Hilmer Motorsport

GP2 Series

Season 2013

Hilmer Motorsport was founded by the German Franz Hilmer and took over the starting position from Ocean Racing Technology. Franz Hilmer is the owner of the company Formtech GmbH, which, among other things, works as a supplier to Formula 1 teams in motorsport.

The team started the season with drivers Conor Daly and Pål Varhaug. While Varhaug had already competed in the GP2 series for a season in 2011, Daly was a rookie and came from the GP3 series. After just one weekend and although Daly scored the first points for Hilmer in the second race in Malaysia, Daly was replaced by Robin Frijns who won the Formula Renault 3.5 championship title in 2012. Frijns initially only signed for the race in Bahrain. After the race weekend in Bahrain, Varhaug was also replaced. He was replaced by Jon Lancaster, who had already competed in a race for Ocean Racing Technology in the 2012 season. Frijns kept his cockpit for the time being, but only signed race by race. The team achieved its first victory on the third weekend at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona. Frijns won ahead of Felipe Nasr and his teammate Lancaster. In the sprint race the following day, Frijns finished second, starting from eighth position. After three more race weekends, Frijns was replaced in Hungary by Adrian Quaife-Hobbs, who had previously competed for MP Motorsport the season. Quaife-Hobbs finished the season with Hilmer, his best result of the season was a victory in the sprint race in Monza. Jon Lancaster was replaced once by Frijns after five race weekends, but got the cockpit back and drove the remaining three race weekends.

At the end of the season, Hilmer Motorsport had scored 155 points and was in sixth place in the team standings.

Season 2014

In November 2013, Hilmer announced Daniel Abt, who previously drove for ART Grand Prix in the GP2 series, as the first driver for the 2014 season. At the beginning of February, Hilmer confirmed Facu Regalía as the second driver. Regalia had finished second in the GP3 series the season before. In addition, the team will be cooperating with Force India from the 2014 season and will be competing with their livery.

The start of the season didn't go well for the team: neither driver scored any points in the first four events. Regalia was replaced by Jon Lancaster for the fifth event until the end of the season. After Abt secured the first point in the fifth run, four more points placements were added after a pointless event. In the sprint race in Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium, Abt was on pole position and crossed the finish line in fifth place. At the final round of the season, Nicholas Latifi replaced Abt, who was competing in Formula E due to a scheduling conflict.

The team finished the season in second-to-last place in the team standings with 33 points.

Season 2015

Hilmer Motorsport elected to miss the Bahrain round as they were unable to acquire the services of a driver who could bring financial backing to the team. Team principal Franz Hilmer was confident that he would enter the second round of the season in Catalunya.

GP3 Series

Season 2014

In mid-March 2014, Hilmer Motorsport announced that it was taking over Bamboo Engineering's starting position in the GP3 series. As in the GP2 series, the GP3 commitment is part of Force India's funding program. At the beginning of April, Hilmer announced Iwan Taranow as the first driver. Beitske Visser and Nelson Mason also made their debuts at the season opener.

After the first event, Taranow and Visser were replaced by Nikolai Marzenko and Riccardo Agostini. Agostini finished the season with Hilmer, while Marzenko was replaced by Sebastian Balthasar after one event. Balthasar drove in five runs for Hilmer. Marzenko took over its cockpit for one run. In the ninth and final run, Hilmer only competed with two cars. Only Agostini managed to score points throughout the season and Hilmer ended his involvement in the GP3 series after one season.

Hilmer finished the team ranking in penultimate place with 18 points.

Results

GP2 Series

In detail

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

GP3 Series

In detail

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

Notes

References

References

1. (16 January 2013). "Hilmer Motorsport joins GP2 Series field". GP2 Motorsport Limited.