Caterham Racing, formerly EQ8 Caterham Racing and Caterham Team AirAsia was a

motor racing An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gene ...

team competing in the

GP2 Series The GP2 Series was a form of open wheel motor racing introduced in 2005 following the discontinuation of the long-term Formula One feeder series, Formula 3000. The GP2 format was conceived by Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore, while Ecc ...

and

GP2 Asia Series The GP2 Asia Series was a form of open wheel motor racing as a result of a spin-off from the GP2 Series. History The series was officially announced during the weekend of the 2007 Monaco GP2 Series round. GP2 series organiser Bruno Michel com ...

. It was created by

Tony Fernandes Malay titles#Tan Sri, Tan Sri Anthony Francis Fernandes (born 30 April 1964) is a Malaysian Entrepreneurship, entrepreneur. He is the founder of Tune Air Sendirian Berhad, Sdn. Bhd., which took over the first Malaysian Low-cost carrier, budge ...

, who was also responsible for the revival of the Lotus name in

Formula 1 Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

with the creation of the Lotus Racing team. Team AirAsia was officially accepted to the GP2 Series grid on 21 September 2010, along with fellow debutants

Carlin Motorsport Carlin, formerly known as Carlin Motorsport and Rodin Carlin, was a motor racing team based in the United Kingdom. It primarily competed in junior racing championships such as FIA Formula 2 and FIA Formula 3. Carlin also competed in top level ...

, filling the gap left by the departures of

Durango Durango, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Durango, is one of the 31 states which make up the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 Federal Entities of Mexico, situated in the northwest portion of the country. With a population of 1,832,650 ...

and DPR. The team made their debut at the

first round First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

of the 2010–11 GP2 Asia Series. In addition to being owned by the

Caterham Group Caterham Group is the parent company for a range of automotive and motor racing businesses. Management team Businesses *Caterham Cars *Caterham Bike *Caterham Graduates Racing Club Vehicles *2014 Caterham Aero Seven *2013 Caterham Duo Cal ...

that owned Caterham F1 Team, Caterham Racing shared deep technical links with its

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

parent team. The GP2 operation was embedded within the Formula One operation and base, and the two teams shared the same technical staff. Caterham Racing's (then Team Air Asia) drivers also served as Caterham F1 Team's (then called Team Lotus) test and reserve drivers in the

2011 Formula One season The 2011 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 65th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. The original calendar for the 2011 Formula One World Championship consisted of twenty rounds, including the inaugural running of the Indian Gran ...

. The outfit was originally called Team AirAsia. The

Caterham Caterham () is a town in the Tandridge (district), Tandridge district of Surrey, England. The town is administratively divided into two: Caterham on the Hill, and Caterham Valley, which includes the main town centre in the middle of a dry valle ...

designation was added to the official name in June 2011, following Fernandes' purchase of the company. For the 2012 season the team was again renamed as Caterham Racing to coincide with the renaming of the Formula 1 outfit. In October 2014

GP3 Series The GP3 Series, or GP3 for short, was a single-seater motor racing series launched in 2010 as a feeder series for the GP2 Series, introduced by GP2 organiser Bruno Michel. GP3 followed the entire European leg of the Formula One series and the ...

team Status Grand Prix acquired the team from

. The team still operated under the Caterham name for the remainder of the 2014 season and starting from

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

the team became known as Status Grand Prix.

Racing history

2011 season

For its first year in GP2, Caterham signed the experienced duo of

Luiz Razia Luiz Tadeu Razia Filho (born 4 April 1989) is a Brazilian businessman and former Auto racing, racing driver. Career Early career Razia began his Open wheel car, single seater career in 2005 in the Formula Three Sudamericana, South American For ...

and

Davide Valsecchi Davide Valsecchi (born 24 January 1987) is an Italian former racing driver and the 2012 GP2 Series season, 2012 GP2 Series champion. Career Formula Renault Valsecchi drove in Renault-based series from 2003 to 2007, rising from Italian Formula Re ...

for both the

Asia Series The Asia Series was an international club baseball competition, contested by the champions of all four professional leagues associated with the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC)—Australian Baseball League (ABL), Chinese Professi ...

and main series seasons. Both drivers also became test drivers for Tony Fernandes's

team, at this stage known as

Team Lotus Team Lotus was the motorsport sister company of English sports car manufacturer Lotus Cars. The team ran cars in many motorsport categories including Formula One, Formula Two, Formula Ford, Formula Junior, American Championship Car Racing, Ind ...

