Piquet GP, formerly known as Minardi Piquet Sports or Minardi by Piquet Sports and Piquet Sports, is 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. The team's history can be traced back to when the GP Racing team was founded in 1997, and also to when Piquet Sports was created in 2000 by triple world champion

Nelson Piquet Nelson Piquet Souto Maior (, born 17 August 1952) is a Brazilian former racing driver and businessman, who competed in Formula One from to . Piquet won three Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles, which he won in , , and , and won 23 ...

. In 2007, Piquet Sports and GP Racing merged to create "Minardi Piquet Sports". In 2008, the team dropped "Minardi" from their name."The Renaissance Men of GP2",

Autosport ''Autosport'' is a global motorsport publishing brand headquartered based in Richmond, London, England. It was established in 1950 at the same time as the origins of the Formula One, Formula One World Championship. Autosport began life as a we ...

Magazine pg. 40–41. May 8, 2008 Issue (Vol. 192, No. 6) In early 2009, the team was sold and rebranded as Piquet GP, but changed its name again in November to

Rapax Team Rapax Team was an Italian motor racing team. The team's history can be traced back to when the GP Racing team was founded in 1997, and also to when Piquet Sports was created in 2000 by triple world champion Nelson Piquet. In 2007, Piquet Sports an ...

, once all remaining ties to part-owner Piquet were cut.

History

GP Racing

GP Racing was founded in 1997 by Tancredi Pagiaro to compete in the

Italian Formula Three Championship The Italian Formula Three Championship was the Formula Three racing competition in Italy. History Formula Three has traditionally been regarded as the first major stepping stone for F1 hopefuls - it is typically the first point in a driver's care ...

. The team then debuted in the FIA

International Formula 3000 The Formula 3000 International Championship was a motor racing series created by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) in 1985 to become the final preparatory step for drivers hoping to enter Formula One. Formula Two had become to ...

championship in 1998 with French driver,

Cyrille Sauvage Cyrille Sauvage (born 16 January 1973 in Cannes) is a French racing driver. He has competed in such series as International Formula 3000 and Porsche Supercup The Porsche Supercup (officially known as Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup, known as Porsc ...

, only managing two points. In 1999 they expanded to two cars with Italian,

Fabrizio Gollin Fabrizio Gollin (born 28 March 1975 in Camposampiero, Province of Padua) is an Italian racing driver who shared the FIA GT Championship with Luca Cappellari in 2004 while driving for BMS Scuderia Italia. He also is a winner of the Spa 24 Hours ...

in one car and Giovanni Montanari,

Gastón Mazzacane Gastón Hugo Mazzacane (born 8 May 1975) is an Argentina, Argentine racing driver. He participated in 21 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting in the 2000 Australian Grand Prix. His father, Hugo Mazzacane, named him after the late Argentine touring ca ...

and Laurent Delahaye sharing the second. However, none of the drivers managed to score points Towards the end of 1999, GP Racing entered the Italian F3000 with just a single car driven by

Thomas Biagi Thomas Biagi (born 7 May 1976, in Bologna), is an Italian professional racing driver. Biagi started his career in open wheel racing, single seaters, driving in Formula Alfa Boxer and Italian Formula Three Championship, where he was 5th best in 19 ...

. Despite only competing in the last 3 races, Biagi scored enough points to end the season 4th in points. In 2000, Swiss driver

Gabriele Gardel Gabriele Gardel (born 22 October 1977 in Milan, Italy) is a Switzerland, Swiss former racing driver. Having competed in Sports car racing, sports cars for most of his career, Gardel won the 2005 FIA GT Championship driver's title, and took home t ...

joined the team in a second car alongside Biagi. It was a somewhat disappointing season with Biagi only ending the season 5th with Gardel failing to score. GP Racing came 6th in the teams championship. Both Biagi and Gardel continued with the team in 2001. Biagi had a much better season taking the GP Racing's first win at

Donington Park Donington Park is a motorsport Race track, circuit located near Castle Donington in Leicestershire, England. The circuit business is now owned by Jonathan Palmer's MotorSport Vision organisation, and the surrounding Donington Park Estate, sti ...

on his way to 2nd in the championship. Gardel came 9th overall while the team came 2nd in the teams championship. 2002 was once again a peak season: GP Racing came 4th out of the 14 teams that participated on the constructor’s classification with Alessandro Piccolo and Martin Basso. In 2003 for the third consecutive year, GP Racing competed in Euro 3000 Series Championship with promising young talents behind the wheel: Italian

Fabrizio Del Monte Fabrizio del Monte (born 5 December 1980 in Latina, Lazio) is an Italian racing driver. He drove for three seasons in European Formula 3000 before driving three Champ Car events in 2005, often on the strength of sponsorship. He said he had secu ...

