Rapax Team was an Italian

motor racing Motorsport, motorsports or motor sport is a global term used to encompass the group of competitive sporting events which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles. The terminology can also be used to describe forms of competition of two ...

team. The team's history can be traced back to when the GP Racing team was founded in 1997, and also to when Piquet Sports was created in 2000 by triple world champion

Nelson Piquet Nelson Piquet Souto Maior (, born 17 August 1952) is a Brazilian retired racing driver and businessman. Since his retirement, Piquet, a three-time World Champion, has been ranked among the greatest Formula One (F1) drivers in various motorspo ...

. In 2007, Piquet Sports and GP Racing merged to create "Minardi Piquet Sports". In 2008, the team dropped "Minardi" from their name."The Renaissance Men of GP2",

Autosport ''Autosport'' is a global motorsport publishing brand headquartered based in Richmond, London. It was established in 1950 at the same time as the origins of the Formula One World Championship. Autosport began life as a weekly magazine in 1950 ...

Magazine pg. 40–41. May 8, 2008 Issue (Vol. 192, No. 6) In early 2009, the team was sold and rebranded as

Piquet GP Piquet GP, formerly known as Minardi Piquet Sports or Minardi by Piquet Sports and Piquet Sports is a motor racing team. The team's history can be traced back to when the GP Racing team was founded in 1997, and also to when Piquet Sports was crea ...

, but changed its name again in November to Rapax Team, once all remaining ties to part-owner Piquet were cut.

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 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 ...

, after the

Legio XXI Rapax Legio XXI Rapax ("Predator, Twenty-First Legion") was a legion of the Imperial Roman army. It was founded in 31 BC by the emperor Augustus (), probably from men previously enlisted in other legions. The XXI ''Rapax'' was destroyed in 92 by the Sa ...

Roman legion.

Pastor Maldonado Pastor Rafael Maldonado Motta (; born 9 March 1985) is a Venezuelan professional racing driver, who competed in Formula One for the Williams (2011–2013) and Lotus (2014–2015) teams and as a Pirelli test driver until 2017. Before entering F ...

rejoined the team, alongside

Luiz Razia Luiz Tadeu Razia Filho (born 4 April 1989) is a Brazilian businessman and former racing driver. Career Early career Razia began his single seater career in 2005 in the South American Formula 3 championship. Driving for Dragão Motorsport, R ...

. 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 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 ...

, Maldonado graduated to Formula One with the Williams team and Razia moved to the new Caterham Team AirAsia; Rapax signed

Fabio Leimer Fabio Leimer (born 17 April 1989) is a former professional racing driver from Switzerland. He is best known for winning the 2013 GP2 Series. Career Karting Like many of today's racing drivers, Rothrist-born Leimer started his career in karting b ...

and

Julián Leal Ómar Julián Leal Covelli, commonly known as Julián Leal, (born May 11, 1990 in Bucaramanga) is a professional racing driver from Colombia. He has also competed with an Italian licence in the GP2 Series. Career Formula Renault 2.0 Leal began ...

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 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

, the team improved to ninth overall through the combined efforts of

Tom Dillmann Tom Dillmann (born 6 April 1989 in Mulhouse) is a French racing driver, formerly competing for Nio Formula E Team, in Formula E. He is probably best known for winning the German Formula Three Championship in the 2010 season and the Formula V8 ...

Stefano Coletti Stefano Coletti (born 6 April 1989) is a Monégasque professional racing driver who races for SMP Racing in the European Le Mans Series. His sister Alexandra Coletti is an alpine skier. He is the first Monégasque driver since Louis Chiron (1931) ...

Ricardo Teixeira Ricardo Terra Teixeira (; born June 20, 1947) is the former president of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF). He was in the office from January 16, 1989 to March 12, 2012. In July 2012 a Swiss prosecutor's report revealed that, during hi ...

and

Daniël de Jong Daniël de Jong (born 9 July 1992) is a professional racing driver from the Netherlands. Career Formula Renault 2.0 After a lengthy karting career in his native Holland and a brief stint in the Dutch Winter Endurance Series, de Jong made his s ...

