Following Tuesday's deadline for entries, the GP2 series is happy to report that the 12 teams who took part in the inaugural year of the championship have been confirmed for the 2006 season. On the occasion of announcing the race numbers for the forthcoming campaign, the GP2 series is also delighted to announce that our original teams will be joined by a 13th team in 2006, thus raising the size of next year's grids to 26 cars.

Following a challenging selection process, Trident Racing has been chosen to join our 12 existing teams in competition for honours in the forthcoming championship season.

The GP2 series received a high number of extremely strong entry proposals at the end of our inaugural season, and from this initial list, the three most promising were chosen to go through to the final stage of competition for the 13th grid place. Following much discussion and deliberation, the technical, engineering and financial package put forwards by Trident Racing was considered to be the strongest and most stable of the three finalists both in the short and long term.

The new team will take race numbers 26 and 27 when they first hit the track in 2006. With our 12 original teams all confirmed for the 2006 season, race numbering will be allocated by championship order from the final standings of 2005, as per the GP2 series sporting regulations.

2006 GP2 series

ART Grand Prix 1 - 2
Arden International 3 - 4
Super Nova International 5 - 6
iSport International 7 - 8
Racing Engineering 9 - 10
Piquet Sports 11 - 12
DAMS 14 - 15
Coloni Motorsport 16 - 17
BCN Competicion 18 - 19
DPR 20 - 21
Durango 22 - 23
Campos Racing 24 - 25
Trident Racing 26 - 27

Bruno Michel – GP2 series organiser: "Following the fantastic first season of the GP2 series, I am delighted to see our 2006 grid grow to 26 cars. Trident Racing put forward a proposal which promised strong sporting and engineering excellence with a rigorous and stable financial plan. Theirs was a proposal which could not be overlooked, and I am very happy to welcome them to the GP2 family. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the teams who submitted a proposal. The strength of their applications made it very hard to pick just one team.

"With just one test session remaining this year, I am looking forward to seeing the new season kick off. With our 12 original teams confirmed for next year, and the strength of a new team to add to the competition, 2006 is sure to be another exciting year for the GP2 series."