The 2011 Superleague Formula season was the fourth and final season

Superleague Formula Superleague Formula was an open wheel single seater motor racing formula, which started in 2008, at Donington Park in the United Kingdom. The league introduced team sponsorship by association football clubs. It used the slogan 'The Beautiful ...

championship. The series reverted to being known simply as "Superleague Formula", with 2009's two-year sponsorship deal with Sonangol also having expired. The first race of the season was held on 5 June at

Assen Assen () is a municipality and a city in the northeastern Netherlands, and is the capital (politics), capital of the province of Drenthe. It received City rights in the Netherlands, city rights in 1809. Assen is known for TT Circuit Assen, the ...

and was due to finish at a venue in New Zealand after 8 race weekends. After three seasons in which the cars were run in club team colours, the 2011 season saw drivers competing in the colours of their nation, with countries adorning team names as had been set out by Team China in

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

, thus beginning a severing of the strong links the series had attempted to make by linking each team entry with a football club. As many as eight of the announced fourteen entries no longer had links with football teams. The season ended after just two of the scheduled rounds after a number of complications, which saw tracks not being ready in time for the series, and disagreements with race organisers.

Teams and drivers

* All teams competed on

Michelin Michelin (; ; full name: ) is a French multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes ''région'' of France. It is the second largest tyre manufacturer in the world behind Bridgestone and la ...

tyres for the fourth season in a row.

Driver changes

Entering/Re-Entering Superleague Formula *After racing the 2010 season in

Stock Car Brasil Stock Car Pro Series, formerly known as Stock Car Brasil, is a touring car auto racing series based in Brazil organized by Vicar. It is considered the major Brazilian and South American motorsports series. Starting in 1979 with Chevrolet as the ...

Antônio Pizzonia Antônio Reginaldo Pizzonia Júnior (born 11 September 1980) is a Brazilian professional racing driver who has raced in Formula One and the Champ Car World Series. Born in Manaus, he started his car racing career in the Formula Vauxhall Junior s ...

returns to Superleague Formula with the

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

entrant. *

Formula Renault 3.5 Series The World Series Formula V8 3.5, formerly the World Series by Nissan from 1998 to 2004, the Formula Renault 3.5 Series from 2005 to 2015 and the Formula V8 3.5 in 2016 and 2017, was a motor racing series promoted by RPM Racing (1998–2004) and R ...

driver

Filip Salaquarda Filip Salaquarda (born January 11, 1984 in Prague) is a professional racing driver from the Czech Republic. Career Early career After an early career in karting, Salaquarda began his racing career in 2000 in his native Czech Republic, competing ...

will join new Superleague Formula club,

AC Sparta Prague ) but refer to Spartans as "''Rudí''" ( en, The Dark Reds/The Maroons).'' Letenští'' , ground = Generali Česká pojišťovna Arena , capacity = 19,416 , clubname = Sparta Prague , image = Sparta Praha logo.png , image_size = 160px , fu ...

, supported by Atech Reid Grand Prix. Leaving Superleague Formula *

Adderly Fong Adderly Fong Cheun-yue (Traditional Chinese: 方駿宇; Pinyin: ''Fāng Jùnyǔ''; born March 2, 1990) is a Canadian-Hong Kong racing driver. His career started in 2004. He is currently competing in the Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia racing se ...

and

Hywel Lloyd Hywel Lloyd (born 14 March 1985 in Corwen, Wales) is a racing driver, currently driving in the British Formula 3 Championship The British Formula Three Championship was an international motor racing series that took place primarily in the ...

will both move back to British Formula 3 in

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

with Sino Vision Racing, as will Bruno Méndez, racing for

Hitech Racing Hitech Grand Prix (formerly known as Hitech Racing) is a British motor racing team. It was founded in 2002 by Dennis Rushen and David Hayle. The team started racing in the British Formula 3 Championship in 2003. The team also competed in the So ...

. * Having contested the final race of the 2010 season with

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; en, Philips Sports Association ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional football department, whi ...

