Racing Engineering confirm their 2011 Line Up

Racing Engineering are pleased to confirm that their drivers for the 2011 GP2 Series will continue to be the very strong pairing of Spaniard Dani Clos and the German Christian Vietoris whilst for the upcoming GP2 Asia Series Dani Clos will be partnered by promising Frenchman Nathanaël Berthon.

Dani Clos is starting his third season with the Spanish Racing Engineering team and, following on from his very successful 2010 season where he finished an excellent 4th in the Championship, Dani is now looking to improve even further and become the 2011 GP2 Series Champion. Building on his 2009 rookie season in which Dani learnt all about GP2 racing and built up a strong rapport with the Racing Engineering Team in 2010 he became one of the fastest drivers in the series regularly finishing in the top 5 and taking several podium places including a win at Istanbul.

Christian Vietoris had his maiden season in GP2 in 2010 with Racing Engineering and proved to be competitive from the start steadily progressing as he became used to racing in such a competitive environment and by the end of the season he was a regular front-runner scoring several podium places and finishing the year with a hard fought victory at Monza.

Nathanaël Berthon will be making his GP2 debut in the 2011 Asia Series following on from a successful 2010 in which the 21 year old Frenchman raced in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series scoring four podium finishes and taking a win at Magny-Cours to finish 7th in the series.

Racing Engineering will be making their debut in this year’s GP2 Asia series and they are looking forward to bringing their experience and always competitive Dallaras to the 2011 events. Dani Clos will be one of the pre-race favourites to take the Championship and following on from his very promising showing in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series Nathanaël Berthon must also be a serious threat to the other teams and drivers.

The 2011 GP2 Asia Series begins on February 2nd - 3rd when testing will take place on the 5.55Km Yas Marina Grand Prix circuit with two sessions of three hours each, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Testing continues on February 6th - 7th this time on the 4.73Km Corkscrew circuit, once again there will be two 3 hour sessions.

The first race of the 2011 Championship will be on the weekend of February the 10th – 12th, the Feature Race will take place over 36 laps whilst the Sprint Race will be 26 laps.

Dani Clos: “It’s incredible that at this time people keep backing me and give me their confidence to do another GP2 season with a team like this. I’m proud to be here again with Racing Engineering and with them I want to make our dream come true and win the championship. It’s a key moment for me and my career and to have the support I’ve got is really nice. I want to say thank you to all the people who are helping me as without them I couldn’t have get where I am. This year I’m giving my all to achieve my target and I’m going to do it.”

Nathanaël Berthon: “I am very happy to be able to do GP2 Asia with Racing Engineering. It’s a very human team, where after a few words you already feel like you are part of a family. I am convinced that together we will work well and I will quickly evolve as a driver with the support of this team in order to fight against the best. Last year was my first year in World Series by Renault and I achieved several podiums and won. I approach GP2 with the same motivation and want to be on top with a very strong team.”

Christian Vietoris: “I am really looking forward to my second year in GP2 with Racing Engineering. We are a well attuned team and meet all requirements to fight for the championship. We were able to show what a strong pairing we were last season and therefore the objective for 2011 has to be the championship title.”

Alfonso de Orleáns-Borbón: “It’s been some two months ago since we tested in Abu Dhabi and since then the entire Racing Engineering team has been working non-stop on the preparation for the 2011 season, which starts in a week’s time. A new Dallara GP2 car with a new gearbox and Pirelli Tyres has kept our team busy and we are eager to see the insights gained next week with Dani and Nat in our cars. Dani and Racing Engineering have proven to be a strong combination and it was only an injury in 2010, which kept Dani from finishing the championship on top. We are delighted to be able to work with a driver of Dani’s qualities in both GP2 Asia and the Main Series. There is no doubt about the objectives given his performance in 2010.

GP2 rookie Nathanael will join Dani for the Asian rounds of the championship. He is a promising upcoming driver, who, although does not have many years of racing under his belt, has shown a very steep learning curve. For the Main Series, Dani will be joined by his 2010 team mate Christian Vietoris. Both are experienced drivers, who are extremely talented and won races last year. Therefore it is clear that both are aiming for the title win and we will do whatever is possible to make this happen.”