ART Grand Prix

Lotus ART
Full name ART Grand Prix
Founded 1991
Base Villeneuve-la-Guyard, France
Founder/s Frédéric Vasseur
Nicolas Todt
Team principal/s Frédéric Vasseur
Nicolas Todt
Race drivers 05. Jules Bianchi
06. Esteban Gutiérrez
Race drivers 05. Jules Bianchi
06. Esteban Gutiérrez
GP2 Series record
Debut 2005
Teams' Championships 2005
2006
2009
Drivers' Championships 2005 (Rosberg)
2006 (Hamilton)
2009 (Hülkenberg)
Race victories 23
Debut 2008
Teams' Championships 2008
Drivers' Championships 2008 (Grosjean)
Race victories 5
Other Series
Current Series GP2 Series
GP3 Series
Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0
Former Series Championnat de France Formula Renault 2.0
Formula Three Euroseries
GP2 Asia Series
Drivers' Titles 2004-2009 F3 Euroseries (Green, Resta, Grosjean, Hülkenberg, Bianchi)
2010-2011 GP3 Series (Gutiérrez, Bottas)
Teams' Titles 2003-2009 F3 Euroseries
2010-2011 GP3 Series

Lotus ART is a French motor racing team that competes in formula single-seaters in Europe. It was founded as ART Grand Prix in 1991.

Contents

Creation

ART Grand Prix was created in a collaborative project between Frédéric Vasseur, the principal of ASM Formule 3, and Nicolas Todt, the son of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) President Jean Todt. Vasseur wanted to expand his championship-winning Formula Three team into the newly-created GP2 Series that supports Grands Prix in Europe, while Nicolas Todt had expressed an interest in team management. He had become involved in motorsport as a driver manager, and was notable for representing Felipe Massa. Todt took charge of the new team's commercial and promotional interests, while Vasseur managed the day-to-day running of the operation. ART is based at the ASM workshops at Villeneuve-la-Guyard in the département of Yonne, France.

Immediate success

In ART Grand Prix's debut season, it employed F3 Euroseries graduates Alexandre Prémat, of France, and Nico Rosberg, of Germany. Against drivers who had prior experience at this level, from Formula 3000, Rosberg became the inaugural GP2 Drivers' Champion. He showed consistency, with points scoring results at every race meeting, and his championship challenge became stronger as the year progressed. Prémat was 4th in the championship, which was enough to provide ART with the Teams' Championship title. Rosberg's increasingly rapid rise to the top continued when he graduated to Formula One with Williams.

Prémat remained with ART in 2006[1], and was joined by Britain's Lewis Hamilton[2]. He was a logical choice, having dominated the F3 Euroseries with ASM Formule 3, ART's sister team. Hamilton took an impressive title in his debut season, though his performances faltered slightly mid-season against an increased challenge from the eventual runner-up, Nelson Piquet, Jr.. Prémat was a consistent and reliable number two to Hamilton; his third position in the Drivers' Championship contributed to ART's second consecutive Teams' title.

It is understood that ART have launched an entry into Formula One as one of many candidates to fill in the 13th slot for the 2011 Formula One season with a possible partnership from the now-defunct Toyota Racing grand Prix team. Also the team announced that it was going to phase out it's Formula 3 operation because it wanted to focus only on GP3 and GP2. The 2010 Formula 3 season proved to be ART Grand Prix's last [3]

Formula one entry bid

ART Grand Prix announced their entry bid for Formula 1 on 13 May 2010.[4]

On 24 June 2010, Autosport magazine said that ART are set to become the 13th team for 2011. However, on 7 July 2010, ART announced in its official statement withdrawal of its entry bid. ART declares in its official statement that "ART Grand Prix had forged strong bonds with several technical and financial partners but with unfavourable economic conditions they could not gather the necessary guarantees to ensure the stability of the project in the long term." As revealed by one of the Formula One insiders during Czech TV NOVA 2010 British Grand Prix live coverage, one of the crucial partners was Michelin, who didn't succeed in their efforts to become an official Formula One tyre supplier from 2011.

Results

GP2 Series

Year Car Drivers Races Wins Poles F.L. Points D.C. T.C.
2005 Dallara-Mecachrome Nico Rosberg 23 5 5 4 120 1st 1st
Alexandre Prémat 23 2 1 2 67 4th
2006 Dallara-Mecachrome Lewis Hamilton 21 5 1 7 114 1st 1st
Alexandre Prémat 21 1 0 1 66 3rd
2007 Dallara-Mecachrome Lucas di Grassi 21 1 0 0 77 2nd 2nd
Sébastien Buemi 11 0 0 2 6 21st
Mikhail Aleshin 4 0 0 0 3 25th
Michael Ammermüller 6 0 0 1 1 26th
2008 Dallara-Mecachrome Luca Filippi 10 0 0 0 5 19th 5th
Sakon Yamamoto 10 0 0 0 3 23rd
Romain Grosjean 20 2 1 2 62 4th
2009 Dallara-Mecachrome Pastor Maldonado 20 2 0 1 36 6th 1st
Nico Hülkenberg 20 5 3 6 100 1st
2010 Dallara-Mecachrome Jules Bianchi 20 0 3 1 52 3rd 3rd
Sam Bird 20 1 1 4 48 5th
2011 Dallara-Mecachrome Jules Bianchi 18 1 1 0 53 3rd 5th
Esteban Gutiérrez 17 1 0 1 15 13th
2012 Dallara-Mecachrome Esteban Gutiérrez -th
James Calado

Reference: GP2 and Formula 3000 entrylist and complete results

Formula Three

ART Grand Prix competed the Formula Three Euroseries as ASM Formule 3 from 2003 to 2007.[5]

GP3

Year Car Drivers Races Wins Poles F.L. Points D.C. T.C.
2010 Dallara-Renault Alexander Rossi 16 2 0 1 38 4th 1st
Esteban Gutiérrez 16 5 3 7 88 1st
Pedro Nunes 16 0 0 0 4 24th
2011 Dallara-Renault Pedro Nunes 12 0 0 0 0 32nd 1st
Richie Stanaway 4 1 0 0 7 20th
Valtteri Bottas 16 4 1 2 62 1st
James Calado 16 1 1 2 55 2nd
2012 Dallara-Renault Aaro Vainio

References

  1. ^ Premat renews with ART, autosport.com (5 January 2006).
  2. ^ Hamilton confirmed at ART, autosport.com (19 January 2006).
  3. ^ ART pulls out of Formula 3
  4. ^ http://www.thef1times.com/news/display/01036
  5. ^ "Champions ASM renamed ART". autosport.com. 2007-11-28. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/64136. Retrieved 2007-11-28. 

External links

Teams and drivers competing in the 2012 GP2 Series season
Addax DAMS Racing Eng. iSport ART Caterham Coloni Trident Super Nova Rapax Arden Ocean Carlin
1 TBA
2 TBA		 3 TBA
4 TBA		 5 TBA
6 TBA		 7 Ericsson
8 Palmer		 9 Calado
10 Gutiérrez		 11 TBA
12 TBA		 14 Ceccon
15 TBA		 16 Leal
17 Richelmi		 18 TBA
19 TBA		 20 TBA
21 TBA		 22 TBA
23 TBA		 24 TBA
25 TBA		 26 TBA
27 TBA
Teams and drivers competing in the 2011 GP3 Series season