAKANISO SPORTS REPORTER
The glitz and glamour of the Formula One remains the ultimate goal for the promising Zimbabwean driver who turns 19 next month.
Jefferies is the first to admit that it has not been all smooth sailing, with the latest setback being the failure by local sponsors to back him ahead of his participation in the GP2 Series this season.
“Yeah, it has been a bit tough,” the talented driver told NewsDay Sport in an interview this week from his base in Malaysia where he was recently invited by the Caterham Racing Team.
“We lost our main sponsor AFRIHY PE in January without any notice or reason. That put us on the back foot.Caterham saw the potential in us last year and approached us to compete in GP2 with them and to be a Formula 1 development driver.
“This could be my big break into F1, but unfortunately without the required sponsorship we won’t be able to compete. The first race is next week and we still haven’t been able to secure anything. But I will fight,” declared Jefferies.
Jefferies last year made his debut appearance in Formula Two, which is just one rung below the world-popular Formula One.
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The motor racing ace showed excellent potential and was consistently in the top 10 throughout the season.
He finished 12th after 16 races in the 23-man field where he was the youngest competitor.
This year, Jefferies has had to make the transition to the GP2 Series after MotorSport Vision (MS V) — the operators of the FIA Formula 2 Championship — agreed with the FIA not to continue to run the series this year.
This saw Jefferies being invited to join the Malaysia-based Caterham Racing Team who indicated that they would like Jefferies to race for their GP2 Team this season with the aim of grooming him to race in Formula 1 next year.
Many drivers have used the GP2 Series as a stepping stone into Formula One.
The 2005 champion Nico Rosberg was hired by the Williams team for the 2006 F1 campaign, 2006 GP2 winner
