ART Grand Prix

ART Grand Prix

Founded	1991 (as ASM)
Founder(s)	Frédéric Vasseur Nicolas Todt
Base	Villeneuve-La-Guyard, Yonne, France
Team principal(s)	Frédéric Vasseur
Current series	FIA Formula 2 Championship GP3 Series
Former series	GP2 Series DTM FR 2.0 France Formula 3 Euro Series GP2 Asia Series Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 FFSA GT Championship European Le Mans Series Blancpain Endurance Series
Current drivers	Sergey Sirotkin Alexander Albon Nobuharu Matsushita Jack Aitken Nirei Fukuzumi Anthoine Hubert George Russell
Teams' Championships	Formula 3 Euro Series: 2005–09 GP2 Series: 2005–06, 2009, 2015 GP2 Asia Series: 2008 GP3 Series: 2010–13, 2015–16
Drivers' Championships	Formula 3 Euro Series: 2004: Jamie Green 2005: Lewis Hamilton 2006: Paul di Resta 2007: Romain Grosjean 2008: Nico Hülkenberg 2009: Jules Bianchi GP2 Series: 2005 Nico Rosberg 2006: Lewis Hamilton 2009: Nico Hülkenberg 2015: Stoffel Vandoorne GP2 Asia Series: 2008: Romain Grosjean GP3 Series: 2010: Esteban Gutiérrez 2011: Valtteri Bottas 2015: Esteban Ocon 2016: Charles Leclerc
Website	http://www.art-grandprix.com/

ART Grand Prix is a French motor racing team that competes in formula single-seaters in Europe. In 2012, it competed in the GP2 Series and GP3 Series as Lotus GP to reflect sponsorship from British sports and racing car manufacturer Lotus.^[1] The team competed as Lotus ART in 2011.

Notable ART drivers include Lewis Hamilton, Jamie Green, Olivier Pla, Sebastian Vettel, Adrian Sutil, Paul di Resta, Romain Grosjean, Lucas di Grassi, Nico Hülkenberg, Jules Bianchi, Valtteri Bottas, Esteban Gutiérrez, Nico Rosberg, Jack Harvey, Stoffel Vandoorne, Esteban Ocon and Charles Leclerc.

Creation

ART Grand Prix was created in 2005 as a collaborative project between Frédéric Vasseur, the principal of ASM Formule 3, and Nicolas Todt, the son of the then Scuderia Ferrari team principal and now 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.

Racing history

Formula Renault and Formula Three

ASM had already competed in European and French Formula Renault 2.0 before expanding its operations to include the Formula 3 Euroseries in 2003. In 2004, the team dominated, with drivers Jamie Green and Alexandre Prémat finishing first and second in the drivers' championship - the latter also winning the 2004 Macau Grand Prix. The trend continued after ART was formed: the team won five straight teams' titles from the award's inauguration in 2005 to 2009, and won the drivers' championships in these years with Lewis Hamilton, Paul di Resta, Romain Grosjean, Nico Hülkenberg and Jules Bianchi respectively. Future Formula One drivers Adrian Sutil, Sebastian Vettel and Kamui Kobayashi also achieved success with the team. In 2010, ART's stranglehold on the championship was broken by French rivals Signature, who fielded Edoardo Mortara to victory in a Volkswagen-powered car, ahead of ART's lead driver Valtteri Bottas, who was the lead Mercedes-powered driver. At the end of the season, ART withdrew from the F3 Euroseries to concentrate on the GP and GP3 Series.

GP2 Series

Pastor Maldonado driving for ART at the Turkish round of the 2009 GP2 Series season.

Jules Bianchi driving for ART during the Silverstone round of the 2011 season.

ART Grand Prix was one of several teams to enter the new GP2 Series in 2005. In the team'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,^[2] and was joined by Britain's Lewis Hamilton.^[3] 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.

For the 2007 season, ART signed Michael Ammermüller and Lucas di Grassi. Ammermüller's campaign was hampered by injury, and he was later dropped in favour of Sébastien Buemi, with Mikhail Aleshin also deputising. Di Grassi emerged as the team's leader, his consistent finishing record allowing him to finish as runner-up in the drivers' championship to Timo Glock despite winning only a single race. The points he accumulated also allowed ART to salvage second in the teams' championship, in spite of the fact that the drivers of the team's other car scored a mere ten points between them.

