01/10/2009
NEWS STORY
Organizers of the forthcoming GP3 Series have announced the names of the ten teams that will contest the series, including Arden, which will race in association with Mark Webber under an Australian licence.
The ten teams are now officially entered for seasons 2010, 2011 and 2012. Each team will line up three cars on the grid.
Great Britain will be represented by three teams namely Manor Racing, Hitech and Carlin Motorsport, whilst France will have GP2 Series 2009 Champions ART Grand Prix and Tech 1 Racing entering the championship. In the Series intended to be a stepping-stone into GP2, Spain's Addax Team will also compete in GP3. Arden in association with Formula One driver Mark Webber will race with an Australian license. German Mücke Motorsport, Irish Status Grand Prix, and Swiss Jenzer Motorsport complete the high-profile entry list.
GP3 Organiser Bruno Michel said: "The entry selection process has been thought off very carefully and we have only selected teams that proved to be most successful in their categories. This was of course a very important step for GP3 and I am very pleased to welcome them. I sincerely believe that we enjoy a strong and extremely competitive line-up.
The philosophy behind GP3 Series is very similar to what we've been doing in GP2 for the past five years in terms of car performance, costs control, show, safety and training to access to the following category, but of course adjusted to the level of this new Series. Our goal is to reveal young drivers able to jump to the next step.
Together with these ten teams and our technical partners Dallara, Renault, Pirelli and Hewland, we will work hard to make the GP3 Series a success and I cannot wait for the inaugural season to start! "
Meanwhile, all summer long, the GP3 Series have been working hard on the development of the car. With a total of nine days of test in Mugello, Le Castellet and Barcelona, first with newly appointed Renault F1 driver Romain Grosjean and then GP2 Series 2009 runner-up Vitaly Petrov at the wheel, the focus remained on reliability and performance. An additional four days will complete the development programme.
The production process will start shortly with three cars delivered to each team in the first weeks of 2010. The first official test session will take place in March 2010, followed by two other sessions before the opening race weekend at the first Formula One European Grand Prix in 2010. The rest of the calendar will follow the Formula One European events excluding Monaco and Istanbul; furthermore, the championship will follow GP2 Series stand alone race.
GP3 Series Teams' entry - in alphabetical order
Addax Team (ESP)
ART Grand Prix (FRA)
Carlin Motorsport (GBR)
Hitech (GBR)
Jenzer Motorsport (SUI)
Manor Racing (GB)
Mücke Motorsport (GER)
MW Arden (AUS)
Status Grand Prix (IRL)
Tech 1 Racing (FRA)