. 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 Auto GP, sometimes referred to as the Auto GP World Series and formerly known as both Euro Formula 3000 and the Euroseries 3000, was a European formula racing series. The series' roots can be traced back to 1999 and the Italian Formula 3000 serie ...

racing commitments also resulted in him missing the final two races of the championship, for which he was replaced by

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 ...

refugee Coletti. By contrast, Teixeira competed in all but one round of the season, but failed to score any points. For

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

the team kept Coletti and signed with

Simon Trummer Simon Trummer (born 8 June 1989 in Frutigen, Canton of Bern) is a racing driver from Switzerland. Career Karting Trummer began his motorsport career in karting back in 2003, finishing second in the Swiss Junior Championship. He also finished 21 ...

. 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 Adrian Rodney Quaife-Hobbs (born 3 February 1991) is a British racing driver, notable for being the youngest driver to win the T Cars championship and the youngest ever winner of a MSA-sanctioned car racing series. He currently resides in Tonbri ...

. 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 The 2015 GP2 Series season was the forty-ninth season of the second-tier of Formula One feeder championship and also eleventh season under the GP2 Series moniker, a championship for open-wheel racing cars run as a support series to the 2015 Formul ...

, signing with Sergey Sirotkin and

Robert Vișoiu Robert Vișoiu (born 10 February 1996 in Pitești) is a former racing driver from Romania. Career Karting At the age of six, Vișoiu first sat behind the wheel of a kart, the beginning of his karting career. He raced primarily in his native Roma ...

. 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 Gustav Malja (born 4 November 1995) is a Swedish racing driver. Career Karting Born in Malmö, Sweden, Malja began his karting career in Formula Micro in 2006, winning the Gunnar Nilsson Memorial trophy the following year. By 2009 he had pro ...

. Malja remained with the team for the full 2016 GP2 Series campaign.

Arthur Pic Arthur Pic (born October 5, 1991) is a French retired racing driver. He competed in the GP2 Series between 2014 and 2016. Career Karting Like most top-line drivers, Pic began his racing career in karting, contesting the 2005 French Junior Champ ...

completed the team line-up. Malja had podiums at Spa and Monza, while Pic finished on podium at

Hockenheimring The Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg () is a motor racing circuit situated in the Rhine valley near the town of Hockenheim in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, located on the Bertha Benz Memorial Route. Amongst other motor racing events, it has hos ...

. Pic was replaced by

Johnny Cecotto Jr. Johnny Amadeus Cecotto, more commonly known as Johnny Cecotto Jr. (born 9 September 1989 in Augsburg, West Germany) is a racing driver. He races with a Venezuelan license but holds both German and Venezuelan nationality. He is the son of former ...

in the two final rounds. Rapax ended ninth in the team standings. In , the GP2 Series was rebranded to

FIA Formula 2 Championship The FIA Formula 2 Championship is a second-tier single-seater championship organised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Held on racing circuits, the championship was introduced in 2017, following the rebranding of the lo ...

. The team had started the season with Cecotto and

Nyck de Vries Hendrik Johannes Nicasius "Nyck" de Vries (; born 6 February 1995) is a Dutch racing driver who is currently serving as the reserve driver for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team. He is confirmed to be driving full-time in Formula 1 at Scuderia ...

. 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 Sergio Canamasas Español (born 30 April 1986) is a former racing driver from Spain. Career Formula Three Canamasas made his Formula racing debut in 2007, racing in the Spanish Formula Three Championship for the Cetea Sport team. He took part i ...

. Rapax field two new drivers at Spa, signing with

Louis Delétraz Louis Delétraz (born 22 April 1997) is a Swiss racing driver currently competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship and European Le Mans Series for Prema Orlen Team and in the IMSA SportsCar Championship for Tower Motorsport. He is the 201 ...

and

Roberto Merhi Roberto Merhi Muntan (born 22 March 1991), is a Spanish racing driver who drove in Formula One for the Manor Marussia F1 Team during the 2015 season. Merhi has also raced in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series for Pons Racing, and won the Formula 3 ...

René Binder René Binder (born 1 January 1992) is an Austrian racing driver. He is the nephew of former Formula One driver Hans Binder, and his father, Franz, was also a racing driver. Career Binder was born in Innsbruck. He began his racing career in kart ...

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

FIA Formula 2 Championship

† Shared his position and results with another team.

GP2 Series

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

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

FIA Formula 2 Championship

(

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

Notes and references

External links

Official website
{{s-end Italian auto racing teams GP2 Series teams Auto racing teams established in 2010 2010 establishments in Italy FIA Formula 2 Championship teams Auto racing teams disestablished in 2017