SMP Racing is a Russian racing team and driver academy mostly known for competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship, FIA Formula 2 Championship and FIA Formula 3 Championship with the goal of training and unveiling new talents[1] from Russia.[2] The team was founded in 2013 by Boris Rotenberg, co-founder of the SMP Bank of Russia.
| Founded | 2013 |
|---|---|
| Nation |  Russia |
| Founder(s) | Boris Rotenberg |
| Base | Moscow, Russia |
| Website | www |
History
editOrigins
editThe team was founded in 2012 by the Russian oligarch Boris Rotenberg, co-founder of SMP bank and CEO of Russian race car construction company BR Engineering.
They first competed in the FIA World Endurance Championship with the goal of supporting new talents from Russia and giving them the chance to compete in international motorsport.
Boris Rotenberg
editBorn in Saint Petersburg, Russia on the 3 January 1957 Boris Rotenberg is known as the co-founder of SMP Bank and CEO of the largest construction company for gas pipelines and electrical power supply lines in Russia (StroyGazMontazh).
In 2001 Boris and his brother both founded the SMP bank of Russia one of the largest banks in Russia.
Boris is the CEO and founder of a race car construction company called BR Engineering. The same company which created the BR Engineering BR1 and BR Engineering BR01 with both cars having podiums in their categories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Current status
editThe team went quiet across all of their social media accounts. Along with a number of other Russian teams at the time which were competing in international motorsports.
The team also announced they would not return to the FIA World Endurance Championship or the European Le Mans Series.
This was expected to be due to the FIA announcing new requirements for Russian drivers and teams competing in international motorsport as a response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
FIA World Endurance Championship
editSMP Racing competed in the FIA World Endurance Championship full time between the years of 2014-2016. Making one return for the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans and returned later for the 2018–19 FIA World Endurance Championship season.
The team were mildly successful throughout their whole time in the series, However their most successful year in the Championship came in 2015, where the team collected 6 podiums, 3 wins and finished 1st in the LMGTE AM category.
24 Hours of Le Mans
edit
The team again had another mildly successful career at the 24 Hours of Le Mans by finishing first with Ferrari 458 GT2 in LMGTE category in 2015 and finishing third with BR1 LMP1 prototype in overall category in 2019 only behind two Toyota's, making them the fastest non-factory team.[3]
FIA Formula 2 Championship
editSMP Racing never had their own team in the FIA Formula 2 Championship however they still had a young driver program for young and upcoming Russian drivers such as Robert Shwartzman and Sergey Sirotkin.
The program was cancelled in May 2022 due to the FIA announcing requirements on Russian drivers competing in international motorsport. These rules were announced as a response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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Other championships
edit- FIA Formula 1 World Championship
- FIA Formula 3 Championship
- Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup
- European Drag Racing Championship
- Eurocup Formula Renault
- SMP Formula 4 Championship
- F4 Spanish Championship
- Italian F4 Championship
- CIK-FIA Karting European Championship
- Russian Circuit Racing Series
- Russian Drag Racing Championship
- WSK Super Master Series
- Russian Karting Championship and Cup
- European Le Mans Series
- GP2 Series
- Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0
- SMP F4 Championship[4]
List Of Drivers
edit
Mikhail Aleshin- Vladimir Atoev
