Jolyon Palmer is targeting a top-three title finish in only his second GP2 season.
The Southwater race ace, who was 21 on Friday last week, will race for Norfolk-based iSport International after switching from the Arden team.
He said: “I would describe my first year in GP2 as a solid learning year. I was disappointed with some of the results, but at times I had the pace to be running in the points and was undone by bad luck.
“There are plenty of experienced drivers but there’s not a lot of track time to get up to speed with the car and circuits, so a rookie season is always going to be difficult. You just have to learn from the experiences and put them to use for this year.
“iSport are a well-established front-running team and have won the title before. A number of their drivers have made it into F1.
“I have driven for them before, testing for two days at the end of 2010 and another day at the end of last year, so I know the team already and have a good working relationship with them.
“I felt it was also very important for me to have an experienced and highly rated team-mate this season. Marcus Ericsson will be in his third year of GP2 and his second with iSport.
“My goal for this year is firstly to be consistently scoring points and then end up in the top three in the championship. It is a tough challenge as there are always top-quality drivers in GP2, but with a year’s experience under my belt and with a top team I think it is achievable.
“Over the winter I have been working hard on my fitness and I’m well into a diet regime now to get myself down to my optimum weight for the first test of the season at the end of February.
“It was nice to get a deal sorted out before Christmas so I can spend more time preparing with the team before the start of the season.
“I’m extremely excited by the new GP2 calendar. It made sense to merge the main series with the Asia series and it will be exciting going to new circuits such as Malaysia and Singapore.”
The GP2 season will start at Sepang, Malaysia, on March 23-25 after testing at Jerez (February 28 to March 1) and Barcelona (March 6-8).
