World Series by Renault

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (January 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

World Series by Renault

Category	Formula Renault 3.5
Country or region	Europe
Inaugural season	2005
Constructors	Dallara
Engine suppliers	Renault
Drivers' champion	Álvaro Parente
Teams' champion	Tech 1 Racing
Official website	worldseriesbyrenault.com

World Series by Renault at Donington Park in 2005.

The World Series by Renault, formerly the World Series by Nissan, is a motorsport single-seater series.

It was founded as Open Fortuna by Nissan in 1998, and was mostly based in Spain, but visited other countries throughout its history, including France, Italy, Portugal and Brazil. The organization was handled by RPM Comunicacion. The series changed name a number of times, usually adopting the name of its main sponsor, but was also known by other common names such as the unofficial "Formula Nissan". In 2005, the series was integrated with Formula Renault V6 Eurocup, and became World Series by Renault.

In its early years, the series used chassis built by Coloni, with a 2.0 L Nissan SR20 engine. The series slotted in between Formula 3 and Formula 3000. In 2002, it adopted a new format, with chassis supplied by Dallara and the engine upgraded to the VQ30. The series also became more international, with more than half of the race calendar held outside Spain.

Renault started the Formula Renault V6 Eurocup in 2003, as a support series in Eurosport's Super Racing Weekends (ETCC and FIA GT Championship). The series ran with Tatuus chassis and a Renault 3.5 L V6 engine.

In 2005, Renault left the Super Racing Weekend and started the World Series by Renault, organized by Renault Sport and RPM with Formula Renault 3.5, merging both the World Series by Nissan (whose engine contract had finished) and Renault V6 Eurocup. The Dallara chassis was retained, while the Renault V6 was improved to 425 PS. Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup and the Eurocup Mégane Trophy functioned as support races to the main series.

1 Series Name & Champions
2 Notable Drivers
3 TV broadcasters
- 3.1 Live broadcasters
- 3.2 Highlights-only broadcasters
4 External links

[edit] Series Name & Champions

Formula Nissan & World Series

Year	Series name	Driver's Champion	Team's Champion
1998	Open Fortuna by Nissan	Marc Gené
1999	Euro Open MoviStar by Nissan	Fernando Alonso
2000	Open Telefónica by Nissan	Antonio García
2001	Open Telefónica by Nissan	Franck Montagny
2002	Telefónica World Series	Ricardo Zonta	Racing Engineering
2003	Superfund World Series	Franck Montagny	Gabord Competition
2004	World Series by Nissan	Heikki Kovalainen	Pons Racing
2005	World Series by Renault	Robert Kubica	Epsilon Euskadi
2006	World Series by Renault	Alx Danielsson	Interwetten.com
2007	World Series by Renault	Álvaro Parente	Tech 1 Racing
2008	World Series by Renault	Season in progress	Season in progress

Note: In dark-pink background, mainly Spanish-based series (also known as Formula Nissan) with 2.0 L engine. In light-pink background, international series with V6 engine.

Eurocup Formula Renault V6

Year	Champion	Team's Champion
2003	José María López	Signature
2004	Giorgio Mondini	Eurointernational

[edit] Notable Drivers

Formula One drivers in the future and/or past

Marc Gené (1998: Champion, 2003: 12th), competed in Formula One for Minardi and Williams. Currently a Test Driver for Ferrari.
Fernando Alonso (1999: Champion), competed in Formula One for Minardi, Renault and McLaren. He is the 2005 and 2006 Formula One World Champion.*
Giorgio Pantano (1999: 21st), competed in Formula One for Jordan.
Franck Montagny (2001: Champion, 2002: 2nd, 2003: Champion}, test driver for Renault competed in Formula One for Super-Aguri.
Ricardo Zonta (2002: Champion) - 1997 FIA GT Champion, competed in Formula One for BAR, Jordan and Toyota, and later became test driver for Renault.
Justin Wilson (2002: 4th), competed in Formula One for Minardi and Jaguar. Went onto Champ Car with RuSPORT and Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing
Narain Karthikeyan (2002: 9th, 2003: 4th, 2004: 6th), competed in Formula One for Jordan, and later became test driver for Williams
Heikki Kovalainen (2003: 2nd, 2004: Champion), competed in Formula One for Renault and McLaren.*
Enrique Bernoldi (2003: 6th, 2004: 3rd), competed in Formula One for Arrows. Went onto Champ Car with Rocketsports.
Stéphane Sarrazin (2003: 7th), competed in Formula One for Minardi.
Tiago Monteiro (2004: 2nd), competed in Formula One for Jordan and Midland/Spyker. Currently competes in the WTCC
Robert Kubica (2005: Champion), competed in Formula One for BMW.*
Markus Winkelhock (2005: 3rd), competed in Formula One for Spyker (Nurburgring 2007). Currently competes in the DTM.
Sebastian Vettel (2006: 15th, 2007: 5th -1st after seven races, when withdrew to compete in F1-), competed in Formula One for BMW and Toro-Rosso.*

The * denotes drivers still active in Formula One as of April 5th 2008.

Formula One test drivers

Tomas Scheckter (2001: 2nd) - Jaguar Racing (2001)
Bas Leinders (2002: 3rd, 2003: 3rd) - Minardi (2004)
Giorgio Mondini (2007: no points) - Midland F1 (2006)
James Rossiter (2006: 13th) - Super Aguri (2007)
Adrián Vallés (2004: 10th, 2005: 2nd)) - Spyker F1 (2007)
Giedo van der Garde (2007: 6th tied) - Spyker F1 (2007)
Fairuz Fauzy (2007: 10th) - Spyker F1 (2007)
Roldán Rodríguez (2004: 21th) - Spyker F1 (2007)

Formula Three Champions

Jonathan Cochet (2001: 9th, 2002: 13th) - French Championship (2000)
Ander Vilariño (2002: 8th, 2003: 8th, 2004: 12th) - Spanish Championship (2000 and 2001)
Ryo Fukuda (2004: 15th, 2006: 16th) - French Championship (2001)
Tristan Gommendy (2004: 5th, 2005: 4th, 2006: 19th) - French Championship (2002)
Álvaro Parente (2007: Champion) - English Championship (2005)
Ricardo Risatti (2007: no points) - Spanish Championship (2006)
Salvador Durán (2007: 8th) - 2005 British F3 Championship

Champions in other categories

Andy Priaulx (2001: 18th) - 2004 European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) Champion, 2005, 2006 and 2007 World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) World Champion
Matteo Bobbi (2001: 11th, 2002: 6th) - 2003 FIA GT Champion
Filipe Albuquerque (2007: 4th) - 2006 Eurocup Formula Renault and Formula Renault 2.0 NEC

[edit] TV broadcasters

[edit] Live broadcasters

Country	TV Network	Language
Argentina	Fox Latin America	Spanish
Belgium	BeTV	French
Brazil	Multisports	Portuguese
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina	BHRT	Bosnian
France	Sport+	French
Mexico	SPEED Channel Latin America	Spanish
Serbia	RTS	Serbian
Russia	SPORT VGTRK	Russian
Spain	TVE	Spanish