ART's driver line-up changed again for 2008, with the experienced Luca Filippi partnered by series rookie Romain Grosjean. Grosjean quickly established himself as the number one, winning two races and taking several additional podium finishes en route to fourth in the drivers' championship, only 14 points behind champion Giorgio Pantano. By contrast, Filippi was dropped after scoring points just twice in the first half of the year; he was replaced by Sakon Yamamoto, who also failed to trouble the leading runners despite his Formula One experience. The team slipped to fifth in the championship.

The 2009 season saw another complete overhaul of the team's driving strength, with Pastor Maldonado joining from Minardi Piquet Sports and Nico Hülkenberg graduating to the series as the reigning Formula 3 Euroseries champion. The season soon developed into a contest between Hülkenberg and the two Addax drivers, Grosjean and Vitaly Petrov. Grosjean left the series mid-season after being called up by the Renault F1 team, and Hülkenberg prevailed over Petrov with a total of five victories and 100 points. Maldonado started the year brightly with two sprint-race wins in the first half of the season, but his form tailed off later on, restricting him to sixth in the championship. Nevertheless, ART's tally of points was enough for the outfit to win its third teams' championship in five years.

Another clear-out for the 2010 season resulted in the team signing Jules Bianchi and Sam Bird, two rookies from the F3 Euroseries, which Bianchi had won the previous season with ART. The two were closely matched and featured at or near the front of the field for much of the season, but their inexperience precluded them from challenging for the championship as the GP2 Series became more established with a growing number of experienced drivers. They finished third (Bianchi) and fifth (Bird) in the drivers' championship, with ART finishing in third place in the teams' championship.

For the 2011 season, ART reached an agreement with Lotus Cars to run under the Lotus ART moniker. The team switched from its traditional white-and-red livery to a Team Lotus-inspired green-and-yellow scheme, although this was somewhat confusing as Lotus Cars (sponsoring the Renault team) was involved in a legal dispute in Formula One with a new incarnation of Team Lotus (now Caterham) over the use of the name. Team Lotus was also competing with a green-and-yellow livery, whereas Renault (competing as Lotus Renault GP) was running a black-and-gold colour scheme reminiscent of the original Team Lotus's association with John Player Specials. As for the drivers, Bianchi was retained alongside Esteban Gutiérrez, who was promoted to GP2 after winning the inaugural GP3 Series championship with ART. Bianchi retained his third place in the championship but his season was slightly disappointing as he failed to mount a championship challenge despite his greater experience and his status as a pre-season favourite, whilst Gutiérrez played himself in with a single victory on his way to 13th place in the championship. ART again slipped to fifth in the teams' championship.

The deal with Lotus was extended for the 2012 season, with the team name adjusted to Lotus GP and the colour scheme now altered to match the black-and-gold livery used by the Lotus F1 team, the Renault name having been dropped and the dispute with Caterham solved. With Bianchi moving to the Formula Renault 3.5 Series, another ART GP3 graduate, James Calado, was signed to partner Gutiérrez. The second-year driver improved to third place in the drivers' championship with three victories, albeit someway behind title protagonists Davide Valsecchi and Luiz Razia, whilst Calado impressed by winning twice and finishing fifth overall as the season's top rookie driver. In 2014, the team finished 3rd in the constructor's championship whilst rookie Stoffel Vandoorne finished as GP2 runner-up.

The team entered the 2015 season with Vandoorne and Nobuharu Matsushita as their drivers. The team scored eight victories, with Vandoorne claiming the driver's title at Sochi, and claimed its first Team Championship since 2009.

The team went into the 2016 season with Matsushita and Sergey Sirotkin racing with them. They finished fourth in the constructors standings with Sirotkin finishing third in the drivers championship.

