Hitech_Grand_Prix

Hitech Grand Prix

Hitech Grand Prix

British auto racing team

Hitech Grand Prix (formerly Hitech Racing, currently racing as Hitech Pulse-Eight for sponsorship reasons) is a British motor racing team. It was founded in 2002 by Dennis Rushen and David Hayle.[1] The team started racing in the British Formula 3 Championship in 2003. The team also competed in the South American Formula Three Series, namely the Formula 3 Sudamericana.[2] Currently the team competes in the FIA Formula 2 Championship, FIA Formula 3 Championship, GB3 Championship and the Formula Regional Middle East Championship.

Quick Facts Founded, Base ...

History

Formula Three

In its first season, Hitech scored five pole positions and six podium finishes, with drivers Danny Watts and Eric Salignon.[1] Andrew Thompson also contributed some points finishes. Watts finished the British F3 Championship in 5th place in a season that included a memorable win at Castle Combe. In the Korea Super Prix, guest driver Richard Antinucci achieved Hitech's first international race win.[1]

In the second season, 2004, Thompson was retained and joined by drivers Marko Asmer, James Walker, and Lucas Di Grassi.[1] Di Grassi had two wins and was classified in eighth place overall. Another of that year's highlights was a podium finish on Di Grassi's début at the Macau Grand Prix. Asmer managed to finish the championship closing the top 10.

In 2005, Hitech retained Asmer and brought in Tim Bridgman from Formula BMW.[1] Asmer was the best of the duo, scoring no less than five second places, but missing out on an actual win, even so managing to snatch the fourth place in the championship.

For 2006, Hitech brought back James Walker, alongside James Jakes and Salvador Durán, with Jakes finishing 8th, Walker 9th and Durán 10th in a poor season that only heralded one podium finish (achieved by Walker).

In 2007 Hitech retained the services of Marko Asmer who joined Austrian Walter Grubmuller for an assault on the British F3 Championship.[1] Hitech and Asmer took the title, scoring 11 poles, 11 wins (from 22 races) and 9 fastest laps. Marko Asmer secured the title long before the final round and in the end by a margin of 85 points from Maro Engel.

In 2008, Walter Grubmuller was joined by the youngest driver in the sport, Max Chilton.[3]

For 2012, Brazilian Felipe Guimarães took 4 wins and two poles to end fourth with Hitech Racing Brazil in the Formula Three Sudamericana series.

In 2013, Hitech's Brazilian ace Felipe Guimarães took both the Formula 3 Brazil Open and the Formula Three Sudamericana series titles, winning 13 races and obtaining 7 poles and 12 fastest laps in the process.

In 2014, Brazilian Felipe Guimarães defended his Formula 3 Brazil Open title with Hitech Racing Brazil in January 2014 at the 2014 Formula 3 Brazil Open with his teammate Victor Franzoni finishing second.

In 2015, the team changed its name to Hitech GP, and made guest appearances in the two final rounds of the European Formula 3 Championship with Alex Sims.[4][5]

In 2016, Hitech joined forces with ART Grand Prix, to make a full season in the FIA F3 European Championship.[6] George Russell and rookies Ben Barnicoat and Nikita Mazepin will race for the team.[7][8] 2015's guest driver Sims again appeared in the 2016 season's final round at Hockenheim.[9]

The following season, only Mazepin remained with the team, he was joined by 2016 Prema driver Ralf Aron, Jake Hughes and Honda Junior Tadasuke Makino.[10][11][12][13]

For 2018 the team signed Enaam Ahmed, Ben Hingeley, Álex Palou[14][15][16]

In 2019 the team was represented by Jüri Vips in the new FIA Formula 3 Championship.[17] He was joined by Leonardo Pulcini, who raced in the GP3 Series, and 2016 French F4 champion Yifei Ye. The team saw four wins coming from Vips and Pulcini that ultimately resulted in the outfit finishing second behind Prema Racing in the teams' standings.

