Driver Database News

It’s been twenty-seven years since the last time a New Zealander sat on the grid about to take part in a Formula One Grand Prix, and many believe that’s too long since a kiwi has flown the flag in the glamorous world of Formula One.

Rotorua born, Richie Stanaway, aims to bring an end to the drought, and has recently come significantly closer after signing a multi-year contract with the Lotus Renault GP Formula One team principal, Eric Boullier, who also heads the Luxembourg based, Gravity Sport Management group.

After winning Germany’s ADAC Formula Masters championship in a show of dominance, the youngster was put through a thorough evaluation process with Gravity, and subsequently was offered the deal which has lead to a drive in the 2011 German Formula 3 Championship.

In 2007, Stanaway was picked up as an underdog after being selected for the New Zealand SpeedSport Scholarship, and since then has established himself as a race winner in New Zealand, Australia, Germany and the United Kingdom on his way to winning two championships over the past three years.

“Signing with Gravity has been a crucial break for me, and their support has enabled me to continue my racing career in Europe. I’m confident now that they can provide the pathway to the top and help me to achieve my goals,” said Stanaway.

Round one of the 2011 German Formula 3 championship gets underway this weekend, with races streaming live on Internet TV at www.formel3.de.

18-year-old German racer Riccardo Brutschin, who is the reigning ATS Formula 3 – Trophy Class Champion, has secured a seat with Performance Racing to compete in the 2011 German ATS Formula 3 Cup.

2009 marked the dawn of Riccardo’s car racing career as he looked to develop experience and understanding in the ADAC Formula Masters series. He first tasted Formula 3 when he tested at the end of 2009, before making his Formula 3 race debut the following season, by entering the Trophy category of the German F3 series. To date Riccardo scored an impressive 12 wins from 29 race starts during his short but successful single-seater career.

The step-up from the Trophy class to the main class will provide an important challenge and Riccardo is working hard to ensure he is ready for the next step in his career. An off-season training programme has allowed him to fully prepare himself, both mentally and physically for the upcoming season.

Performance Racing first tested Riccardo in 2009; the team are confident he will rapidly develop during 2011 and will emerge as a regular contender for podium places. Riccardo will race alongside reigning British Formula Renault Champion Tom Blomqvist.

Riccardo Brutschin- career to date:
2010 – ATS Formula 3 Trophy Class CHAMPION
15 races. 12 wins. 15 pole positions. 15 podiums. 14 fastest laps.

About Performance Racing
Performance Racing was founded in Sweden 1999 and has its base at the famous Silverstone Circuit.
Our mission is to empower young talented drivers. To guide, support and educate our drivers so they can reach their ultimate goal. Performance Racing has since 2001 successfully competed in the British Formula 3 and since 2008 in the German Formula 3 series. Performance Racing has also been active in A1GP, The World Cup of Motorsport between 2006 and 2009.

After his great season and the winning of the ATS Formula 3 Trophy, Riccardo’s team STROMOS Artline Racing deceided, that Riccardo participate at the last two races of the ATS Formula 3 Cup at Oschersleben with a Dallara F307 cup-car.

The car was for him and the team completely new and they had no experience with this car, so it was really difficult for them to get the car working and they had several problems, but Riccardo tried to do his best. In the first race he had after the start a small damage, after that he had some problems with the car but he finished 12th. In the second race he had a good start, but the race was stopped with the red flag. During the re-start he lost some positions, but after good fights he saw the checkered flag twice on 12th.

“It was great that I had the chance to race with the cup car, I have to thank my team STROMOS Artline Racing for that!”

Young Tauranga race driver, Richie Stanaway (18), was given the opportunity recently to test with front-running German Formula 3 team, Van Amersfoort Racing, on the Monday following the final round of the ATS-German Formula 3 Cup held at Oschersleben. The test was awarded to the top three finishers of the 2010 ADAC Formula Masters Championship, being Stanaway who dominated and won the Championship with a round to spare after taking 12 race wins, along with second placed Patrick Schranner, and third placed Mario Farnbacher. However Farnbacher unfortunately missed out on the test due to the third Van Amersfoort car being too badly damaged in the final race of the weekend, meaning he will get his first Formula 3 experience in the next few weeks.

Richie got his first taste of Formula 3 driving a Dallara F307 powered by Volkswagen, the #2 Van Amersfoort entry driven by Daniel Abt to second place in the 2010 ATS-German Formula 3 Cup. The test ran smoothly and Richie was quickly up to speed, setting the quickest lap time right from the very first morning session against other more experienced Formula 3 drivers, and setting the fastest lap time in every session throughout the day.

“I thoroughly enjoyed driving an F3 car for the first time. The guys at Van Amersfoort did a great job with teaching me what I needed to learn and work on, which enabled us to progress well throughout the day, but of course there is still a lot for me to learn. Optimising the braking performance, getting a feeling for the differential during the mid corner and power down phases, as well as utilising the downforce in high speed corners were all new experiences for me, as well as many other components that come with driving a Formula 3 car” said Stanaway.