, Russian Roman Rusinov and young Belgian Maxime Hodencq who replaced Rusinov for the last two races. Once again, it was a positive season for the team: Del Monte was second in the driver’s classification and GP Racing was third in the constructor’s title. In 2004, GP Racing confirmed its position at the top in Superfund Euro 3000 as well with

Tor Graves Tor Graves (born Torsak Sriachavanon, March 26, 1972) is a Thai racing driver who most recently competed in the FIA World Endurance Championship The FIA World Endurance Championship, abbreviated as WEC, is a world championship for automobi ...

joining Del Monte and Hodencq in a third car for the team. The title slipped out of Del Monte’s hands during the last race by one point only. The Italian had already conquered three wins, various podiums and was in the lead for 9 out of 10 races. An unfortunate collision with Graves at the start of the last round took the joy of winning the much deserved title away from Fabrizio and GP Racing. Hodencq scored 3 points on the way to 11th overall while Graves failed to score. In 2005 GP Racing participated in the Italian F3000 Championship with the Lola BO2 driven by Fabrizio Del Monte and by the débuting Juan Caceres who ended the season 5th.

Alex Lloyd Alexander Lloyd (Birth name, né Wasiliev; born 19 September 1974) is an Australian singer and songwriter. Four of his albums, ''Black the Sun'', ''Watching Angels Mend'', ''Distant Light (Alex Lloyd album), Distant Light'' and ''Alex Lloyd (al ...

and

Toni Vilander Toni Markus Vilander (born 25 July 1980) is a Finnish professional racing driver who currently drives for the Risi Competizione Ferrari team in various categories of sports car racing. After a single-seater career which reached the level of the ...

also raced for the team later in the season after Del Monte left. GP Racing took 3rd in the teams championship. The team also participated in the LMES Championship with Promec (only one race in Monza). In 2006, GP Racing linked-up with Gian Carlo Minardi to form the

Minardi Minardi was an Italian automobile racing team and constructor founded in Faenza in 1979 by Giancarlo Minardi. It competed in the Formula One World Championship from 1985 until 2005 with little success, nevertheless acquiring a loyal following ...

Team by GP Racing, which competed with good results in the new Euroseries 3000. Caceres stayed on with the team alongside Christiano Rocha though neither would complete the season. Despite having somewhat of a revolving door with no less than 6 drivers racing throughout the season, the team secured 2nd in the teams championship. Roldan Rodriguez, Diego Nunes,

Davide Rigon Davide Rigon (born 26 August 1986) is an Italian professional racing driver who is currently competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship and other selected GT races for AF Corse. He is also currently part of the Scuderia Ferrari Formula ...

and Fausto Ippoliti would complete the season while Rocha returned to the team in a third car. Rocha finished the season in 4th while Rodriguez and Caceras were 6th and 7th respectively.

Piquet Sports

Piquet Sports was founded in 2000 by

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

ian

, a triple

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 ...

World Drivers' Champion, for his son Nelson Piquet Jr. with Filipe Vargas, the team manager, setting up the operation. The team's first competition was the South American Formula Three Championship where Piquet Jr. took second in his first race and won four races later in Cascavel. The young Brazilian finished 5th in the championship with 77 points, while Piquet Sports finished fourth in the team's championship, also scoring 77 points. The team stuck with competing in the South American championship the following year, which they took a majority thirteen of a possible eighteen wins scoring a total of 296 points as Piquet Jr. and Piquet Sports took the Drivers' and Teams' titles respectively, with the Brazilian having a margin of over a hundred points from his nearest rival

Danilo Dirani Danilo Dirani is a racing driver from Brazil. He was born on January 10, 1983, in São Paulo. In his karting career (between the years of 1992 and 2002), Danilo won 29 different championships in South America. In 2002, Danilo moved to Formula 3 ...