In 2019, Hitech GP provided a full race operation package to W Series, including preparation, shipping and all trackside requirements. Hitech GP also supplied race engineers and pit crew for each of the cars.[18] This partnership was discontinued for the 2021 season following the 2020 season's cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Hitech GP's subsequent expansion into other series.[19]

FIA Motorsport Games

For the inaugural 2019 FIA Motorsport Games Formula 4 Cup all drivers utilized KCMG KC MG-01 cars, which were operated by Hitech GP. This was the first Formula 4 car to feature Halo safety device.[20]

GP2 Series

Main article: Piquet GP

In 2004, Hitech partnered with Piquet Sports to enter the GP2 Series, running Nelson Piquet Jr. and Alexandre Negrao.[21][22] However, prior to the Istanbul round, it was announced that this partnership had ended and that Piquet Sports would run the team for the remainder of the season.[23] Despite this, team would continue carrying the Hitech name until the end of the season[23]

FIA Formula 2 Championship

In January 2020, Hitech announced it would expand into the championship for the 2020 season.[24]

Formula One

It was reported in February 2023 that Hitech registered an interest in joining the Formula 1 at a date to be determined.[25] In June 2023, Hitech announced that it has lodged an entry to join the 2026 season.[26] Following announcements by the FIA on accepted submissions, Hitech was not one of the accepted applications, and speculation is that their application was rejected.[27] There are some who believe that they are being funded secretly by Dmitry Mazepin, who is banned from competing in F1 due to European Union sanctions following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.[28] The allegation is that Vladimir Kim who has purchased a 25% stake in the Team is the face of the funding with the actual funding coming from Mazepin.[29]

Ownership

Founded in 2002 by Dennis Rushen and David Hayle as HiTech Racing Ltd, in 2015 Hayle in partnership with Oliver Oakes formed the company and its assets into a new company, HiTech Grand Prix Ltd to compete in the FIA F3 European Championship. In 2016, Hitech joined forces with ART Grand Prix, to make a full season in the FIA F3 European Championship.[6] Gaining Nikita Mazepin as a driver, they also gained Russian minerals company Uralkali as a sponsor, and partial ownership by Dmitry Mazepin. Over the next few years, Mazepin increased his holding through Cyprus-based investment company Bergton Management Ltd to 75%. In March 2022, following the Russian war against Ukraine, the shares held by Bergton Management Ltd were relinquished to Oakes, who took full control of the company.[30] Oakes had formed a new company Hitech Global Holdings Ltd on 11 March 2022 to take control of the shares, formed just three days after Mazepin and his son were sanctioned by both the UK Government and the European Union,[30] resulting in questions being asked in the UK Parliament over the effect of sanctions against Russia.[30][31] In June 2023, Hitech announced that Kazakh businessman Vladimir Kim has bought a 25% stake of the company.[26]

Current series results

FIA Formula 2 Championship

More information Year, Chassis ...

In detail

(key)

More information Year, Drivers ...

* Season still in progress.

FIA Formula 3 Championship

More information Year, Chassis ...

In detail

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

More information Year, Drivers ...

F3 Asian Championship / Formula Regional Asian Championship

More information Year, Car ...

Formula Regional Middle East Championship

More information Year, Car ...

BRDC British Formula 3 Championship / GB3 Championship

More information GB3 Championship results, Year ...

Formula 4 UAE Championship

More information Year, Car ...

F4 British Championship

More information Year, Car ...

Former series results

F3 Asian Winter Series

More information Year, Car ...

FIA European Formula 3 Championship

More information Year, Car ...

† As Sims was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points.

British Formula 3 International Series

More information Year, Car ...

Timeline

More information Current series, Former series ...

