The 208 GP2 series season starts this weekend at Barcelona where the GP2 cars will be sharing the circuit of Montmelo with the Spanish F1 Grand Prix. For Racing Engineering it is a much anticipated moment after the great results achieved in preseason testing with Javier Villa and Giorgio Pantano, the two drivers that will compete this year at the wheel of the Spanish team's Dallaras liveried in the Repsol and Telefonica colours.

The GP2 series at Montmelo kicks off not only a new season but also a new era as, after completing the first three years of the F1 feeder series with the initial model designed by the Italian Dallara company, in 2008 the single seaters of all the teams will be totally new and and closer to their F1 counterparts both in looks and performance.

With the new cars both Pantano and Villa have been consistently among the fastest at the different winter testing sessions held at Paul Ricard and Montmelo. The two drivers have been working very well with each other and with the whole Racing Engineering technical staff, and the results have been evident since the beginning, placing the Spanish team among the main title contenders in the upcoming season.

With the work done in these previous months giving a very good base to build from, Racing Engineering faces the beginning of the season in optimistic mood and with ambitious targets: The aim this year for the Sanlucar de Barrameda (Cádiz)-based squad is to fight for both the driver and team championships. Theses are targets that are wholly within reach for Racing Engineering, which this has a strengthened squad, both in the driver and technical personnel areas allowing them to compete with the best teams in the series.

The first race meeting of the year, at Montmelo, also has a special motivation for Racing Engineering as it will be competing in front of its home crowd and its Spanish sponsors Telefonica and Repsol. This additional responsibility gives an even bigger boost to the whole team who are looking forward from the start of the season to scoring the best possible results.

As is usual in the GP2 series race weekends the track activity starts on Friday, with the free practice and the qualifying session that will decide the first starting grid of the season. The feature race (39 laps) is due on Saturday, from 16:00, while the sprint race (26 laps) starts at 10:30 on Sunday.

Alfonso de Orleans Borbon (team principal): "We are ready. Let the season begin."