Esteban Guerrieri Esteban Guerrieri (born 19 January 1985 in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine racing driver. He was the most successful driver in the WTCR series in terms of wins. Career Formula racing After graduating from karts, Guerrieri competed in various F ...

will move into

Firestone Indy Lights Indy NXT, previously Indy Lights, is an American developmental automobile racing series sanctioned by IndyCar, currently known as Firestone Indy NXT Series for sponsorship reasons. Indy Lights is the highest step on the Road to Indy, a program ...

with

Sam Schmidt Motorsports The IndyCar Series operation of McLaren (competing as Arrow McLaren due to sponsorship) is based in Indianapolis and was founded by former IndyCar driver Sam Schmidt in 2001 as Sam Schmidt Motorsports. After a series of partnerships and name ...

. *

Máximo Cortés Máximo Cortés (born 13 April 1988 in Móstoles, Madrid) is a Spanish racing driver who competes in single seater formulae. Career Formula Three After a first successful season in the Master Junior Formula, finishing the season as runner-up, C ...

Julien Jousse Julien Jousse (born 21 January 1986 in Les Issambres) is a professional racing driver from France. Career Formula Ford After spending time in karting between 1997 and 2001, Jousse began has circuit racing career in 2002 in the Formula Ford Kent ...

and James Walker will race in the

Le Mans Series The European Le Mans Series (abbreviated as ELMS) is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the fo ...

, having raced in Superleague Formula on different occasions in 2010. *

Narain Karthikeyan Kumar Ram Narain Karthikeyan (born 14 January 1977) is an Indian racing driver. He was the first Indian driver to compete in Formula One. He has previously competed in A1GP, and the Le Mans Series. He has won multiple races in A1GP, British F3, ...

, who raced for

during much of 2010, will return to

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

with

Hispania Racing HRT Formula 1 Team, formerly known as Campos Meta 1 and Hispania Racing, was a Spanish Formula One team founded by former driver Adrián Campos. It was sold to José Ramón Carabante before its debut in 2010, and then to investment group ...

following a five-year absence from the series. *

Celso Míguez Celso Míguez Pereira (born 1 May 1982 in Pontevedra, Galicia) is a Spanish racing driver. He has competed in such series as Formula Renault 3.5 Series, World Series Lights and Euroseries 3000. He was runner-up to Bruno Méndez in the 2009 Eu ...

will race in the

Spanish GT Championship The Spanish GT Championship / Iber GT (''Campeonato de España de GT / Iber GT'') was a Spanish auto racing series founded in 1999 and organised by the GT Sport Organización. The series runs multiple classes of grand tourer cars in events aroun ...

in 2011 with Aurora Racing Team having competed in Superleague Formula at two events during 2010. * Last year's Superleague Formula champion

Davide Rigon Davide Rigon (born 26 August 1986) is an Italian professional racing driver who is currently competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship and other selected GT races for AF Corse. He is also currently part of the Scuderia Ferrari Formula ...

will make the step up to the

GP2 Series The GP2 Series was a form of open wheel motor racing introduced in 2005 following the discontinuation of the long-term Formula One feeder series, Formula 3000. The GP2 format was conceived by Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore, while Eccle ...

with team

Scuderia Coloni Coloni Motorsport, also known as Scuderia Coloni, was an auto racing team from Italy. Formed by Enzo Coloni in 1983, the team participated in Formula Three between 1983 and 1986, before racing in Formula One as Enzo Coloni Racing Car Systems bet ...

Mid-season changes

Chris van der Drift Christopher Jason van der Drift (born 8 March 1986) is a New Zealand racing driver of Dutch descent. Career Van der Drift started karting at the age of 7 and in 1994 he raced his first year in cadets. From there he went on to win 6 New Zealand ...

switched to the

for the start of

but returned to Superleague Formula for round two in Zolder.