See also

Footnotes

  1. Hitech GP Academy entered in a partnership with Hillspeed
  2. Entered as Cram - Hitech GP

References

  1. [1]
    "Hitech Racing 2007 Champions". hitechracing.net. Hitech Racing. Archived from the original on 14 May 2008. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  2. [2]
    "Hitech Racing Brazil". Archived from the original on 3 May 2014. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
  3. [3]
    Freeman, Glenn (9 January 2008). "Hitech sign Max Chilton for 2008". Autosport.com. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  4. [4]
    "Hitech GP - TheSportsDB.com". www.thesportsdb.com. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  5. [5]
    Simmons, Marcus. "Hitech name to return to F3 with Alexander Sims driving at Algarve". Autosport.com. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  6. [6]
    Simmons, Marcus (1 December 2015). "Hitech GP gets F3 back-up from ART sister company AOTech". Autosport.com. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  7. [7]
    Klein, Jamie (11 December 2015). "Russell joins Hitech for sophomore F3 season". Motorsport.com. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  8. [8]
    Simmons, Marcus (14 January 2016). "Ben Barnicoat seals Hitech European Formula 3 Championship deal". Autosport.com. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  9. [9]
    Simmons, Marcus (10 October 2016). "BMW factory driver Alexander Sims back in F3 for Hockenheim finale". Autosport.com. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  10. [10]
    Khorounzhiy, Valentin (13 December 2016). "Mazepin to stay with Hitech for second F3 season". Motorsport.com. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  11. [11]
    Allen, Peter (10 December 2016). "Ralf Aron makes Hitech switch for 2017 F3 campaign". Formula Scout. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  12. [12]
    Simmons, Marcus (19 December 2016). "Jake Hughes swaps from GP3 to European F3 with Hitech for 2017". Autosport.com. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  13. [13]
    Klein, Jamie (23 January 2017). "Honda junior Makino moves to European F3 with Hitech Grand Prix". Autosport.com. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  14. [14]
    Simmons, Marcus. "Ahmed secures European F3 graduation with Hitech". Motorsport.com. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  15. [15]
    Simmons, Marcus. "Hitech adds Hingeley to 2018 F3 line-up". Motorsport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
  16. [16]
    Allen, Peter (5 January 2018). "Alex Palou to race in European F3 with Hitech". formulascout.com. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  17. [17]
    Allen, Peter (5 December 2018). "Red Bull finalises Dan Ticktum's Super Formula move, Honda junior tie-up". formulascout.com. Formula Scout. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
  18. [18]
    "Hitech GP to operate W Series' 2019 operations". RACER. 12 December 2018. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  19. [19]
    Wood, Elliot (14 November 2020). "Hitech confirms discontinuation of W Series involvement for 2021". Formula Scout. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  20. [20]
    "Cars revealed for Olympics-style Motorsport Games". Motorsport.com. 25 July 2019. Retrieved 15 August 2019.
  21. [21]
    "GP2 unveils teams". Autosport.com. 30 November 2004. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  22. [22]
    "Piquet's GP2 switch". Autosport.com. 30 November 2004. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  23. [23]
    Cameron, David (19 August 2005). "Piquet Sports and Hitech Split". Autosport.com. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  24. [24]
    "HITECH GRAND PRIX GIVEN 2020 FIA FORMULA 2 ENTRY". 20 January 2020. Archived from the original on 20 January 2020. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  25. [25]
    Gale, Ewan (25 February 2023). "Hitech GP in F1 entry bid". GPFans. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
  26. [26]
    Noble, Jonathan (26 June 2023). "Hitech confirms F1 bid as it announces major new investor". www.motorsport.com. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  27. [27]
    "'Haas wouldn't get in now' - A spurned F1 team's frustration". The Race. 16 October 2023. Retrieved 18 October 2023.
  28. [28]
    Sutton, Brandon (1 August 2023). "Hitech to be rejected from F1 after 2026 application?". Total Motorsport. Retrieved 18 October 2023.
  29. [29]
    Sutton, Brandon (1 August 2023). "Hitech to be rejected from F1 after 2026 application?". Total Motorsport. Retrieved 18 October 2023.
  30. [30]
    Ida Wood (1 March 2022). "Hitech GP team boss Oliver Oakes takes back full ownership of outfit". Formula Scout. Retrieved 1 March 2023.
  31. [31]
    "Clause 88 - Analysis of information for the purposes of crime prevention or detection". They Work For You. 8 November 2022. Retrieved 1 March 2023.
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