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Carlin re-signs Red Bull duo for World Series by Renault

Red Bull racers Mikhail Aleshin and Robert Wickens will remain at Carlin Motorsport for the 2008 World Series by Renault championship. Russian driver Aleshin was a race winner with Carlin last season, while Wickens completed the final two rounds of the 2007 season with the team, following Sebastian Vettel's departure to F1.

20 year-old Aleshin started off his 2007 season on a high with a win at the first race of the season at Monza. The unlucky victim of numerous first lap crashes and other incidents meant the meant the Russian driver was unable to replicate the win and fulfil the potential he demonstrated in the early stages of the season.

Despite being just 18 year-old, Canadian Robert Wickens has already made his mark in single-seater racing, having won the Formula BMW USA championship, impressed in Champ Car Atlantic and finished on the podium in his first A1GP race. Joining the Carlin team for the last two rounds of the 2007 World Series by Renault season, Wickens finished in the points in only his second World Series race. A sixth place in qualifying at the final race in Barcelona confirmed the young Canadian's potential in the series.

The 2007 season was one of ups and downs for the British based Carlin squad, two victories and four podiums from the first two events giving the team an early lead in both the team and drivers' championships. Following the departure of Sebastian Vettel to F1, the team endured a dip in form during the second half of the season, and lost the lead in the team championship for the first time with just three events remaining.

Speaking about the season ahead, Aleshin said, "I'm very pleased to be staying with Carlin for 2008, in my opinion they are the best team in World Series. To win the championship is obviously the aim - for sure we can do this - we've shown great speed this season. My engineer Harvey Spencer has helped me enormously and always provided me with a good car. Drivers such as Robert Kubica and my team mate from last year, Sebastian Vettel, have shown its possible to make a successful transition to F1 direct from World Series, so I'm very happy to be driving in the championship next season."

Team mate Robert Wickens was equally positive about the 2008 season, saying, "I'm extremely pleased with my programme for next season. Carlin is a great team and I was fortunate enough to complete the last two races with them this year, where they did a fantastic job and really made me feel welcome. I can't wait to test the new car for the first time, it looks very impressive! We've been making good progress in testing, hopefully this will continue in the new car next year."

Team Principal Trevor Carlin added, "I'm delighted that we are able to welcome both drivers back to the team for 2008 and believe we have a very strong package for the season ahead. The Red Bull junior team offers a great selection of talented, fast drivers and I'm very happy to have drivers from the programme competing with us in both World Series and British F3.

"The team were very impressed with how quickly Robert adapted to the World Series car at the final two races of the season and I have no doubt that it won't be long before his first World Series podium. Mikhail was plagued with bad luck this year, but has the potential to take the drivers' title in 2008. A new qualifying system next season should reward the quickest drivers rather than penalising those that have a poor first race. After a disappointing second half of the season in 2007, we will be aiming for consistency next year as well as the team title."