Fabio Babini- Aleksey Basov
- Michael Belov
Olivier Beretta- Andrea Bertolini
- Matteo Bobbi
Aleksander Bosak- Gianmaria Bruni
Jenson Button- James Calado
- Stefano Coletti
Mitch Evans
Lucas Foresti- Antonio Fuoco
Sean Gelael- Antonio Giovinazzi
- Brendon Hartley
- Matevos Isaakyan
- Aleksey Korneev
- Kirill Ladygin
Konsta Lappalainen
Julián Leal- Roman Mavlanov
- Michael Meadows
Nicolas Minassian
Miguel Molina- Daniil Move
- Norman Nato
- Harrison Newey
- Egor Orudzhev
- Luca Persiani
- Vitaly Petrov
- Alessandro Pier Guidi
- Davide Rigon
- Mika Salo
- Stéphane Sarrazin
- Elias Seppänen
- Viktor Shaytar
- Robert Shwartzman
- Irina Sidorkova
- Sergey Sirotkin
- Alexander Smolyar
- Konstantin Tereshchenko
- Nikita Troitskiy
Vladimiros Tziortzis
Stoffel Vandoorne- Matthieu Vaxivière
- Toni Vilander
Andreas Wirth- Daniel Zampieri
- Sergey Zlobin
Series Results
editComplete FIA World Endurance Championship Results
edit| Year | Class | Drivers | No. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | T.C. | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | LMP2 | Sergey Zlobin Maurizio Mediani Nicolas Minassian Anton Ladygin Mika Salo
|
27 | SIL 3 |
SPA 4 |
LMS 1 |
COA 2 |
FUJ 3 |
SHA 2 |
BHR Ret |
SÃO 2 |
1st | 146 | |
| Kirill Ladygin Viktor Shaytar Anton Ladygin Maurizio Mediani Nicolas Minassian
|
37 | SIL Ret |
SPA 3 |
LMS Ret |
COA Ret |
FUJ 4 |
SHA 3 |
BHR 2 |
SÃO Ret |
4th | 60 | |||
| 2015 | LMGTE AM |
Viktor Shaytar Aleksey Basov Andrea Bertolini
|
72 | SIL 3 |
SPA 3 |
LMS 1 |
NÜR 1 |
COA 1 |
FUJ 6 |
SHA 3 |
BHR 5 |
1st | 165 | |
| 2016 | LMP2 | Maurizio Mediani Nicolas Minassian David Markozov Mikhail Aleshin
|
27 | SIL 9 |
SPA Ret |
LMS 5 |
NÜR 8 |
MEX 6 |
COA 4 |
FUJ 8 |
SHA 6 |
BHR 8 |
8th | 62 |
| Vitaly Petrov Viktor Shaytar Kirill Ladygin
|
37 | SIL 7 |
SPA 7 |
LMS 3 |
NÜR 6 |
MEX Ret |
COA 6 |
FUJ 10 |
SHA 7 |
BHR 7 |
6th | 71 | ||
| 2018–19 | LMP1 | Mikhail Aleshin Vitaly Petrov Jenson Button Brendon Hartley Stoffel Vandoorne
|
11 | SPA 5 |
LMS Ret |
SIL Ret |
FUJ 4 |
SHA 3 |
SEB 3 |
SPA 3 |
LMS 3 |
4th | 94 | |
| Stéphane Sarrazin Egor Orudzhev Matevos Isaakyan Sergey Sirotkin
|
17 | SPA Ret |
LMS Ret |
SIL 3 |
FUJ Ret |
SHA Ret |
SEB NC |
SPA 4 |
LMS Ret |
14th | 27 |
European Le Mans Series
edit24 Hours of Le Mans
editGT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup
edit| Year | Car | Drivers | No. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T.C. | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Ferrari 488 GTE | Sergey Sirotkin (All)[5] Miguel Molina (Rd. 1-3)[6] Davide Rigon(Rd. 1-3)[7] Antonio Fuoco (Rd. 4)[8] Toni Vilander (Rd. 4)[9]
|
72 | IMO 20 |
SPA 14 |
NUR 19 |
LEC 7 |
1st[a] | 80 |
- Notes
- ^ While SMP was awarded the teams championship, the number 51 AF Corse Ferrari scored all the points.
Branding
editSMP Racing also was a moniker for these teams, when SMP sponsored them:
- ADM Motorsport, a motor racing team based in Italy.
- AF Corse, a motor racing team based in Italy.
- AV Formula, a motor racing team based in Spain.
- Comtec Racing, a motor racing team based in the United Kingdom.
- Euronova Racing, a motor racing team based in Italy.
- Koiranen GP, a motor racing team based in Finland.
- Russian Bears Motorsport, a motor racing team based in Russia.
- Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, а motor racing team based in USA
See also
edit- Escuderia Telmex, a Mexican team founded by similar ambitions.
References
edit- ^ Laurent Mercier (9 May 2014). "The present and future of SMP Racing". Motorsport.com.
- ^ a b "About the program". smpracing.ru. Retrieved 2023-07-19.
- ^ "Track Record". 24h-lemans.com. Retrieved 2023-07-19.
- ^ "List of series which SMP compete in on official website".
- ^ Sergey Sirontkin GTWC stats page
- ^ Miguel Monilana gtwc page
- ^ davide rigon GTWC stats page
- ^ antonio fuoco GTWC page
- ^ Toni Vilander GTWC stats page
External links
edit
- Official website (in Russian)