Ocean Racing Technology

Ocean Racing Technology

Founded	2002 (as BCN Competición) 2008 (as Ocean Racing Technology)
Base	Perafita, Portugal
Team principal(s)	Tiago Monteiro José Guedes
Former series	A1 Grand Prix Formula 3000 World Series by Nissan Euro Formula 3000 GP2 Asia Series GP2 Series GP3 Series
Noted drivers	Andrea Belicchi Kevin Ceccon Esteban Guerrieri Álvaro Parente Enrico Toccacelo
Website	http://www.oceanracingtech.com/
Folded	2012

Ocean Racing Technology (ORT) was a racing team that took part in both the GP2 Main Series and the GP2 Asia Series Championships. The team, owned by Tiago Monteiro and José Guedes, was formed at the end of the 2008 season after being purchased from BCN, a team which never enjoyed much success in GP2 (two podiums in four years). The driver and the entrepreneur created a structure based on recognized professionals and quickly started to secure first-class results, making it possible for the Portuguese Racing team to fight with the more advanced teams in the FIA accredited championship that is the main feeder series for Formula One.

While BCN was the only GP2 team that had yet to win a race (contributing factors being BCN Competición's frequent use of a rotating selection of paying drivers), the change to ORT meant a full transformation (the team kept only the frames, discarding all the rest, and hiring new staff). In their first year in GP2, Álvaro Parente won the first race for the team at the 2009 Belgian GP2 Feature Race, in a round where he also got pole position and fastest lap.

History

The team was created in 2002 and their debut season was in Formula Nissan with Andrea Belicchi and Carlos Martin as drivers.

In 2003 and 2004, BCN raced in International Formula 3000/GP2 Series, finishing as runner-up in both the drivers and teams championships in 2004.

In 2005-06, the team was involved in the new A1 Grand Prix series managing the A1 Team South Africa car,^[1] however DAMS took over the team for 2006-07.

Formula 3000 and GP2 Series and GP3 Series

Miloš Pavlović driving for BCN at the Monaco round of the 2008 GP2 Series season.

Karun Chandhok driving for Ocean Racing Technology at the Monaco round of the 2009 GP2 Series season.

For 2003, BCN stepped up to International Formula 3000. In their first year on that series, they were known as a rent-a-drive team due to high number of drivers who passed by team that year (drivers such as Will Langhorne, Alessandro Piccolo, Ferdinando Monfardini and Rob Nguyen). This year, it had many financial difficulties and virtually did not have a big sponsor.

In 2004, the situation got better — the team ran veteran driver Enrico Toccacelo alongside Argentine youngster Esteban Guerrieri. With the same drivers throughout the year, the team found the pace to reach second place in the Teams' Championiship, with 84 points (56 from Toccacelo and 28 from Guerrieri) just behind the Arden International team.

BCN was considered a threat for the new GP2 Series, alongside other top teams like Super Nova Racing and Arden. In 2005, the team hired Venezuelan star Ernesto Viso and Japanese Hiroki Yoshimoto, anticipating at least, some victories and many points. However, compared to the previous year, 2005 was a great disappointment. BCN could not threaten teams like Arden and ART Grand Prix. The team ended the year with 35 points and 9th place in the Teams' Championiship.

In 2006, Scalabroni's team continued as a midfield team, scoring points occasionally. Yoshimoto continued with the team, first paired with Timo Glock (who brought DHL as sponsor), but the German driver was not comfortable with the team and moved to iSport International at mid-season. Glock's place was filled by Luca Filippi. The team again finished 9th in the Teams' Championship, with 22 points.

For 2007 BCN hired a pair of young Asian talents - Super Aguri F1 test driver Sakon Yamamoto and 2006 German F3 Cup champion Ho-Pin Tung. When Yamamoto stepped up to F1, his place was taken by Finnish driver Markus Niemelä. However, the team was unsuccessful, scoring just four points all year. 2008 was little better, with a succession of drivers competing for the team amidst reported financial troubles. A fourth place for Adrián Vallés at Monaco was the only points-scoring run.

BCN Competición was bought by the Portuguese former F1 (and current WTCC) driver Tiago Monteiro and José Guedes in November 2008, in a move that relocated the team to the Algarve circuit, being renamed Ocean Racing Technology.^[2] Yelmer Buurman^[3] and Fabrizio Crestani drove for the team in the 2008-09 GP2 Asia Series season, replacing BCN drivers Yoshimoto and Luca Filippi who competed in the first round of the championship.^[4]

In the 2009 GP2 main season, drivers were Álvaro Parente and Karun Chandhok. Parente scored the team's first win in the Spa-Francorchamps round and was 8th in the final Championship standings. Ocean finished the Teams' Championship in 9th, but only two points behind 5th-place finisher iSport International. For 2010, Ocean recruited Max Chilton and Fabio Leimer, with Leimer taking the team's second win, but the team slipped back to twelfth overall in the standings. The following year, Ocean hired Kevin Mirocha (who was later replaced by Brendon Hartley) and Johnny Cecotto Jr.: Hartley scored the team's only points with a fifth-place finish at Spa-Francorchamps, this poor showing again resulting in a twelfth-place teams' championship result. For the 2012 season, Ocean signed Nigel Melker, and Jon Lancaster, the latter of whom was swiftly dropped when he ran out of money. He was replaced by Hartley for two rounds of the championship, before Victor Guerin took the seat for the remainder of the season. Melker scored 25 points under the revised system, raising Ocean's performance to eleventh overall following the Coloni team's exclusion from the championship.

