GP2 welcomes two new teams for 2011
GP2 will rev up its 2011 season with two new teams on the starting grid,
Autosport has revealed. Carlin and Team Air Asia, affiliated with Formula One team Lotus, have joined the lineup of 13 teams and 26 cars to race next year.
“We have known Carlin for a long time,” GP2 boss Bruno Michel commented. “We signed them in GP3 Series and we have been very pleased, not with only their results, but also with the way they integrated
into our working environment. To have them enter GP2 is the logical next step.”
Carlin made a strong contribution to the inaugural GP3 series this year, and enjoys a 10-year history of racing victories, fostering the skills of drivers such as Kimi Raikkonen, Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg,
Robert Kubica, Sebastian Vettel and Jaime Alguersuari. The team has won an impressive 163 races, five British F3 championships, and is one of the most renowned teams working outside of the Formula One circuit.
Malaysian Team Air Asia, governed by F1 Lotus team principal Tony Fernandes, launches its first season with GP2 next year.
“As for Team Air Asia, the seriousness of their presentation, their ambition and their worldwide project were really appealing. We are very happy to welcome an Asian team to our paddock,” Michel acknowledged,
adding that the current 11 teams will return next year as well.
“We have developed very strong links and a healthy relationship with our teams over the course of the past three years, but when it was time to make decisions, we based them on sporting results. Our wish
was to open our grid to new teams and also return to the original number of thirteen entries. Therefore, we looked at the results of all completed seasons of the last three-year cycle and based on that kept eleven teams in order to welcome two new outfits.”
Teams featuring in the 2011-13 GP2 entry list are Arden International, ART Grand Prix, Barwa Addax Team, Carlin, Dams, iSport International, Ocean Racing Technology, Racing Engineering, Rapax, Scuderia
Coloni, Super Nova Racing, Team Air Asia, and Trident Racing.
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