Hilmer Motorsport joins GP2 Series field

German team given entry for 2013

GP2 Series organisers are pleased to announce that Hilmer Motorsport have been allocated an entry for the 2013 season. The German squad whose Team Principal Franz Hilmer already owns Formtech GmbH - a supplier for several Formula One teams - joins the thirteen team field in replacement of Ocean Racing Technology.

Hilmer Motorsport will run their GP2/11 cars for the first time on February 27-28-29 in Jerez, Spain where the first official pre-season testing will take place.

GP2 Series CEO Bruno Michel commented: “I am pleased to welcome Hilmer Motorsport to our category. It is the first time since the Series’ inception that we will have a German team in our field. They are already hard at work to be ready and competitive from the first pre-season test session next month in Jerez. I am sure that they will be a great addition to our grid.

I would like to thank Tiago Monteiro and everyone involved in his team for their work and dedication for the past four seasons.”

Hilmer Motorsport Team Principal Franz Hilmer added: “We are delighted that Hilmer Motorsport will participate to the prestigious GP2 Series. I would like to thank Bruno Michel for his support. We are currently working on putting together a strong team of highly experienced professionals in order to be ready for the first challenge of the season.”

Ocean Racing Technology Team Managers Tiago Monteiro and Jose Guedes said: “We are sad to announce that our team was forced to stop its activity in GP2 and GP3 due to financial difficulties caused by the lack of payment from our partners Parkalgar and the Portuguese Government.

We enjoyed the short time we were in both Series', we had a great time with success achieving wins and podiums, but unfortunately we cannot sustain our activity in these conditions. We sure hope to be back once these problems are solved, and in the meantime we wish a successful experience to Hilmer Motorsport and a great season to GP2 and our competitors.

We want to thank everyone for their support during those four years: fans, friends, employees, GP2, drivers and competitors.”

Robin Frijns will test 3 days with Trident at Jerez next week

That is such a risk for Frijns.

RUSSIAN TIME joins GP2 Series

Russian team gets entry for the Series in 2013

GP2 Series organisers are pleased to announce that RUSSIAN TIME have been allocated an entry for the 2013 season. Currently based in Germany, the squad becomes the first Russian team to join the thirteen team field in replacement of iSport International.

RUSSIAN TIME will run their GP2/11 cars this week at Circuit de Catalunya where the final official pre-season testing of the Series takes place on March 05-06-07.

GP2 Series CEO Bruno Michel said: “I am pleased to welcome RUSSIAN TIME to the GP2 Series. I am certain that they will be a great addition to our field. Igor Mazepa has already put in place a team of staff with some great GP2 experience which will help them be able to be on pace very quickly.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank iSport International and Paul Jackson for eight great seasons in GP2 and wish them all the best for the future.”

RUSSIAN TIME Team Principal Igor Mazepa added: “We’re very happy to be joining the GP2 Series. It is one of the most prestigious categories in motorsport and we cannot wait to start running with the car this week in Barcelona. We know that it will be a challenge to be quickly on par with the other teams, but we have managed to put together a group of people whose experience in GP2 will be invaluable and we are pretty confident that we will do a good job from the get-go. We’re looking forward to this first season and hope to add many more to it!”

Speaking of RUSSIAN TIME, they've signed Tom Dillmann. Great acquisition for them.

Mitch Evans only has a part time budget.

Also, Sam bird is back. I didn't see any fr 3.5 last year. Did he improve? Last time in gp2 he was good but looked to need that next step up in skills to start winning