Lotus back on track with ART GP

The best of British meets the best of France as Lotus Motorsport and GP2 championship winners ART Grand Prix unite to create the ultimate GP2 and GP3 race teams.

Lotus Motorsport in collaboration with seasoned championship winners ART Grand Prix can confirm their participation in the 2011 GP2 (Europe and Asia series) and GP3 series. The contract with ART Grand Prix sees Lotus commit to providing technical and engineering support for the GP2 and GP3 race series for the foreseeable future.

Lotus Motorsport and ART Grand Prix share a hunger for success, the facts speak for themselves. With seven F1 Constructers Championships, six F1 Driver Championships and numerous other considerable accolades, Lotus has a unique racing pedigree making them the perfect partner for ART Grand Prix.

Since the GP2 series was launched in 2005, Lotus’ new collaborators ART Grand Prix have won the GP2 championship three times, first with Nico Rosberg (2005), then with Lewis Hamilton (2006) and last year with Nico Hülkenberg (2009) under the expert management of team founders Nicolas Todt and Frédéric Vasseur. Vasseur and Todt’s complementary abilities guarantee the best possible management of the team, day in, day out. Frédéric Vasseur is in charge of the team and the factory on the ground, while Nicolas Todt runs the commercial and marketing side of the organization.

Commenting on the news Gino Rosato, Director of Corporate Communications at Lotus said: “This deal means a lot to me personally; I’ve known Nicolas Todt for many years and have already had the opportunity to work alongside him in the past. Lotus is proud to be partnering ART Grand Prix and in doing so uniting with the most successful and recognized team in GP2 Series. We come together with a common goal: to continue our great success in motorsport.”

Frédéric Vasseur Team Manager of ART Grand Prix said: “It is a fantastic opportunity for ART Grand Prix to be working with Lotus. The goal is clear: winning together the future GP2 and GP3 championships. I can’t wait to see the new livery of our racing cars.”

Lotus ART will field two cars in the GP2 Europe and GP2 Asia series and three cars in the GP3 Europe series. The GP2 Series, one of the World’s premier racing categories, is widely recognised as the breeding ground for future F1 talent. Almost half of the current F1 grid got their chance to race at the pinnacle of motorsport after proving their worth in the GP2 Series including Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg, Timo Glock and Heikki Kovalainen.

The goal of the new GP3 Series is to give young upcoming drivers a chance to develop their driving skills and jump to the next step: GP2.

Lotus Motorsport Director of Operations Miodrag Kotur said: “The move into GP2 and GP3 solidifies Lotus Motorsport’s commitment to promoting driver development and supporting the search for the world champions of the future.

Lotus won’t simply be partner in name only, ART Grand Prix will also benefit from Lotus’ considerable engineering and technical support and experience.”

Lotus – some key milestones

— 7 F1 Constructors Championships
— 6 F1 Driver’s Championships
— 1 Indianapolis 500 win
— 3 Class wins at Le Mans
— 1 World Rally Championship

Driven by some of the world’s most famous drivers including: Stirling Moss, John Surtees, Ronnie Peterson, Nigel Mansell, Ayrton Senna, Jochen Rindt, Nelson Piquet, Graham Hill, Emerson Fittipaldi, Jim Clark, Mario Andretti to name but a few...

About Lotus

The main operating subsidiary of Group Lotus plc is Lotus Cars Ltd, which has two operating divisions – Lotus Engineering and Lotus Cars. Lotus Engineering is an internationally recognised automotive engineering consultancy based in Norfolk, UK. Global facilities include those in Michigan (USA), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), China and offices in Germany and Japan, with rapid expansion in new territories such as South East Asia.

Lotus Engineering provides comprehensive and versatile consultancy services to many of the world’s OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers, offering a full engineering service from initial concept and project design through development and integration of the complete vehicle to meet all worldwide markets and customers to full production. This includes third party ’niche vehicle’ engineering and manufacture worldwide.

About Art Grand Prix

Founded in the winter of 2004/2005, the ART Grand Prix team is built on the solid foundations of the ASM F3 team, started in 1996 by Frédéric Vasseur. After winning three championships in F3 France and the Euro series, the team based in the French Department of the Yonne decided to continue its rise in the world of International Motorsports by creating a structure dedicated to the GP2 Championship which is replacing the F3000 series starting in 2005, as the curtain rises on the European F1 Grand-Prix season.

ART Grand Prix is the end result of the meeting of two men: Frédéric Vasseur and Nicolas Todt, whose complementary abilities guarantee the best possible management of the team, day in, day out. Frédéric Vasseur is in charge of the team and the factory on the ground, while Nicolas Todt runs the commercial and marketing side of the organization. The team now employs 40 people.

In April 2007, ART Grand Prix was proud to welcome a new prestigious shareholder, the Crown Prince Shaikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa. With the Prince’s arrival, the Team has a greater potential to develop new projects, armed with a solid technical backup. In August 2010, Brazilian automotive parts company Aethra joined ART Grand Prix on the Grand Prix grids as a new shareholder.

ART Grand Prix plays a great role in driver training and promotion. As a matter of fact, the team worked with great drivers who are now at the top of the motorsport world: Lewis Hamilton (F1),Nico Rosberg (F1), Sebastian Vettel (F1), Adrian Sutil (F1), Sébastien Buemi (F1), Nico Hulkenberg (F1),Alexandre Prémat (DTM, LeMans), Paul Di Resta (F1 & DTM), Jamie Green (DTM), Tiago Monteiro (WTCC).