In 2017, Matsushita remained with the team for a third season with 2016 GP3 runner-up Alexander Albon joining him.^[4][5]

GP3 Series

ART signed up for the first season of the new GP3 Series, the feeder category of GP2, in 2010. The team immediately replicated its success in other series, with Esteban Gutiérrez becoming the inaugural champion. Team-mates Alexander Rossi and Pedro Nunes finished fourth and 24th respectively, and ART won the teams' championship. The 2011 season saw ART's success continue, with the championship distilling into a battle between its two leading drivers, ART F3 Euroseries graduate Valtteri Bottas and James Calado, with the former winning by seven points. The remaining seat was initially taken by Nunes, but he was dropped after a disappointing run and replaced by Richie Stanaway, who also scored points and helped ART to its second straight teams' championship. All three of ART's 2012 drivers were competitive, securing a third straight teams' championship, but neither won the drivers' title: Daniel Abt's late-season charge brought him up just short of victor Mitch Evans, whilst his early-season rival Aaro Vainio fell away to take fourth, and Conor Daly was also a consistent frontrunner in sixth place overall.

In 2013, Daly was retained with Facu Regalia and British F3 champion Jack Harvey joining the team. The team claimed their fourth constructors championship title, with Daly finishing third in the overall standings and Regalia finishing runner-up to Arden's Daniil Kvyat.

2014 saw ART race with Alex Fontana, Dino Zamparelli and GP3 debutant Marvin Kirchhöfer. By losing the titles to Alex Lynn and Carlin, 2014 also marked the first time ART failed to win the constructor's title.

For 2015, Kirchhöfer was retained with Alfonso Celis, Jr. joining from Status Grand Prix and 2014 European Formula 3 champion Esteban Ocon making his GP3 debut with the team. The team secured the team's title in Bahrain, with Ocon securing the championship in the following round after a close duel with Trident's Luca Ghiotto.

The following season, McLaren junior Nyck de Vries, Ferrari junior Charles Leclerc, Nirei Fukuzumi and Alexander Albon formed the team's driver line-up. The team claimed their sixth constructors title at Monza, with Leclerc and Albon claiming the roles of champion and vice-champion respectively.

In 2017, Fukuzumi was retained while Renault Sport Academy member Jack Aitken, Mercedes junior George Russell and Anthoine Hubert were signed to the team.^[6][7][8][9]

Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters

After a successful single-seaters racing category, ART Grand Prix expanded their Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters involvement as it was proposed on December 1, 2014 later announced on April 22, 2015 and thus fielding 2 Mercedes-Benz AMG C63 Class Coupé DTM cars.^[10] In 2015, Mercedes Team ART Grand Prix was fielded by British driver Gary Paffett and Austrian driver Lucas Auer. Mercedes Team ART Grand Prix was scored only one pole position courtesy of Gary Paffett in Hockenheim race 2 qualifying. In 2016, Mercedes Team ART Grand Prix once again involved in DTM. Gary Paffett and Esteban Ocon were the drivers. Ocon was replaced by Felix Rosenqvist from Moscow round due to his departure to Formula One with Manor Racing as a replacement for Rio Haryanto who was cut short due to personal sponsorship funding issues.^[11] Mercedes Team ART Grand Prix once again was scored only one pole position courtesy of Gary Paffett in Moscow race 1 qualifying and 2 podiums. Due to DTM reducing their competitors from 24 to 18 cars (6 per manufacturer) from 2017 season, ART Grand Prix officially discontinued their DTM operations after just two seasons.

Formula One entry bid

ART 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. The team also announced that it was going to phase out its 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.^[12] ART Grand Prix announced their entry bid for F1 on 13 May 2010.^[13]

On 24 June 2010, Autosport magazine said that ART were set to become the 13th team for 2011. However, on 7 July 2010, ART announced in its official statement the withdrawal of its entry bid, declaring 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 the Czech TV NOVA live coverage of the 2010 British Grand Prix, one of the crucial partners was Michelin, who did not succeed in their efforts to become an official Formula One tyre supplier from 2011.

Results

FIA Formula 2 Championship

Year	Car	Tyre	Drivers	Races	Wins	Poles	FLaps	Points	D.C.	T.C.
2017	Dallara-Mecachrome	P	Nobuharu Matsushita	14	2	0	2	91	6th*	4th*
			Alexander Albon	12	0	0	0	65	9th*
			Sergey Sirotkin	2	0	0	0	9	16th*

* Season still in progress.

