| Riki Christodoulou | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | British |
| Born | 15 July 1988 Sutton Coldfield (England) |
| Related to | Adam Christodoulou (cousin) |
| 2012 British F3 | |
| Debut season | 2009 |
| Current team | Fortec Motorsport |
| Car no. | 51 |
| Starts | 20 |
| Wins | 1 |
| Poles | 0 |
| Fastest laps | 0 |
| Best finish | 5th in 2009 |
| Previous series | |
| 2007–08 2007 2007 2006–07 |
Formula Renault UK French Formula Renault Formula Renault NEC FRUK Winter Series |
Riki James Christodoulou (born 15 July 1988 in Sutton Coldfield) is a British racing driver and is the cousin of Adam Christodoulou, the winner of the 2008 Formula Renault UK Championship.
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Christodoulou began racing in 1996, and has raced karts in the UK, Italy, France, Belgium, including winning at Spa, and in Japan.[1] However, it wasn't until 1999 when he started to make waves on the British karting circuit. He won the Shennington Kart Club's Formula Cadet class, edging out cousin Adam by only two points – 217 to 215. Both Christodoulous struggled the following season, with Adam coming 7th and Riki 14th. Riki got the edge on Adam in the National Cadet Championship, with Riki finishing 5th, 60 points behind champion Alexander Sims. After a somewhat disappointing 2001 in the TKM class, Riki moved into the Intercontinental A Junior class for 2002. 5th place in the Super 1 JICA Championship led him towards a championship campaign in 2003. He did indeed win the championship, edging out Freddie Martin-Dye by just 2 points.[2] He and Martin-Dye both moved up into the main ICA class, and Riki finished joint third in the championship – amazingly missing out on the title by 3 points, finishing tied with Dan Cruttenden. Formula A beckoned and Riki ended 2005 with two runner-up positions – losing to Jason Edgar in the British Open and Mark Litchfield in Super 1 (Riki tied with Gary Catt and Jason Parrott for second). Riki's final season of karting came in 2006, when he had another 2nd – this time coming in the European Championship – beaten only by legendary Italian Marco Ardigò.
Riki moved up to Formula Renault for the 2006 UK Winter Series. Driving for the AKA Lemac team, Riki finished 5th in the championship, which was dominated by French interloper Franck Mailleux. He competed in the main championship for the first time in 2007, moving to Fortec Motorsport. Riki had a solid season, with 7 podiums including a maiden victory coming at the final round at Thruxton leaving him sixth in the championship. Another Winter Series campaign followed, and while the series was dominated the non-points-scoring Valtteri Bottas, Christo finished runner-up behind Richard Singleton. Riki also won a round of the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup at Oschersleben.[3] A sophomore season of FRUK occurred in 2008, and again Riki scored consistently, with nine podiums and two wins for a fifth place overall championship standing. Cousin Adam went on to win the title with 7 wins and eleven podiums.
Riki was looking to move up into the British Formula Three Championship for the 2009 season, and at the first pre-season test, Riki was underneath the Formula Three lap record at Snetterton.[4] On April 3, 2009 Christodoulou signed a deal to drive for Fortec Motorsport in the series.[5] Riki took his first win in the series at Snetterton, holding off championship leader Daniel Ricciardo, Walter Grubmüller and Renger van der Zande.[6] That was his only success of 2009, as he wound up fifth overall in the championship standings.