. The team's racing interest went across the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

for 2003 as the team entered the

British Formula 3 Championship The British Formula Three Championship was an international motor racing series that took place primarily in the United Kingdom with a small number of events in mainland Europe. It was a junior-level feeder formula that used small single sea ...

. The team performed well in their début season, with Piquet Jr. taking six wins over the year with a further five podiums brought his points tally to 231 points, putting him third in the final standings for the Drivers' Championship behind

Alan van der Merwe Alan van der Merwe (born 31 January 1980) is a South African former racing driver. From to , van der Merwe served as the medical car driver in Formula One. Racing career Van der Merwe won the 2001 Formula Ford Festival. In 2003 he was the ...

and

Jamie Green James Roger Green (born 14 June 1982) is a British professional racing driver. He last raced for Audi Sport Team Rosberg in the 2020 DTM season, where he achieved 3 podiums and finished 8th in the standings. Early career Green was born in L ...

. The team's racing involvement was split in 2004 with the team entering Piquet Jr. for a second season in the British championship while bringing their attention back to the South American championship, entering fellow Brazilian Alexandre Negrão. Both Piquet and Negrão took their respective championship crowns, taking a total of sixteen wins between them. Andreas Zuber 2008 GP2 Silverstone

The team graduated into the newly formed

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 ...

, which replaced

Formula 3000 Formula 3000 (F3000) was a type of open wheel, single seater formula racing, occupying the tier immediately below Formula One and above Formula Three. It was so named because the cars were powered by 3.0 L engines. Formula 3000 championship ...

as the feeder series of Formula One. The team entered their two champions Piquet Jr. and Negrão for their debut season in the category.

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

team

HiTech Racing Hitech Grand Prix (formerly Hitech Racing, currently racing as Hitech TGR for sponsorship reasons) is a British motor racing team. It was founded by Dennis Rushen and David Hayle in 2002 and relaunched by Oliver Oakes in 2015. Currently, Hite ...

formed an association with the team's GP2 activities but this was terminated midway through

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

. The team finished sixth in their debut season with Piquet scoring a single win at

Spa-Francorchamps The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (), informally referred to as Spa, is a motor-racing circuit located in Francorchamps, Stavelot, Wallonia, Belgium, about southeast of Spa. It is the current venue of the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix, ho ...

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

saw Piquet produce their most competitive season to date, with the Piquet Jr. taking four wins and challenging

Lewis Hamilton Sir Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton (born 7 January 1985) is a British racing driver who competes in Formula One for Scuderia Ferrari, Ferrari. Hamilton has won a joint-record seven Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles—tied with M ...

to that year's title. The Brazilian, however, lost out by twelve points to the Brit and the team also lost out to Hamilton's

ART Grand Prix ART Grand Prix is a French motor racing team that competes in formula single-seaters in Europe. In 2012, it competed in the GP2 Series and GP3 Series as Lotus GP to reflect sponsorship from British sports and racing car manufacturer Lotus. The ...

team in the Teams' Championship. Piquet Jr. left the squad at the end of 2006 to join Renault Formula One team as the team's test driver.

Merger of GP Racing and Piquet Sports

Piquet Sports merged with GP Racing ahead of the 2007 season to create "Minardi by Piquet Sports".

Spaniard Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance languages, Romance-speaking Ethnicity, ethnic group native to the Iberian Peninsula, primarily associated with the modern Nation state, nation-state of Spain. Genetics, Genetically and Ethnolinguisti ...

