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An Overview of ART Grand Prix
By Shelley White July 2 2008
A rundown of ART Grand Prix which was formed in 2005 to compete in the GP2 Series and other single seater series across Europe. They're the most successful team thus far in GP2, being back to back Team and Drivers Champions in 2005 and 2006, with F1 success stories Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg piloting their Dallaras to the crowns.

Team Principal: Frédéric Vasseur and Nicolas Todt
Driver Car 1: Luca Filippi
Driver Car 2: Romain Grosjean

History: The French based squad was formed in 2005 by Frédéric Vasseur, the principal of ASM Formule 3, and Nicolas Todt, son of Ferrari CEO and reviver of Ferrari F1 fortunes, Jean Todt. Vasseur is responsible for the running of the team on a day to day basis, with Todt being team and driver manager.

In the inital 2005 GP2 Series ART Grand Prix were immediately successful. Nico Rosberg, son of former F1 World Driver Champion Keke was at the wheel of one of the cars, with Alexander Prémat in its sister. Together they drove the ART Grand Prix convincingly to the inaugural team championship, with more than 60 points to 2nd place getters Arden.  Rosberg also dominated and took away the drivers chamionship from fellow Formula 1 graduate Heikki Kovalainen.

In 2006 with Nico moving to Williams F1, the team retained Alexander and brought in McLaren protege Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton proved to be the find of the season, storming to the drivers championship from now Renault F1 driver Nelson Piquest Junior. Alexander proved to be a strong support player for the second season running, with his 3rd place in the championship ensuring that ART Grand Prix collected back to back driver and team trophies.

2007 was a step down for the team so used to winning, using four different drivers over the course of the season, after losing Lewis to McLaren F1 and Alex to DTM, including Sebastian Buemi, Mikhail Aleshin, Michael Ammermüller and Lucas Di Grassi. The latter was the only man to retain his seat over the whole season, securing second in the championship. The team just managed to hold on to second place as well in their title race from Campos Grand Prix by 6 points, having been beaten convincingly by iSport International for the top place.

2008:  ART Grand Prix hope to return to 2008 with some of their earlier form to take out both titles yet again. They begin the season with Honda F1 and Super Aguri F1 test driver Luca Filippi and Renault F1 test driver Romain Grosjean, after he won the GP2 Asia Series with ART.

Nicolas Todt: "In three years time, GP2 has become without a doubt the best series to detect the drivers who are ready to reach the pinnacle of Motorsport: F1. With the introduction of the new GP2/08 car, I expect this fact to carry on."

Romain Grosjean: “The GP2 Series is the logical step after the F3 Euroseries, but it is also the mandatory step to get into F1. The car is very close to the F1 cars and just as demanding technically and physically.”

Web: http://www.art-gp2.com/

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