Rapax Team

History

During 2009, the team was sold and all remaining ties with part-owner Nelson Piquet were severed. The team was rebranded "Rapax" (Latin for "predator") at the beginning of 2010, after the Legio XXI Rapax Roman legion. Pastor Maldonado rejoined the team, alongside Luiz Razia. Maldonado won six races on his way to the drivers' championship, and Razia backed him up with 11th place overall, allowing Rapax to win the teams' championship for the first time, and in the first year of its new identity.

For 2011, Maldonado graduated to Formula One with the Williams team and Razia moved to the new Caterham Team AirAsia; Rapax signed Fabio Leimer and Julián Leal to replace them. Leimer won a single race but was unable build on it, restricting him to fourteenth place in the drivers' championship, whilst Leal did not score at all; Rapax dropped to tenth in the teams' championship.

In 2012, the team improved to ninth overall through the combined efforts of Tom Dillmann, Stefano Coletti, Ricardo Teixeira and Daniël de Jong. Dillmann was the most successful with a single victory, but was dropped for budgetary reasons mid-season and replaced by De Jong. De Jong's Auto GP racing commitments also resulted in him missing the final two races of the championship, for which he was replaced by Scuderia Coloni refugee Coletti. By contrast, Teixeira competed in all but one round of the season, but failed to score any points.

For 2013 the team kept Coletti and signed with Simon Trummer. Coletti took three race wins and improved to the fifth place in the standings. While Trummer had six point-scoring finishes on his way to the 20th place in the driver standings.

Trummer was retained for the 2014 GP2 Series. He was joined by Adrian Quaife-Hobbs. The team had suffered a weak season, with just one podium that Quaife-Hobbs had collected.

The team had completely changed their line-up for the 2015 GP2 Series, signing with Sergey Sirotkin and Robert Vișoiu. The team had scored its first win since 2013 Monaco round with Sirotkin in the 2015 Silverstone round. Sirotkin was also the first Rapax driver since Maldonado who had finished in the top-three in the driver standings with the team. For the last two rounds of the season Visoiu was replaced by Gustav Malja.

Malja remained with the team for the full 2016 GP2 Series campaign. Arthur Pic completed the team line-up. Malja had podiums at Spa and Monza, while Pic finished on podium at Hockenheimring. Pic was replaced by Johnny Cecotto Jr. in the two final rounds. Rapax ended ninth in the team standings.

In , the GP2 Series was rebranded to FIA Formula 2 Championship. The team had started the season with Cecotto and Nyck de Vries. De Vries won the Sprint Monaco F2 race — the first race win for the Rapax since Sirotkin in 2015. At Spielberg Cecotto was replaced by Sergio Canamasas. Rapax field two new drivers at Spa, signing with Louis Delétraz and Roberto Merhi. René Binder had a one-off round appearance for Rapax at Jerez. Despite not having a permanent driver line-up, results shown by De Vries helped the team to achieve fifth place in the teams standings — the highest position since they took the teams' championship back in 2010. But the team decided to stop their racing activity and leave the FIA Formula 2 Championship.

Results

GP2 Series

† Includes points scored for Scuderia Coloni.

‡ Includes points scored for Trident Racing.

FIA Formula 2 Championship

† Shared his position and results with another team.

GP2 Series

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

GP2 Final

(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)

FIA Formula 2 Championship

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

References

1. "Rapax — GP2 Series - ©2010". GP2 Motorsport Limited.
2. "The Renaissance Men of GP2", [[Autosport]] Magazine pg. 40–41. May 8, 2008 Issue (Vol. 192, No. 6)
3. (17 February 2015). "Sirotkin makes GP2 switch with Rapax". formulascout.com.
4. (6 March 2015). "Robert Visoiu completes Rapax 2015 line up". GP2 Motorsport Limited.
5. (4 July 2015). "Sergey Sirotkin takes first GP2 victory in Silverstone feature race". formulascout.com.
6. Allen, Peter. (16 November 2015). "Malja back in GP2 for final two rounds, replacing Visoiu at Rapax". Paddock Scout.
7. (16 February 2016). "Rapax to field Gustav Malja for 2016 season". GP2 Motorsport Limited.
8. (28 January 2016). "Rapax and Arthur Pic join forces for 2016 GP2 Series". GP2 Motorsport Limited.
9. (11 March 2017). "Rapax to race with Cecotto and De Vries".
10. (6 July 2017). "Marciello returns to single-seaters for Red Bull Ring F2 round". [[Motorsport.com]].
11. Vega, Jacobo. (17 November 2017). "Ex-Formula 1 driver Roberto Merhi back to Formula 2 again". Autosport.
12. (3 October 2017). "Binder joins Rapax for Jerez F2 round". SportUpdate.
13. (29 December 2017). "ASSESSING THE 2018 FORMULA 2 DRIVER MARKET". readmotorsport.com.