Lukoil Racing
| Lukoil Racing | |
|---|---|
| Motor racing team | |
| Founded | 1997 |
| Country | Russia |
| Team Principal(s) | Evgeniy Malinovskiy |
| Current series | WTCC RTCC |
| Former series | Russian Formula 1600 Russian Honda Civic Cup Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup Finnish Formula 3 Russian Formula 3 Formula RUS Supertourism Italian Formula 3 |
| Drivers | James Thompson Mikhail Kozlovskiy Alexey Dudukalo Pavel Kalmanovich |
| Drivers' titles | 2011 RTCC - Touring-Light (Sotnikov) 2010 RTCC - Touring-Light (Kozlovskiy) 2008-09 RTCC - Touring-Light (Dudukalo) 2004-06 Russian Honda Civic Cup (Dudukalo) 2005 Formula RUS (Romaschenko) 2004 Russian Formula 1600 (Pavlovskiy) 2004 Formula RUS (Afanasyev) 2003 Finnish Formula 3 (Belicchi) 2003 Formula RUS (Baiborodov) 2003 Supertourism (Dudukalo) 2002 Russian Formula 3 (Belicchi) 2002 Supertourism (Scilla) 2001 Supertourism (Scilla) 2000 Russian Formula 3 (Pedemonte) 1999 Russian Formula 3 (Pedemonte) 1999 Supertourism (Mezentsev) 1998 Russian Formula 3 (ASPAS) (Pedemonte) 1998 Supertourism (ASPAS) (Cherevan) 1997 Russian Formula 3 (ASPAS) (Pedemonte) |
| Teams' titles | 2012 WTCC Yokohama Teams' Trophy 2008-11 RTCC - Touring-Light 2004-06 Russian Formula 1600 2004-06 Russian Honda Civic Cup 2003-05 Formula RUS 2003 Finnish Formula 3 2001-03 Supertourism 1999-00, 2002 Russian Formula 3 1999 Tourism-1600 1997-98 Russian Formula 3 (ASPAS) 1997-98 Tourism-1600 (ASPAS) |
Lukoil Racing team is the leading Russian motorsport organization; its operations including management, driver training and support, engineering expertise and a quality technical environment, which enables continuous development, building, testing and race preparation.
Russian competitions
Team was created in 1997 to participate in Russian Formula 3 and Tourism-1600 championships. With European level of organisation and sponsorship of Lukoil oil company team became the main force in Russian autosport arena. But budget and technology race with ArtLine Engenering in F3 and Lada Sport in Supertourism had led to closure of this championships. Lukoil Racing won 5 of 6 team titles in Russian F3 and 6 of 7 team titles in Supertourism in seasons it participated.
In 2003 Lukoil Racing creates junior team for Formula RUS. Team won all titles three years in a row, but in end of 2005 season decide to leave series.
Lukoil Racing easily won driver's and team's titles of Finnish Formula 3 Championship in 2003. In touring cars racing team chose Honda Civic Cup where won both titles 3 years in row. Lukoil back to competition with ArtLine in Russian Formula 1600 in 2004 and won 3 team's titles in a row, but only one driver's title in 2004.
From 2008 Lukoil decide to concentrate only on RTСC Touring-Light class. Team received Ford Russia manufacturer support and won both driver's and team's titles 4 years in a row. In the end of 2011 Touring-Light cars were sold. Lukoil Racing went to RTCC Touring class with manufacturer support of Lada Sport.
WTCC
2009-2011
In 2009 Lukoil's driver Aleksey Dudukalo started to participate in SEAT León Eurocup with Sunred team. Year after Eurocup was folded and Lukoil decided to support Dudukalo and Sunred in 2011 WTCC season.
2012
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In 18 January Lukoil announced that will participate in 2012 WTCC season by own team with Gabriele Tarquini and Aleksey Dudukalo as drivers.[1] Tarquini won 1 race and finished at 4th place in championship, and the team won Yokohama Teams' Trophy.
2013
In 2013 Lukoil Racing became manufacturer team supported by Lada Sport. First seat was taken by Lada's driver James Thompson. Dudukalo was replaced with Mikhail Kozlovskiy after crash at Round 1 qualification.
Sponsorship
Formula 3000
In the end of 1998 Lukoil Racing decide to participate in International Formula 3000 Championship by own team with current Russian F3 drivers Alberto Pedemonte and Viktor Maslov. But Lukoil was late with 1999 season participation request and bought Christian Horner's Arden International team. Team was renamed to Lukoil Arden Racing and also starts participate in Italian Formula 3000. After scoring no points in 1999 season team was renamed to Arden Team Russia, Lukoil logotypes was replaced by inscription РОССИЯ (Russia). In mid-2001 Arden was sold back to Horner.
Drivers support program
In 2003 Lukoil Racing decided to create Drivers support program to promote Russian drivers on international racing arena. It's Lukoil's analog of Red Bull Junior Team.
Program starst with Mikhail Aleshin in Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup and other young drivers in Formula RUS. Lukoil Racing had own team in Formula Renault 2000 but later it was just a sponsor for other teams. Sometimes Lukoil drivers were also part of Red Bull Junior Team (Aleshin, Kvyat). From 2006 Lukoil starts to support Ukrainian, Finnish and Swedish drivers and later starts to support not only young drivers.
| Driver | Years | Current series |
|---|---|---|
 Sergey Afanasiev |
2003– | FIA GT Series/ADAC GT Masters |
 Yvan Muller |
2013– | WTCC |
| Former drivers | ||
| Sergey Sirotkin |
2011–12 | |
 Patrik Flodin |
2010–11 | |
| Daniil Kvyat |
2009–10 | |
| Mikhail Aleshin |
2003–09 | |
 Mika Maki |
2009 | |
 Sergey Chukanov |
2006–08 | |
| Atte Mustonen |
2008 | |
| Yuri Baiborodov |
2003–05 | |
| Ivan Samarin |
2004–05 | |
| Sergey Romashenko |
2005 | |
References
External links
- Official website (Russian)