, and took part in a number of Friday free practice sessions during the F1 season. After finishing seventh in the teams' championship in the truncated Asia Series, Valsecchi began the main series strongly, scoring points six times in the first eight races of the year, including the team's first victory in the feature race at

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

, which propelled him into contention for the drivers' championship. However, he then failed to score during the remainder of the season, dropping him to eight overall. Razia took over as the team's driving force, securing Caterham's first pole position at the

Hungaroring The Hungaroring is a motorsport racetrack in Mogyoród, Pest County, Hungary where the Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix is held. In 1986, it became the location of the first Formula One Grand Prix motor racing, Grand Prix behind the Iron Curtai ...

and ending the season twelfth in the standings. The team finished sixth in the teams' championship, well ahead of fellow debutantes Carlin. Caterham's livery began the season with AirAsia's red-and-white, but switched mid-season to be more in-line with the Team Lotus.

2012 season

In January 2012, it was announced that Caterham would be proposed moving to the

Leafield Technical Centre Leafield Technical Centre is a former radio communications station, now a motorsports centre of excellence, in the hamlet of Langley, in the western part of the village of Leafield in Oxfordshire, England. Radio communications station Experimenta ...

(the previous headquarters of the Arrows and

Super Aguri F1 Super Aguri F1 was a Formula One team that competed from to . The team, founded by former F1 driver Aguri Suzuki, was based in Tokyo, Japan, but operated from the former Arrows factory at the Leafield Technical Centre, Oxfordshire, England. ...

teams) in

Leafield Leafield is a village and civil parish about northwest of Witney in West Oxfordshire, England. The parish includes the hamlet of Langley, west of Leafield village. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 945. The village is abo ...

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

, with its parent F1 team, now renamed as the Caterham F1 Team and

Caterham Cars Caterham Cars Ltd. is a British manufacturer of specialist lightweight sports cars established in Caterham, England, with their headquarters in Dartford, England. Their current model, the Caterham 7 (or Seven), originally launched in 1973, is ...

. And in August 2012, Caterham Racing GP2 eventually completed its relocation to

along with Caterham F1 Team and

. On the driving front, both Razia and Valsecchi moved to other teams and were replaced by

Rodolfo González Rodolfo González may refer to: * Rodolfo González Pacheco (1882–1949), Argentine writer, playwright, orator, anarchistic journalist and activist * Rodolfo González (boxer) (born 1945), Mexican boxer * Rodolfo González Rissotto (born 1949), ...

(who tested for the F1 team in ) and

Giedo van der Garde Giedo Gijsbertus Gerrit van der Garde (; born 25 April 1985) is a Dutch former racing driver and sports broadcasting, broadcaster, who competed in Formula One in , and the FIA World Endurance Championship between 2016 FIA World Endurance Champi ...

. In a continuation of the previous season's policy, Van der Garde also became the Caterham F1 team's test and reserve driver. Following the abandonment of the Asia Series, both drivers competed in an expanded main series season: team leader Van der Garde scored a brace of race victories, pole positions and fastest laps, but failed to trouble the championship protagonists and finished the year sixth overall, whilst González picked up six points and finished in 22nd position. Caterham dropped one position in the teams' championship to seventh.

Results

GP2 Series

GP2 Asia Series

In detail

GP2 Series

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

GP2 Final

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

GP2 Asia Series

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Caterham Racing Malaysian auto racing teams AirAsia GP2 Series teams

Racing In sports, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific g ...

Tune Group Auto racing teams established in 2010 Auto racing teams disestablished in 2014