At only 15 years old, Brazilian Bruno Ribeiro will be one of the youngest drivers in USF Juniors when the series kicks off at NOLA Motorsports Park this April.

Youth did not stop Ribeiro from immediately showing speed this week at Sebring International Raceway, where the DEForce Racing rookie led two of the series’ first three sessions on Monday and remained in the top half of the field throughout all six.

When Ribeiro takes the track for the season start, he will be one of an increasing number of drivers DEForce has brought over from Brazil. Additionally, he will be a young and enthusiastic prospect that is carrying on a family legacy.

Ribeiro is a second-generation racer, the son of Formula Three Sudamericana champion and International F3000 driver Rodrigo Ribeiro. Bruno Ribeiro attests that everything he knows in racing has been taught to him by his father.

After Bruno Ribeiro gets out of the car at the end of sessions, Rodrigo Ribeiro works with the DEForce Racing team to analyze the data and helps give Bruno tips on how to improve, while also encouraging Bruno to discover things by himself.

“He tries not to talk too much sometimes,” Bruno Ribeiro said. “But he helps a lot, and he’s a great coach.”

After racing in F1600 over the past year at circuits like Interlagos alongside continuing to race in karting, Bruno Ribeiro and his family made the decision to head to America to further his racing career.

The decision to seek to enter the USF Pro Championships ladder was one that Bruno Ribeiro linked to the existence of the scholarship system that allowed champions of each series to move up into the series after that one.

“This ladder is really good and really supportive for young drivers,” Bruno Ribeiro said. “I think it’s going to help me a lot.”

He also said that he loves the United States, a love that stems back to heading to the country for the first time to attend Disney World with his family when he was four.

In June of this year, he was back in the United States when he attended his first USF Juniors race at Virginia International Raceway.

Eventually, on December 1, Bruno Ribeiro was revealed as DEForce’s first driver in USF Juniors. A day before and after fellow Brazilians Nicholas Monteiro and Nicolas Giaffone were announced to be driving for the team as well in USF Pro 2000 and USF2000.

Ribeiro appreciates the supportive environment that DEForce has set up for him and attributes his growth since first stepping in the car to how much the team has helped him, even going as far as to compare his time spent with DEForce “like family.”

“I mean, half the team is Brazilian,” Ribeiro said. “There’s a lot of connection within us, and it’s not been really hard to adapt to the environment as a team.”

Monday and Tuesday at Sebring were the first of the two test experiences Ribeiro will partake in this week. Tomorrow, he will step back into the car at NOLA for his first look at the series-opening track.

Even in the four sessions that Ribeiro did not lead in Sebring, he was always within 0.203 seconds of the lead by the time the session ended. The field he was competing against included drivers with more experience than him, including Formula 4 United States driver Ava Dobson and F4 race-winner Jimmie Lockhart.

What does Ribeiro think led to his strong performance in Sebring? He thinks it comes down to the time that he has placed in simulators before heading to the track.

Once Ribeiro found out three months in advance that he would be at Sebring and specifically the club circuit, he began laying down laps. While Ribeiro said the sim time could not have prepared him for some aspects of the track, like the bumps in the surface, once he arrived at Sebring, the time he spent helped him reach the top of the timesheets.

“Once you get in the zone and start trying to be consistent, it gets easier,” Ribeiro said.

Looking beyond Sebring, Ribeiro’s goals in the upcoming season are to remain competitive throughout his first full year of racing cars.

He also wants to make the series a learning experience for himself and that while he wants to fight for wins and podiums, he is never truly sure of what will happen until the season begins.

“We’ve had great tests so far,” Ribeiro said. “But you never really know what your speed is until it comes out.”

He exceeded his expectations in testing so far and is excited to be racing in America at tracks he loves like Mid-Ohio. Confidently, Ribeiro remarked that he was ready for this upcoming year.

That readiness he believes extends beyond himself and to his DEForce team. Ribeiro believes that the two have progressed a lot since he began testing in the fall.

“They know me now a bit more, and our connection has (grown) a lot,” Ribeiro said. “I’m pretty sure that we’ll be up there.”