Ultimate Motorsport was a British racing team who completed in the British Formula 3 Championship and the

World Series by Renault The Renault Sport Series (formerly known as World Series by Renault) is a motor racing series. The series latterly consisted of the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, and used to contain the Renault Sport Trophy and the Formula Renault 3.5 Series. T ...

Championship. The team closed near the end of the 2009 season.

History

The team were formed in 2007 and was headed by Barry Walsh. He enlisted 2 ex McLaren personnel, Jonny Ostrowski and Colin Morgan to set up and run the team in the 2007

British Formula 3 Championship The British Formula Three Championship was an international motor racing series that took place primarily in the United Kingdom with a small number of events in mainland Europe. It was a junior-level feeder formula that used small single seat ...

. At the end of the year they joined forces with the French outfit

Signature-Plus Signatech, formerly known as Signature, is a French auto racing team and racing car constructor that competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship. The team won the FIA European Formula Three Cup in 1999 with Benoît Tréluyer. It won the F ...

to create Ultimate Signature, to run in the

in 2008. The team had considerable financial backing from the Angolan oil company

Sonangol Group Sonangol ( pt, Grupo Sonangol) is a parastatal that formerly oversaw petroleum and natural gas production in Angola. The group consisted of Sonangol E.P. ( pt, Sociedade Nacional de Combustíveis de Angola, E.P.) and its many subsidiaries. ...

, who have helped to create the Ultimate Motorsport Academy, which aims to take young drivers from

karting Kart racing or karting is a road racing variant of motorsport with open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on f ...

up 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, ...

, passing through various formulae such as

Formula BMW Formula BMW was a junior racing formula for single seater cars. It was positioned at the bottom of the motorsport career ladder alongside the longer established Formula Ford category. Like Formula Ford, it was intended to function as the young k ...

, Formula Three and World Series by Renault.

2008

The team began the season with two Brazilian drivers, long-time Formula Three racer

Fabio Carbone Fabio is a given name descended from Latin ''Fabius'' and very popular in Italy and Latin America (due to Italian migration). Its English equivalent is Fabian. The name is written without an accent in Italian and Spanish, but is usually accented ...

and Claudio Cantelli, who graduated from the

International Formula Master International Formula Master, also known as Formula Super 2000, was a European-based junior single seater formula. The series was conceived as a competitor for Formula Three and made its debut at Valencia in 2007. European television channel Euros ...

series. After a slow start to the season, which saw the team take one point from the first three rounds, Cantelli was replaced by Argentine

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 ...

, who was promoted from the Ultimate Motorsport

British Formula 3 The British Formula Three Championship was an international motor racing series that took place primarily in the United Kingdom with a small number of events in mainland Europe. It was a junior-level feeder formula that used small single seate ...

team. At the fifth round of the season in Hungary, Carbone took the team's first podium position with third place in the sprint race, and the following day he won their first race after starting from

Pole position In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the rac ...

. Carbone took two further victories at the

Nürburgring The is a 150,000 person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Formula One, Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long "North loop" track, built in the 1920s, around t ...

and

Estoril Estoril () is a town in the Municipality of Cascais, Portugal, on the Portuguese Riviera. It is a tourist destination, with luxury hotels, beaches, and the Casino Estoril. It has been home to numerous royal families and celebrities, and has host ...

to finish third in the standings behind

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 champion

Giedo van der Garde Giedo Gijsbertus Gerrit van der Garde (born 25 April 1985 in Rhenen, Netherlands) is a Dutch racing driver, currently competing in the 2022 IMSA SportsCar Championship for TDS Racing. From 2018 to 2021 he competed in the FIA World Endurance Cha ...

. After starting the feature race at

Le Mans Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Man ...

on pole, Guerrieri finished in third place to claim his first podium position before going on to win the final race of the season at

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

. He finished eighth in the championship despite missing the first five races of the season. After securing eight podiums over the course of the year, Ultimate Signature finished their début season in a superb second place in the Teams' championship.

2009

For the 2009 the team signed

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

driver Miguel Molina and

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

driver

Greg Mansell Greg Mansell (born 8 November 1987) is a British racing driver and road cyclist, currently racing in cycling's Halfords Tour Series, having previously competed in motorsports Formula Renault 3.5 Series. He is the son of 1992 Formula One world c ...

son of former

world champion,

Nigel Mansell Nigel Ernest James Mansell, (; born 8 August 1953) is a British retired racing driver who won both the Formula One World Championship (1992) and the CART Indy Car World Series ( 1993). Mansell was the reigning F1 champion when he moved over ...

, Molina scored 3 podium finishes during the season, while Mansell scored only 4 points. Just before the Nürburgring rounds, the team lost its Sonangol backing and Mansell also decided to leave the team, and as a result the team were forced to withdraw from the Championship.

World Series by Renault results

* Cantelli's points were scored with the

RC Motorsport RC Motorsport was an auto racing team based in Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territor ...

team

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ultimate Motorsport British auto racing teams Auto racing teams established in 2007 2007 establishments in the United Kingdom 2009 disestablishments in the United Kingdom World Series Formula V8 3.5 teams Formula 3 Euro Series teams Superleague Formula teams British Formula Three teams Auto racing teams disestablished in 2009