Russian Time

Russian Time

Founded	2013
Founder(s)	Igor Mazepa
Base	Norwich, Norfolk, England
Team principal(s)	Svetlana Strelnikova
Current series	GP2 Series
Current drivers	Raffaele Marciello Artem Markelov
Teams' Championships	GP2 Series: 2013
Website	http://www.rus-time.com

Russian Time (previously known as RT Russian Time) is a Russian motor racing team founded by Igor Mazepa to compete in the GP2 Series, a category of open-wheel racing cars designed to prepare drivers for Formula One.

The team is currently managed by Virtuosi Racing.

Racing history

GP2 Series

Russian Time was established by former Russian racing driver and manager Igor Mazepa and Motopark Academy team principal Timo Rumpfkeil in 2013.^[1][2] The team had sought an entry to the GP2 Series for two years before finally being accepted in 2013, replacing iSport International.^[2] iSport International withdrew from the series after being unable to secure a budget to compete in the upcoming season, and so its management elected to shut the team down in order to avoid bankruptcy.^[3]

The team won its first race in only its fourth appearance, when Sam Bird won the sprint race of the Bahrain round of the championship.^[4] The team took a second win on the streets of Monaco, with Bird finishing ahead of Kevin Ceccon after a fourteen-car pile-up on the opening lap forced nine drivers out of the race.^[5] In 2014, the team made their debut in GP3 Series, taking Bamboo Engineering's slot and continue to participate in GP2, German Formula Three and ADAC Formel Masters.^[6][7]

The team's preparations for the 2014 season were disrupted by the death of Mazepa from complications relating to thrombosis in February 2014. Following this, Motopark ended their partnership with team, leaving their participation in the 2014 GP2 and GP3 seasons in limbo.^[8] The team reunited with iSport International to continue their GP2 programme, signing Mitch Evans and Artem Markelov, but chose to abandon their plans for their GP3 entry, selling it on to Hilmer Motorsport.

Evans and Markelov will be retained for the 2015 season, the first time a GP2 team has entered back to back seasons with the same lineup since DAMS retained Kamui Kobayashi and Jérôme d'Ambrosio in 2009. But the team changed the management from iSport to Virtuosi Racing.^[9] The team finished fifth in the team's championship, with two sprint race wins for Evans.

For the 2016 season, Markelov was retained for a third season with Raffaele Marciello joining the team.

Results

GP2 Series

With Motopark Academy

Year	Car	Drivers	Races	Wins	Poles	F.L.	Points	D.C.	T.C.
2013	Dallara-Mecachrome	Sam Bird	22	5	2	3	181	2nd	1st
		Tom Dillmann	22	0	1	2	92	10th

With iSport International

Year	Car	Drivers	Races	Wins	Poles	F.L.	Points	D.C.	T.C.
2014	Dallara-Mecachrome	Mitch Evans	22	2	0	1	174	4th	5th
		Artem Markelov	22	0	0	0	6	24th

With Virtuosi Racing

Year	Car	Drivers	Races	Wins	Poles	F.L.	Points	D.C.	T.C.
2015	Dallara-Mecachrome	Mitch Evans	21	2	0	3	135	5th	5th
		Artem Markelov	21	0	0	0	48	13th
2016	Dallara-Mecachrome	Raffaele Marciello	22	0	0	0	159	4th	3rd
		Artem Markelov	22	1	0	3	97	10th

References

1. Игорь Мазепа: Мы ведём переговоры с Диллманом и Фряйнсом (in Russian). F1news.ru. 7 March 2013. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
2. Kabanovsky, Aleksander (5 March 2013). "Russian Time hopes Motopark tie-up will build driver ladder into F1". Autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 5 March 2013.
3. Bradley, Charles (22 February 2013). "iSport on verge of selling GP2 entry". Autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
4. Bradley, Charles (21 April 2013). "Bahrain GP2: Bird wins thrilling sprint race victory by 0.08s". Autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
5. Bradley, Charles (24 May 2013). "Monaco GP2: Sam Bird wins in Monte Carlo again". Autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 24 May 2013.
6. Allen, Peter (27 September 2013). "Russian Time joins GP3 field for 2014". Paddock Scout. Retrieved 27 September 2013.
7. "Lotus team to compete in the 2014 ATS Formula 3 Cup". German Formula Three Championship. Formel-3-Vereinigung e.V. 30 October. Retrieved 3 November 2013. We will contest the ADAC Formula Masters, the GP3 and GP2 in 2014. Therefore we can pave the way for young talents to smoothly advance from karting towards Formula 1. We will announce the drivers shortly before the end of the year. Check date values in: |date= (help)
8. Autosport. 17 February 2014 http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/112544. Missing or empty |title= (help)
9. Mills, Peter (18 March 2015). "Virtuosi to run Russian Time GP2 team". uk.eurosport.yahoo.com. Eurosport. Retrieved 18 March 2015.

External links

• Official website (English)(Russian)