Lotus Motorsport in collaboration with seasoned championship winners ART Grand Prix have confirmed their participation in the 2011 GP2 (Europe and Asia series) and GP3 series. The contract with ART Grand Prix sees Lotus commit to providing technical and engineering support for the GP2 and GP3 race series for the foreseeable future.
Lotus Motorsport and ART Grand Prix share a hunger for success, the facts speak for themselves. With seven F1 Constructers Championships, six F1 Driver Championships and numerous other considerable accolades, Lotus has a unique racing pedigree making them the perfect partner for ART Grand Prix.
Since the GP2 series was launched in 2005, Lotus’ new collaborators ART Grand Prix have won the GP2 championship three times, first with Nico Rosberg (2005), then with Lewis Hamilton (2006) and last year with Nico Hülkenberg (2009) under the expert management of team founders Nicolas Todt and Frédéric Vasseur. Vasseur and Todt’s complementary abilities guarantee the best possible management of the team, day in, day out. Frédéric Vasseur is in charge of the team and the factory on the ground, while Nicolas Todt runs the commercial and marketing side of the organization.
[blockquote type=”blockquote_quotes” align=”center”]The move into GP2 and GP3 solidifies Lotus Motorsport’s commitment to promoting driver development and supporting the search for the world champions of the future. Lotus won’t simply be partner in name only, ART Grand Prix will also benefit from Lotus’ considerable engineering and technical support and experience[/blockquote]
Commenting on the news Gino Rosato, Director of Corporate Communications at Lotus said: “This deal means a lot to me personally; I’ve known Nicolas Todt for many years and have already had the opportunity to work alongside him in the past. Lotus is proud to be partnering ART Grand Prix and in doing so uniting with the most successful and recognized team in GP2 Series. We come together with a common goal: to continue our great success in motorsport.”
Frédéric Vasseur Team Manager of ART Grand Prix said: “It is a fantastic opportunity for ART Grand Prix to be working with Lotus. The goal is clear: winning together the future GP2 and GP3 championships. I can’t wait to see the new livery of our racing cars.”
As part of the celebration, Lotus ART will field two cars in the GP2 Europe and GP2 Asia series and three cars in the GP3 Europe series. The GP2 Series, one of the World’s premier racing categories, is widely recognised as the breeding ground for future F1 talent. Almost half of the current F1 grid got their chance to race at the pinnacle of motorsport after proving their worth in the GP2 Series including Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg, Timo Glock and Heikki Kovalainen. The goal of the new GP3 Series is to give young upcoming drivers a chance to develop their driving skills and jump to the next step: GP2.
Lotus Motorsport Director of Operations Miodrag Kotur said: “The move into GP2 and GP3 solidifies Lotus Motorsport’s commitment to promoting driver development and supporting the search for the world champions of the future. Lotus won’t simply be partner in name only, ART Grand Prix will also benefit from Lotus’ considerable engineering and technical support and experience.”
In an interesting twist to this story Lotus Racing team owner Tony Fernandes‘ application to launch a GP2 team for 2011 has been successful. The Malaysian millionaire’s team is to be called Team Air Asia and joins the 13 team grid for the main series and the GP2 Asia series.
Written By
Steve Davies
Steve is an investor, private equity advisor and former Partner at KPMG, PwC and Bain. Most importantly he's a life-long car enthusiast, mountain biker and active sports enthusiast. He designs and builds technology platforms and is the architect behind Transmission.
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A sensible decision by Lotus – there’s no point blowing a load of money up the wall trying to succeed on your own when you can collaborate with the best and be at the sharp end immediately. If it also gives them first pick on ART GP2 drivers then they could do a lot worse in terms of conveyor belts of talent.
Not sure how this fits in with the new Air Asia GP2 team though …
I did a double-take when writing this article thinking I’d made a mistake, but I’ve checked and it does seem that ‘both’ Lotus Motorsport and Tony Fernandez (owner of Team Lotus in F1) are setting up in competition against each other in GP2.
If I didn’t know better I’d assume a rift had developed between Fernandez and Group Lotus. Weird eh?
It is weird and I’m not sure what the direct benefit to Lotus will be here … ART drivers end up anywhere and everywhere (Rosberg at Williams, Hamilton at McLaren, Gutierrez at Sauber etc.) and so unless there’s a major financial incentive, Lotus will struggle to tie drivers down at GP2/GP3 level to subsequent F1 contracts … certainly whilst they’re not at the sharp end of F1 anyway.
I think Fernandes is extremely keen on promoting Malaysian talent and ART are shall we say more keen on talented drivers than their marketing potential, so I can see the sense in an Air Asia team to promote Malaysian drivers.
I can’t help but think Lotus would be better off not spreading themselves so thinly across so many series and instead focussed everything they’ve got on improving in F1. You don’t see McLaren and Ferrari directly messing about in other series.
Gents,
A little off topic. I used to work for Lotus Engineering Malaysia. Obviously, they are owned by Proton, the national Malaysian auto maker.
I have put a proposal out there http://motorsportuniversitymalaysia.com
GP2 GP3 would be a great learning tool, it actually fits in with my proposal.
Do you see Air Asia being based in the SepangF1 and Lotus being based in the UK?
Both teams are entering the European and Asian series.
Thoughts please
John Mansfield
John, I would expect the Team Air Asia organisation to be based out of Malaysia, which would fit with what I understood Tony Fernandes reason for entering the championships (to create a proper staircase of talent to bring forward talented Malaysian drivers).
Whereas Group Lotus’ efforts in GP2 and GP3 will be based in France, where the ART Grand Prix team are based.
Are you in contact with Team Air Asia or do you need an introduction?