Max Wissel Maximilian "Max" Wissel (born 24 November 1989) is a German racing driver. Since 2008 he has raced in the Superleague Formula and has raced for FC Basel 1893 Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swis ...

rejoined the series with new entrant

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

, and

Mikhail Aleshin Mikhail Petrovich Aleshin ( rus, Михаи́л Петро́вич Алёшин, p=mʲɪxɐˈil pʲɪˈtrovʲɪtɕ ɐˈlʲɵʂɨn, born 22 May 1987 in Moscow, Soviet Union) is a Russian professional racing driver and the 2010 champion of the For ...

joined the other new entrant,

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, racing in Superleague Formula for the first time.

Robert Doornbos Robert Michael Doornbos (; born 23 September 1981) is a Dutch former racing driver who also competed with a Monégasque licence. He has been test and third driver for the Jordan and Red Bull Racing Formula One teams, as well as driving for Mi ...

took over from

Duncan Tappy Duncan Tappy (born 26 June 1984 in West Ewell, Surrey) is a professional racing driver from the United Kingdom. Racing career Early career Tappy began his racing career in karting, finishing runner-up in the 2004 UK Formula Ford championshi ...

in the championship-leading

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

car, with Tappy moving to the Galatasaray car to replace

Andy Soucek Andy may refer to: People *Andy (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Horace Andy (born 1951), Jamaican roots reggae songwriter and singer born Horace Hinds *Katja Andy (1907–2013), German-American pianist and piano ...

, who in turn replaces

María de Villota María de Villota Comba (13 January 1979 – 11 October 2013) was a Spanish racing driver. She was the daughter of former Formula One driver Emilio de Villota, and sister of Emilio de Villota Jr., who similarly competed in Formula Palmer Au ...

at Atlético de Madrid.

2011 Schedule

* Superleague Formula announced its full 2011 calendar on May 2, which saw the championship embark on a "Nations Cup", with races on four different continents this season in 8 rounds. For the first time, races were scheduled to be held in Russia, Brazil (two races), the Middle East and New Zealand. The Russian round, due to be held at the newly built

Smolensk Ring The Smolensk Ring is a circuit in western Russia near the town of Safonovo in the settlement of Verkhnedneprovsky. It is located east of its namesake city of Smolensk and about west of Moscow. The construction of the circuit started in 2007, ...

, was later cancelled. The Middle East round was later replaced by a round in South Korea and a second round in China was added to replace the Russian round. The two rounds in Brazil were cancelled after apparent issues with the track in Goiânia. The series finale in New Zealand was later cancelled. The "Nations Cup" branding also had to be abandoned due to issues with naming rights which the series was still looking to resolve. * With the announcement of the calendar, it was confirmed that each round was known as a 'Grand Prix'. * The SF World Feed commentators at Zolder were Andrew Coley and

Earl Bamber Earl Anderson Bamber (born 9 July 1990) is a professional racing driver from New Zealand, currently competing as a factory driver for Porsche Motorsport in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTLM class. He is the 2014 Porsche Supercup and ...

Race calendar and results

Cancelled races

Test calendar and results

* There was a two-day pre-season test session at Spain's Circuito Monteblanco on 9–10 December 2010. * The

Circuito de Navarra Circuito de Navarra is a motorsport race track that opened in June 2010 near Los Arcos in the Navarre region of Northern Spain. It is a permanent road course that hosted the Superleague Formula series and the FIA GT1 World Championship. Histo ...

in Spain was due to host a two-day test on 30–31 August 2011. However, the scheduled event was cancelled, without an explanatory announcement.

Championship standings

;Race 1 and 2 points ;Super Final points * New for 2011 was the alteration that the top 8 points-scorers from the weekend would compete in the Super Final, in contrast to 2010 where only the top 6 would qualify.

References

External links

Superleague Formula Official Website

V12 Racing: Independent Superleague Formula Fansite Magazine

Superleague Formula at thenewsmarket.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:2011 Superleague Formula Season Superleague Formula season Superleague Formula season