Richie would like to thank ADAC and Volkswagen for making the test possible.

Next on the agenda for Richie is a Formula Renault 2.0 test in Barcelona, Spain, at the famous F1 Circuit de Catalunya on Monday October 11 with Formula Renault Eurocup Championship winning team, Koiranen Bros Motorsport.

More on Richie’s plan for 2011 will hope to be known by the end of the month.

Photo by Suzanne Rossbach.

Race weekend at Nürburgring, 18 years old Riccardo Brutschin from STROMOS Artline Racing had two wins in the trophy-races.

In both qualifications at Nürburgring Riccardo was the fastest of the ATS Formula 3 trophy drivers, he took the pole-positions.

In the first and second race he also had the fastest racing laps of the trophy-pilots, he finished both races with the first place on the podium.

After the first race, he got 10 points for the championship leading now with 132 points, he already won the championship three races before the end of the season.

On Sunday morning Ex F 1 driver Mika Salo came to gratulate Riccardo for the winning of the Championship and wished him good luck for the following race.

“I had two perfect qualifications and races, I got the Championship before the end of the season. It was a great event because the race was run in conjunction with the FIA GT 1 World-Championship. I had great battles with the Cup-drivers Sandro Zeller (SUI), Renè Binder (AUT) and Kevin Kleveros (SWE).”

“For the final race of the ATS Formula 3 Cup championship at Oschersleben, I will also give my best in the qualifications and the races”, so the new ATS Formula 3 Trophy Champion Riccardo Brutschin

This weekend’s round of the ATS Formula 3 Cup championship at the Nürburgring provided Swede Felix Rosenqvist with fifth and fourth place respectively in the two races contested. Rosenqvist started the first race from seventh place after encountering traffic at the end of his fastest lap in Qualifying 1, but used a spell of rain halfway through the event to fight his way up to fifth by the chequered flag. In the ensuing Race 2, the Performance Racing driver set off from third on the grid and produced a solid drive on used tyres to stay with the leaders and mirror the pace of the front-runners shod with fresh slick rubber. Eventually, Felix crossed the finish line in fourth place.

”Although I didn’t manage to claim a podium this weekend, I still have to be happy about particularly our pace in the second race,” Felix Rosenqvist says. ”I made a mistake in qualifying and destroyed the tyres I was supposed to use for Race 2, which forced me to stick with the same set I’d already done one qualifying session and one race on. It wasn’t easy to stay with the leading pack, but I think it went quite well in the end and I’m glad I was able to keep hold of fourth all through the race.”

The Nürburgring event was run in conjunction with the FIA GT1 World Championship, and marked the penultimate ATS Formula 3 Cup round of the season. Ahead of the Oschersleben finale in just over a month’s time, Rosenqvist remains locked in a battle for third overall in the championship standings – even if he lost some ground to rival Kevin Magnussen this weekend after the Dane won the first race in the Eifel mountains. Felix continues to hold fifth in the championship, 10 points behind Magnussen and six shy of 2009 ATS Formula 3 Cup runner-up Stef Dusseldorp.

”There is no point in speculating about what will or will not happen at Oschersleben,” Rosenqvist concludes. ”I will do whatever I can to wrap up third overall, but it will be tough when taking the current points deficit to Kevin into account. We definitely have the pace to do it, but the misfortune in the beginning of the season has put us on the back foot a bit. I’m excited ahead of the finale, though; I have a clear-cut target, and I won’t make it easy for Kevin and Stef!”

The final round of the 2010 ATS Formula 3 Cup championship takes place on October 1-3.

With the name Daniel Abt on the grid, the German Formula 3 Cup once again attracts public attention. The 16-year old German – a member of the renowned tuner family Abt – will make his Formula 3 debut on 17th and 18th October, in the season finale at the ‘Motorsportarena Oschersleben’. Daniel Abt is racing the number 8 Performance Racing Dallara F307/Volkwagen.

“I’m truly delighted with having been offered this chance and just can’t wait for the weekend,” says the young gun. “I’d like thank Kris Nissen and Volkswagen Motorsport a lot for this opportunity.” In tests held last week, the new 2009 ADAC Formula Masters Champion Daniel Abt gathered his first experiences at the wheel of the 210bhp Formula 3 single-seater. With eight race wins under his belt, Abt’s lead in the Formula Masters is so big that none of his opponents will have the chance of stealing his title, in the season finale.

By making the step to German Formula 3 cup Daniel is another prominent example for the philosophy of the fastest German single-seater series. For young talented and ambitious drivers, the German ATS Formula 3 Cup provides an ideal learning and development possibilities for a reasonable budget.

