Piquet GP
| Founded | 1997 (as GP Racing) 2000 (as Piquet Sports) |
|---|---|
| Founder(s) | Tancredi Pagiaro (GP Racing) Nelson Piquet (Piquet Sports) |
| Folded | 2009 |
| Base | Veggiano, Padua, Italy |
| Former series |
GP2 Series GP2 Asia Series Formula 3000 Italian Formula 3000 A1 Grand Prix British Formula Three Championship Formula 3 Sudamericana |
| Noted drivers |
 Thomas Biagi Fabrizio del Monte Pastor Maldonado Diego Nunes Fabio Onidi Nelson Piquet Jr. Davide Rigon
|
| Teams' Championships |
Euroseries 3000: 2007 |
| Drivers' Championships |
Formula 3 Sudamericana 2002: Nelson Piquet Jr. British Formula Three Championship: 2004: Nelson Piquet Jr. Euroseries 3000: 2007: Davide Rigon Euroseries 3000: 2007: Davide Rigon |
Piquet GP, formerly known as Minardi Piquet Sports or Minardi by Piquet Sports andPiquet 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 created in 2000 by triple world champion Nelson Piquet. In 2007, Piquet Sports and GP Racing merged to create "Minardi Piquet Sports". In 2008, the team dropped "Minardi" from their name. In early 2009, the team was sold and rebranded as Piquet GP, but changed its name again in November to Rapax Team, once all remaining ties to part-owner Piquet were cut.
GP Racing was founded in 1997 by Tancredi Pagiaro to compete in the Italian Formula Three Championship. The team then debuted in the FIA International Formula 3000 championship in 1998 with French driver, Cyrille Sauvage, only managing two points. In 1999 they expanded to two cars with Italian, Fabrizio Gollin in one car and Giovanni Montanari, Gastón Mazzacane and Laurent Delahaye sharing the second. However none of the drivers managed to score points
Towards the end of 1999, GP Racing entered the Italian F3000 with just a single car driven by Thomas Biagi. Despite only competing in the last 3 races, Biagi scored enough points to end the season 4th in points. In 2000, Swiss driver Gabriele Gardel joined the team in a second car alongside Biagi. It was a somewhat disappointing season with Biagi only ending the season 5th with Gardel failing to score. GP Racing came 6th in the teams championship. Both Biagi and Gardel continued with the team in 2001. Biagi had a much better season taking the GP Racing's first win at Donington Park on his way to 2nd in the championship. Gardel came 9th overall while the team came 2nd in the teams championship. 2002 was once again a peak season: GP Racing came 4th out of the 14 teams that participated on the constructor’s classification with Alessandro Piccolo and Martin Basso. In 2003 for the third consecutive year, GP Racing competed in Euro 3000 Series Championship with promising young talents behind the wheel: Italian Fabrizio Del Monte, Russian Roman Rusinov and young Belgian Maxime Hodencq who replaced Rusinov for the last two races. Once again, it was a positive season for the team: Del Monte was second in the driver’s classification and GP Racing was third in the constructor’s title. In 2004, GP Racing confirmed its position at the top in Superfund Euro 3000 as well with Tor Graves joining Del Monte and Hodencq in a third car for the team. The title slipped out of Del Monte’s hands during the last race by one point only. The Italian had already conquered three wins, various podiums and was in the lead for 9 out of 10 races. An unfortunate collision with Graves at the start of the last round took the joy of winning the much deserved title away from Fabrizio and GP Racing. Hodencq scored 3 points on the way to 11th overall while Graves failed to score.
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