In a last minute development, 2000 Macau Grand Prix winner Andre Couto has landed a drive with Carlin Motorsport for the Korean Formula 3 season closer after Takuma Sato withdrew his entry, organisers announced today (November 22, 2001).

When it became clear that Sato would be unable to take part in the event, he insisted that his Carlin Motorsport Dallara F301 Honda-Mugen, which he owns personally, was immediately offered to Couto.

Carlin Motorsport team boss, Trevor Carlin, remains undimmed in his quest to make a clean sweep of this year's blue riband Formula 3 events. "We are going to try hard to win this event. It's going to be harder without Anthony Davidson and Takuma Sato, but we feel we have found the best possible substitutes in last year's champions Narain Karthikeyan and Andre Couto."

Couto, who recently won the final round of the Japanese GT series, has had a disappointing season in Formula Nippon, and is looking forward to joining reigning Korean champion Narain Karthikeyan in Changwon this weekend.

The highly competitive line up includes German F3 Champion Toshihiro Kaneishi, Japanese series winner and runner up at Macau Benoit Treluyer, and promising young Finn Heikki Kovalainen.