GP2 Series

Year	Car	Tyre	Drivers	Races	Wins	Poles	F.L.	Points	D.C.	T.C.
2005	Dallara-Mecachrome	B	Nico Rosberg	23	5	4	4	120	1st	1st
			Alexandre Prémat	23	2	1	2	67	4th
2006	Dallara-Mecachrome	B	Lewis Hamilton	21	5	1	7	114	1st	1st
			Alexandre Prémat	21	1	0	1	66	3rd
2007	Dallara-Mecachrome	B	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	B	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	B	Pastor Maldonado	20	2	0	1	36	6th	1st
			Nico Hülkenberg	20	5	3	6	100	1st
2010	Dallara-Mecachrome	B	Jules Bianchi	20	0	3	1	52	3rd	3rd
			Sam Bird	20	1	1	4	48	5th
2011	Dallara-Mecachrome	P	Jules Bianchi	18	1	1	0	53	3rd	5th
			Esteban Gutiérrez	17	1	0	1	15	13th
2012	Dallara-Mecachrome	P	James Calado	24	2	2	1	160	5th	2nd
			Esteban Gutiérrez	24	3	0	5	176	3rd
2013	Dallara-Mecachrome	P	James Calado	22	2	0	2	157	3rd	5th
			Daniel Abt	22	0	0	0	11	22nd
2014	Dallara-Mecachrome	P	Stoffel Vandoorne	22	4	4	4	229	2nd	3rd
			Takuya Izawa	22	0	0	1	26	18th
2015	Dallara-Mecachrome	P	Stoffel Vandoorne	21	7	5	7	341.5	1st	1st
			Nobuharu Matsushita	21	1	3	1	68.5	9th
2016	Dallara-Mecachrome	P	Nobuharu Matsushita	20	1	0	3	92	11th	4th
			Sergey Sirotkin	22	2	3	3	159	3rd
			René Binder	2	0	0	0	0	23rd

GP3 Series

Year	Car	Tyre	Drivers	Races	Wins	Poles	F.L.	Points	D.C.	T.C.
2010	Dallara-Renault	P	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	P	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	P	Daniel Abt	16	2	0	0	149.5	2nd	1st
			Conor Daly	16	1	0	0	106	6th
			Aaro Vainio	16	1	1	0	123	4th
2013	Dallara-AER	P	Conor Daly	16	1	1	1	126	3rd	1st
			Facu Regalia	16	1	1	2	138	2nd
			Jack Harvey	16	2	0	1	114	5th
2014	Dallara-AER	P	Alex Fontana	18	0	0	1	43	11th	2nd
			Marvin Kirchhöfer	18	1	2	4	161	3rd
			Dino Zamparelli	18	0	0	2	126	7th
2015	Dallara-AER	P	Alfonso Celis Jr.	16	0	0	0	24	12th	1st
			Marvin Kirchhöfer	18	5	1	1	200	3rd
			Esteban Ocon	18	1	2	4	253	1st
2016	Dallara-Mecachrome	P	Charles Leclerc	18	3	4	4	202	1st	1st
			Nirei Fukuzumi	18	0	0	0	91	7th
			Alexander Albon	18	4	3	3	177	2nd
			Nyck de Vries	18	2	1	1	133	6th

Complete former series results

Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters

Year	Car	Engine	Tyre	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Driver's Pos.	Team's Pos.	Pts.	Total Pts.
2015	Mercedes-AMG C63 Class Coupé DTM	Mercedes-AMG DTM V8	H	Gary Paffett	HOC 1 Ret	HOC 2 3	LAU 1 23	LAU 2 Ret	NOR 1 3	NOR 2 7	ZAN 1 11	ZAN 2 10	SPL 1 7	SPL 2 2	MSC 1 7	MSC 2 6	OSC 1 Ret	OSC 2 13	NÜR 1 4	NÜR 2 Ret	HOC 1 Ret	HOC 2 9	9th	10th	89	107
				Lucas Auer	HOC 1 Ret	HOC 2 DNS	LAU 1 21	LAU 2 Ret	NOR 1 15	NOR 2 9	ZAN 1 17	ZAN 2 20	SPL 1 21	SPL 2 6	MSC 1 13	MSC 2 19	OSC 1 15	OSC 2 17	NÜR 1 6	NÜR 2 19	HOC 1 16	HOC 2 19	23rd		18
2016	Mercedes-AMG C63 Class Coupé DTM	Mercedes-AMG DTM V8	H	Gary Paffett	HOC 1 11	HOC 2 4	SPL 1 18	SPL 2 13	LAU 1 14	LAU 2 5	NOR 1 14	NOR 2 DSQ	ZAN 1 4	ZAN 2 2	MSC 1 3	MSC 2 18	NÜR 1 19	NÜR 2 7	HUN 1 20	HUN 2 16	HOC 1 19	HOC 2 15	11th	10th	73	80
				Esteban Ocon	HOC 1 Ret	HOC 2 Ret	SPL 1 20	SPL 2 18	LAU 1 23	LAU 2 15	NOR 1 Ret	NOR 2 13	ZAN 1 9	ZAN 2 18	MSC 1	MSC 2	NÜR 1	NÜR 2	HUN 1	HUN 2	HOC 1	HOC 2	26th		2
				Felix Rosenqvist	HOC 1	HOC 2	SPL 1	SPL 2	LAU 1	LAU 2	NOR 1	NOR 2	ZAN 1	ZAN 2	MSC 1 10	MSC 2 20	NÜR 1 12	NÜR 2 18	HUN 1 8	HUN 2 11	HOC 1 Ret	HOC 2 Ret	25th		5