In January 2013, the team announced its withdrawal from GP2 (having previously announced its withdrawal from the GP3 Series) due to financial problems. Its place in the series will be taken by new team Hilmer Motorsport.^[5]

Complete series results

GP2 Series

GP2 Series Results[6]
Year	Car	Drivers	Races	Wins	Poles	F.L.	Points	D.C.	T.C.
BCN Competición
2005	Dallara-Mecachrome	Ernesto Viso	22	0	0	1	21	11th	9th
		Hiroki Yoshimoto	22	0	0	1	14	16th
2006	Dallara-Mecachrome	Hiroki Yoshimoto	21	0	0	0	12	15th	9th
		Timo Glock†	9	0	0	0	5	4th†
		Luca Filippi†	12	0	0	0	7	19th†
2007	Dallara-Mecachrome	Sakon Yamamoto	11	0	0	0	0	30th	13th
		Markus Niemelä	7	0	0	0	0	31st
		Henri Karjalainen	2	0	0	0	0	NC
		Ho-Pin Tung	21	0	0	0	4	23rd
2008	Dallara-Mecachrome	Paolo Maria Nocera	2	0	0	0	0	34th	12th
		Adrián Vallés†	16	0	0	0	5	21st†
		Miloš Pavlović	3	0	0	0	0	32nd
		Carlos Iaconelli	13	0	0	0	0	29th
Ocean Racing Technology
2009	Dallara-Mecachrome	Karun Chandhok	20	0	0	0	10	18th	9th
		Álvaro Parente	20	1	1	1	30	8th
2010	Dallara-Mecachrome	Max Chilton	20	0	0	0	3	25th	12th
		Fabio Leimer	19	1	0	1	8	19th
2011	Dallara-Mecachrome	Kevin Mirocha	12	0	0	0	0	22nd	12th
		Brendon Hartley	4	0	0	0	4	19th
		Johnny Cecotto Jr.	18	0	0	0	0	24th
2012	Dallara-Mecachrome	Jon Lancaster	2	0	0	0	0	34th	11th
		Brendon Hartley	4	0	0	0	1	25th
		Victor Guerin	17	0	0	0	0	30th
		Nigel Melker	23	0	0	0	25	19th

Formula Nissan 2000

Formula Nissan 2000[7] Results
Year	Car	Drivers	Races	Wins	Poles	F.L.	Points	D.C.	T.C.
2002	Dallara WSL3-Nissan	Andrea Belicchi	12	1	2	0	105	5th	6th
		Carlos Martin	7	0	0	0	4	16th

International Formula 3000

International Formula 3000 Results[6]
Year	Car	Drivers	Races	Wins	Poles	F.L.	Points	D.C.	T.C.
2003	Lola B02/50-Zytek Judd KV	Rob Nguyen	3	0	0	0	5	15th	9th
		Valerio Scassellati	4	0	0	0	0	NC
		Alessandro Piccolo	4	0	0	0	0	NC
		Will Langhorne	5	0	0	0	0	NC
		Marc Hynes	1	0	0	0	0	NC
		Giovanni Berton	1	0	0	0	0	NC
		Ferdinando Monfardini	2	0	0	0	0	NC
2004	Lola B02/50-Zytek	Enrico Toccacelo	10	1	1	1	56	2nd	2nd
		Esteban Guerrieri	10	0	0	0	28	6th

Spanish Formula Three

Spanish Formula Three Results
Year	Car	Drivers	Races	Wins	Poles	F.L.	Points	D.C.	T.C.
2004	Dallara F399-Toyota	Matias Milla	12	0	0	0	6	15th	9th

Italian Formula 3000

Italian Formula 3000 Results[6]
Year	Car	Drivers	Races	Wins	Poles	F.L.	Points	D.C.	T.C.
2005	Lola B02/50-Zytek	Matías Russo	3	0	0	0	3	21st	6th
		Raffaele Giammaria	2	0	0	0	13	10th
		Matteo Grassotto	1	0	0	0	0	NC
		Matteo Cressoni	3	0	0	0	9	12th

A1 Grand Prix

A1 Grand Prix Results[8]
Year	Car	Team	Wins	Poles	F.L.	Points	T.C.
2005–06	Lola-Zytek	A1 Team South Africa	0	0	0	20	17th

GP2 Asia Series

GP2 Asia Series Results
Year	Team Name	Car	Drivers	Races	Wins	Poles	F.L.	Points	D.C.	T.C.
2008	BCN Competición	Dallara-Mecachrome	Miloš Pavlović	10	0	0	0	6	16th	12th
			Jason Tahincioglu	10	0	0	0	0	22nd
2008-09	BCN Competición* Ocean Racing Technology	Dallara-Mecachrome	Yelmer Buurman	6	0	0	0	4	19th	11th
			Karun Chandhok	2	0	0	0	0	26th
			Hiroki Yoshimoto*	2	0	0	0	0	24th
			Fabrizio Crestani	9	0	0	0	0	28th
			Luca Filippi*	2	0	0	0	0	-
2009-10	Ocean Racing Technology	Dallara-Mecachrome	Alexander Rossi†	2	0	0	0	8	9th†	9th
			Max Chilton†	2	0	0	0	2	18th†
			Yelmer Buurman	4	0	0	0	0	21st
			Fabio Leimer	7	0	0	0	0	31st
2011	Ocean Racing Technology	Dallara-Mecachrome	Andrea Caldarelli	4	0	0	0	0	21st	12th
			Oliver Turvey	4	0	0	0	0	16th

GP3 Series

GP3 Series Results
Year	Car	Drivers	Races	Wins	Poles	F.L.	Points	D.C.	T.C.
2012	Dallara-Renault	Carmen Jordá	16	0	0	0	0	28th	7th
		Kevin Ceccon	16	0	0	2	56	9th
		Robert Cregan	16	0	0	0	0	22nd

Sources

External links

• Official BCN Competición website
• Official Ocean Racing Technology website