Abt and the German Formula 3 have got a joint tradition – that is revived, now. Back in 1992, Christian Abt – the uncle of David – won the championship’s Trophy title. “Formula 3 represents the stepping stone to the highest motor-racing categories,” says former DTM driver Christian Abt. “If you want to make it to Formula 1, honing your skills in Formula 3 is a must. But the Formula 3 know-how also is vital for other motor-racing categories. Therefore, the Cup represents the perfect preparation for series such as the Euro Series or the GP2.”

Daniel Abt was born on 03rd December, 1992 in Kempten, located in Germany’s Allgäu region. In 2003, the ambitious technical-school pupil made his first kart-racing steps and in 2008, he contested his first ADAC Formula Masters season – to then secure the 2009 title in superior style. Daniel Abt is the son of Hans- Jürgen Abt and the nephew of Christian Abt who jointly turned the tuning enterprise of their father, Johann, into the world-famous tuning company Abt Sportsline. In DTM, ABT has acquired outstanding competence and the reputation of unconditional professionalism.

The relative strenght of competition within the Formula 3 Australian Drivers’ Championship has been further displayed after Joey Foster put in a front-running performance in the most recent round of the German ATS Formula 3 Cup at the weekend.

Foster, a six-time race winner in Australia with Team BRM this season, returned to the German series in a one-event deal with his former team (HS Technik Motorsport) and again showed the pace that, in 2006, saw him lead the German series before a massive crash ended his year and put him in hospital with a broken back.

Foster has since orchestrated a stunning return to ‘wings and slicks’ racing in Australia this year, set to enter the final round of the 2009 F3 Australian Drivers Championship just a handful of points behind Tim Macrow in a thrilling title showdown at Sandown this November.

Foster qualified eighth and fifth for the two races, respectively, at the weekend and made further ground when the green flag dropped despite not having seen the technical Sachsenring circuit before his arrival on Thursday.

In race one he took his Dallara F307 – Mercedes entry to a strong fourth place finish, after starting eighth. Joey also set the fourth-fastest lap of the race, shadowing his HS Technik teammate Harald Schlegelmilch to the finish.

In race two he finished fifth, the same position he started, again proving him a team player as he ably backed up his teammate who finished one position ahead in fourth.

Fosters’ performance in the competitive German Formula 3 Championship – which runs similar specification cars to the local series – has served as further proof of how competitive the Australian product really is.

That Foster could return to the German F3 series after a three-year absence, learn a new circuit and yet still finish inside the top five against a competitive grid shows the speed he has used all season in Australia is competitive on a world level.

The German series is one of the strongest domestic series’ in Europe and lists past champions including Nick Heidfeld, Michael Schumacher, Tom Kristensen and Jarno Trulli, amongst others.

When Joey contested the 2006 season he was leading drivers the likes of new GP2 champion Nico Hulkenberg and A1GP frontrunner Ho-Pin Tung prior to his unfortunate accident.

Despite smaller grids this season, Fosters European-spec pace has this year been locally matched by the likes of Macrow, Mat Sofi, Ben Crighton and Tom Tweedie, showing that the Aussie field lacks nothing for pace and competition in comparison to European series’.

That will be shown at Sandown this November when Foster and Macrow will go head-to-head for the Gold Star in the 2009 championship showdown.
For more information about the F3 Australian Drivers’ Championship, head to www.formula3.com.au

Performance Racing has been forced to replace British driver Joey Foster just a few days before the penultimate round of the German Formula 3 series.

Performance Racing, Team Principal, Bobby Issazadhe explains; “I got a phone call from Joey Saturday morning where he told me he must race with competitor outfit HS Technik at Sachsenring. Joey told me he is sorry to put Performance Racing in this situation a few days before the race but HS Teknik team owner told Joey if he don’t race with them he will not be involved in any of their future plans. – I think it’s outrageous behavior” – Says Bobby

Bobby continues; “An agreement is to be honored and that applies also to racing drivers. I think the way HS-Technik has gone about this matter, to intervene after an agreement has been made between two parties, reflects their persona.

The 2005 German Formula 3 champion and Euro Series F3 race winner Peter Elkmann will drive the number 8 Performance Dallara/Volkswagen. Peter has not raced a single seater for a while but his duties as test driver for Volkswagen F3 test team will help him to get on the pace. Bobby Issazadhe; “We are very happy that Peter accepted our call with such a short notice. It will be an interesting weekend and Peter will be a bit of a dark horse…”

For the penultimate round of the German Formula 3 at Sachsenring, Performance Racing will have a familiar name in it’s number 8 car. The Performance Racing Dallara/ Volkswagen will be driven by Joey Foster, who is currently leading the Australian Formula 3 Championship. Joey and Performance Racing has a long history together. Performance Racing gave Joey his first Formula 3 test already in 2003. He then tested the first British F3 National class engine in 2004 also with Performance Racing. In 2007 Joey worked as a driver coach for the team.

It’s great to have Joey back with the team again and although there is not much time for preparations the team believe Joey will be quick straight out of the box. It will also be the first time Joey samples Volkswagen Formula 3 power.