GP2 Asia Series

GP2 Asia Series Results
Year	Car	Tyre	Drivers	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Points	D.C.	T.C.
2008	Dallara-Mecachrome	B	Stephen Jelley	9	0	0	0	0	24th	1st
			Romain Grosjean	10	4	4	4	61	1st
2008–09	Dallara-Mecachrome	B	Sakon Yamamoto	11	0	0	0	13	9th	4th
			Nelson Philippe	2	0	0	0	0	34th
			Pastor Maldonado	5	0	0	0	7	15th
			Nico Hülkenberg	4	1	2	1	27	6th
2009–10	Dallara-Mecachrome	B	Marcus Ericsson	2	0	0	0	0	24th	5th
			Jules Bianchi	6	0	1	0	8	12th
			Sam Bird	8	0	0	1	12	7th
2011	Dallara-Mecachrome	P	Jules Bianchi	4	1	0	2	18	2nd	2nd
			Esteban Gutiérrez	4	0	0	0	4	11th

Formula 3 Euro Series

Formula 3 Euro Series
Year	Car	Tyre	Drivers	Wins	Poles	F.L.	Points	D.C.	T.C.
2003	Dallara F303-Mercedes HWA	K	Alexandre Prémat	1	2	2	50	7th	N/A†
			Olivier Pla	0	3	0	74	3rd
			Bruno Spengler	0	0	0	34	10th
			Jamie Green	0	0	0	6	20th
2004	Dallara F303-Mercedes HWA	K	Alexandre Prémat	3	4	3	88	2nd	N/A†
			Jamie Green	7	6	8	139	1st
			Eric Salignon	3	2	3	64	6th
2005	Dallara F305-Mercedes HWA	K	Lewis Hamilton	15	8	10	172	1st	1st†
			Adrian Sutil	2	1	3	94	2nd
2006	Dallara F305-Mercedes HWA	K	Sebastian Vettel	4	1	5	75	2nd	1st†
			Paul di Resta	5	3	1	86	1st
			Giedo van der Garde	1	1	0	37	6th
			Kamui Kobayashi	0	1	1	34	8th
2007	Dallara F305-Mercedes HWA	K	Kamui Kobayashi	1	1	0	59	4th	1st†
			Romain Grosjean	6	4	7	106	1st
			Nico Hülkenberg	4	2	3	72	3rd
			Tom Dillmann	0	0	0	23	9th
2008	Dallara F308-Mercedes HWA	K	Nico Hülkenberg	7	6	7	85	1st	1st
			James Jakes	1	1	2	19	13th
			Jules Bianchi	2	2	1	47	3rd
			Jon Lancaster	1	0	2	19	12th
2009	Dallara F308-Mercedes HWA	K	Jules Bianchi	9	6	7	114	1st	1st
			Valtteri Bottas	2	0	1	62	3rd
			Esteban Gutiérrez	0	0	0	26	9th
			Adrien Tambay	0	0	0	0	23rd
2010	Dallara F308-Mercedes HWA	K	Valtteri Bottas	2	1	4	74	3rd	2nd
			Alexander Sims	1	0	0	63	4th
			Jim Pla	1	0	0	13	10th

† ART Grand Prix competed under the name ASM Formule 3 from 2003 to 2007.^[14]

Timeline

References

External links

• Official website