The 17-year-old German had her first taste of F3 power in a Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara-Mercedes at the Algarve Circuit on Tuesday, and will be back in action in the same car at the Portuguese venue on Thursday.

Floersch is running alongside Russian F4 graduate Artem Petrov and second-year F3 racer Keyvan Andres – both of whom have been confirmed in VAR’s 2018 line-up – on track at Algarve.

She stepped from karts into the BTCC-supporting Ginetta Junior series in 2015, claiming two wins at Thruxton to become the youngest driver ever to win a round of the championship at the age of 14.

Her Ginetta season was truncated while she geared up for German F4, where she has raced in 2016 and ’17, scoring two podium finishes last year.

VAR boss Frits van Amersfoort told Motorsport.com: “We have deals with two drivers and of course we’d like to have another.

“Sophia showed some real speed in F4 last season and that’s promising. We’re keen to develop her into a fast F3 driver, just as we did with Rahel Frey [who raced in German F3 with the team in 2008], who I rate really highly.”

Tuesday’s running was cut short by rain.

“It started out wet, then it dried for some hours, and then it finished off raining again,” added van Amersfoort.

“Hopefully Thursday will be dry and then we will evaluate what will happen with Sophia.”

The testing forms part of VAR’s allocation of ‘joker days’, with Motopark and Hitech GP also in action at the circuit.