Roldán Rodríguez Roldán Rodríguez Iglesias (born 9 November 1984 in Valladolid) is a Spanish former racing driver, who competed in the GP2 Series from 2007 to 2009. Prior to this he competed in Spanish Formula Three and various Formula 3000 Formula 3000 (F ...

was employed to replace Piquet Jr. The newly named team enjoyed little, if any, success in

2007 GP2 Series season The 2007 GP2 Series season was the forty-first season of the second-tier of Formula One feeder championship and also third season under the GP2 Series moniker. The series began on 14 April at Bahrain. Timo Glock was crowned series champion on 30 ...

with Negrão failing to take the mantle of team leader and only scored a single podium position. The team finished the year with 22 points and outside the top ten in the Teams' Championship. In the Euro Series 3000 GP Racing won both the drivers and teams championship both with

and Diego Nunes completing a championship 1-2. For 2008, the Minardi name was dropped from the team's title. 2008 saw the team gain some success, with

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

Marco Bonanomi Marco Bonanomi (born 12 March 1985 in Lecco) is an Italian professional racing driver. Career Formula Renault Bonanomi began his car racing career in 2001 by competing in a few rounds of the Formula Renault Eurocup and Italian Formula Re ...

taking a win in the newly formed

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 new signing

Pastor Maldonado Pastor Rafael Maldonado Motta (; born 9 March 1985) is a Venezuelan former racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to . Maldonado won the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix with Williams. After winning the GP2 Series in 2010 with Rapax, Maldona ...

, winner of the previous season's race in

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, ...

, taking the team's first pole position in the series at the opening round in

Catalunya Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

. 2008 would be the team's final year in the Euro Series 3000.

Fabio Onidi Fabio Onidi (born 9 March 1988 in Milan) is am Italy, Itatian former professional Auto racing, racing driver. Career Karting Prior to starting his racing career, Onidi raced in karting for a number of years, finishing sixth in the European Cham ...

joined the team alongside the returning Roldan Rodriguez who shared the lead car with

and

Fabrizio Crestani Fabrizio Crestani (born 17 December 1987) is an Italian racing driver. Career Having competed in karts until 2005, Crestani moved up to the Formula Junior 1600 Italia championship, finishing in 4th place in the championship, driving for PSR M ...

. Onidi just lost out on the drivers title by 2 points to

Nicolas Prost Nicolas Jean Prost (born 18 August 1981) is a French professional racing driver. He most recently raced in the FIA Formula E Championship before quitting the series. Previously, he was a longstanding racer in the FIA World Endurance Championship ...

while Crestani ended up 5th. The team also lost out to Bull Racing by 8 points in the battle for the teams championship. For the 2009 season, the team was renamed Piquet GP and Rodriguez returned to the team alongside

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 ...

exponent

Alberto Valerio Alberto "Betinho" Valério (Ipatinga, 6 September 1985) is a former Brazilian racing driver. Career Formula Three Valerio drove in the Formula Three Sudamericana championship from 2003 to 2005, winning the title in his final year of the categ ...

Controversies

During their existence so far in motor racing, Piquet Sports have been involved some controversies over the years, most notably in 2002 when Piquet Jr. won that year's title. A number of teams protested at the team for "illegal testing" over the course of the season, Piquet Sports argued that the newly installed

mudflap A mudflap or mud guard is used in combination with the vehicle fender to protect the vehicle, passengers, other vehicles, and pedestrians from mud and other flying debris thrown into the air by a rotating tire on a wheeled vehicle. A mudflap is ...

s on the

Dallara Dallara Group S.r.l. is the largest multi-national Italian race car manufacturer, founded by its current President, Giampaolo Dallara. After working for Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini and De Tomaso, in 1972 in his native village of Varano de' M ...

made it a "prototype" model – the team escaped punishment.

Results

GP2 Series

In detail

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

GP2 Asia Series

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

Euroseries 3000

References

Notes

External links

Team Minardi Piquet

GP Racing
{{s-end Italian auto racing teams GP2 Series teams British Formula Three teams Auto racing teams established in 1997 Auto racing teams disestablished in 2009 1997 establishments in Italy 2009 disestablishments in Italy Auto GP teams

Piquet GP Piquet GP, formerly known as Minardi Piquet Sports or Minardi by Piquet Sports and Piquet Sports, is a motor racing team. The team's history can be traced back to when the GP Racing team was founded in 1997, and also to when Piquet Sports was cr ...

International Formula 3000 teams FIA Sportscar Championship entrants Formula Renault teams Auto racing teams established in 2000 Brazilian auto racing teams