Status Grand Prix

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Status Grand Prix is a former motorsport team that drove under a Canadian license. Until 2015, it participated in the A1GP , GP3 series and GP2 series . There have been no racing activities since 2016.

history

Status Grand Prix was established in 2005. The team was based in Silverstone, England . Founders were Mark Gallagher, Dave Kennedy , John Hynes and Teddy Yip junior . Gallagher, who was born in Northern Ireland , was manager of the Formula 1 Jordan team before joining Status . Kennedy is a former racing driver from Ireland. Entrepreneur Teddy Yip Jr., who lives in Canada, is the youngest son of Teddy Yip , a businessman who died in 2003 and who mainly worked in Macau and Hong Kong and who had his own motorsport team called Theodore Racing in the 1970s and 1980s . Theodore Racing and Team Shadow , also affiliated with Yip, were the only racing teams with which Dave Kennedy competed in Formula 1 races ( 1980 ).

Status Grand Prix was founded with a view to the newly established motorsport series A1GP in 2005, in which so-called national teams competed against each other. Status Grand Prix organized and operated throughout the existence of the series the Irish A1GP team , which won the championship in the last 2008/2009 . Other national teams were added in individual years.

Status has participated in this championship since the introduction of the GP3 series. In October 2014, Status also took over the starting position of the GP2 team Caterham Racing , a sister team of the now dissolved Formula 1 team Caterham F1 . Regardless of the new ownership structure, the team entered the last race of the 2014 GP2 season under the name Caterham; In 2015, however, it started as a Status Grand Prix.

At the end of 2015, Status completely stopped racing.

Racing history

A1GP

Team Ireland

In the 2005/06 A1GP season , 25 national teams were registered. Team Ireland, operated by Status, took turns with Irish pilots Michael Devaney and Ralph Firman . Firman contested eight races, Devaney three. The best result was Firman's third place in the race on the Portuguese Circuito do Estoril . Team Ireland finished eighth at the end of the season.

In the 2006/07 A1GP season , Devaney stayed with the team; Firman has been replaced by Northern Ireland- born Richard Lyons . In the final ranking, the team fell back to 19th place. The best results were fifth and sixth from Lyons. Devaney came in tenth once.

In the third season (2007/08) Ralph Firman returned to the team for the first two races, after which the Northern Irishman Adam Carroll took over the cockpit until the end of the season. Carroll won once in Mexico and was third three times. In the final ranking, the Ireland team came in sixth.

2008/09 was the last A1GP season. Adam Carroll stayed on the team. He won five times and was second three times. Status won the championship by a clear margin over the Swiss team led by DAMS .

Team Canada

A1 Team Canada (2007)

In the 2007/08 A1GP season, Status organized and operated alongside Team Ireland and the Canadian national team , which had been headed by John Village Automotive in the previous two years . The Canadian racing drivers James Hinchcliffe and Robert Wickens took turns during the season . Hinchcliffe had no results in the points, while Wickens won a run in Durban and came second and third twice. The Canadian team scored a total of 19 points less than the Ireland team and finished 9th at the end of the year. In the following season, the Canada team was reported again; but it did not take part in the races.

Team Netherlands

In the 2007/08 A1GP season, Status also supported Team Netherlands , which was primarily led by Jan Lammers ' Racing for Holland .

GP3 series

With the introduction of the GP3 in 2010 , Status changed to this series.

In the first year, the team fielded three cars for Robert Wickens, Iwan Lukaschewitsch and Daniel Morad . Wickens won the main races in Germany, Belgium and Italy and finished second three times. In the drivers' standings, he finished second behind the ART pilots Esteban Gutiérrez . The Canadian Morad won a sprint race and was 12th at the end of the season. Lukashevich scored no points. In the team ranking, Status was in second place behind ART.

In the 2011 season , Status came with Alexander Sims , António Félix da Costa and again with Ivan Lukashevich. Sims was the team's best driver, scoring 34 points. He won the sprint race in Turkey and came second in the main race at Silverstone . In the middle of the season he was temporarily the overall leader of the drivers' championship, but was unable to maintain the level until the end of the year. Ultimately, Sims finished sixth in the drivers' standings, da Costa came 13th with 16 points. Lukashevich again scored no points. In the team standings, Status dropped to fifth place.

Marlon Stockinger

2012 drove Status with Marlon Stöckinger , Alice Powell and Kōtarō Sakurai . Stöckinger and Powell each played the entire season, while Sakurai was replaced by Lewis Williamson after the first half of the season . Stöckinger was the team's most successful driver. He won the Monaco sprint and came second in the main race at the Circuit de Catalunya . At the end of the year, Stöckinger was 10th in the drivers' standings. Sakurai never crossed the finish line in his three races for Status. Williamson, on the other hand, scored four times, finishing 17th in the drivers' championship with 11 points. Alice Powell only got into the points once - in the sprint race in Monza ; she finished 19th. Status was 6th in the team ranking.

In 2013 , Status started Jimmy Eriksson , Josh Webster and Adderly Fong . Fong was only replaced by Alexander Sims for the race at the Nürburgring . Sims had the best result for the team this year: he finished second in the sprint race. Fong only came into the points once, Eriksson and Webster not at all. In 2013, Status dropped to ninth and last place in the team ranking.

In the 2014 season , Status made a sporting comeback. At the end of the year, the team finished third in the team ranking. This was primarily due to driver Nick Yelloly , who crossed the finish line in every race and, with only one exception, always scored points. Yellowly won 127 points and finished sixth in the drivers' standings. His team-mate Richie Stanaway won twice, finished second once and third twice. He finished eighth at the end of the year. The third status driver was Alfonso Celis Jr. He only crossed the finish line once in the points.

In the 2015 season , Status started with Seb Morris , Alex Fontana and Sandy Stuvik . At the end of the season, Status Grand Prix was last in the team ranking with 29 points. The racing team withdrew from the GP3 series at the end of the season.

GP2 series

After taking over the former Caterham team, Status has been competing in the GP2 series under its own name since 2015 .

Regular drivers in the season were Marlon Stöckinger, who contested all eleven races, and Richie Stanaway, who was replaced by Oliver Rowland for the last two races . Stanaway was the team's most successful driver. He won the sprint races in Monaco and Russia and finished 10th in the drivers' championship at the end of the season. Stöcklinger never got into the points in any race. His best result was 11th place in the main race in Bahrain . Stanaway's replacement Rowland also failed to score a point in his appearances for Stratus.

For the GP2 season 2016 , Stratus registered two cars, but without naming drivers. However, the team did not compete.

Web links

Status Grand Prix website

Individual evidence

  1. GP3 driver squad on the website www.statusgp.com (accessed on April 4, 2015).
  2. Chloe Hewitt: Status Grand Prix announce GP3 departure. thecheckeredflag.co.uk, October 2, 2015, accessed January 3, 2016 .