RejectSport wrote:AutoReject World Series 2018 Review - Part 2: Knocking on the Door
Kamaha Revolution Motorsports - Yamaha
2018 WCC Position – 7th (13 pts)
2018 WDC Position – 12th (Akira Yamamura – 13 pts*), 33rd (Daniel Melville – 0 pts), 37th (Barii Mori – 0 pts), 42nd (Rosco Vantini, 0 pts)
For several years now, the once proud Kamaha team had been the laughing stock of the ARWS, and the first half of this year was no exception. Having a washed-up Rosco Vantini to lead the team was a puzzling choice to most, and Daniel Melville in the other car had never been one of the most-highly rated drivers. Coupled with what was essentially an updated 2017 car, and the writing was well and truly on the wall for the team as they went scoreless for the entire first half of the year.
That all changed however when Japanese rookie Akira Yamamura was brought in along with a brand new B-Spec car. The Tassie refugee reveled in the new environment, and managed to score two podiums for the team by the end of the year. Yamamura’s impressive performances also acted to motivate Melville in the other car, as the Australian put in several impressive qualifying efforts in the second half of the year. However, multiple technical gremlins with the new car prevented Melville from breaking his pointless streak by the end of the season.
The team enters 2019 with hot form and renewed faith from engine supplier Yamaha, and look likely to continue the success into next season. The team were quick to show faith in Yamamura by signing the young charger to a full-time deal early on in proceedings, and while the team is yet to secure a second driver for next year, the team’s new-found successes has opened many options previously unavailable to them. With a promising chassis and engine package to build upon, there’s nothing to suggest that the team won’t add to their tally of podiums next season.
2018 Rating: 6.5/10
2019 WCC Prediction: 7th
Venturi Formula - Yamaha
2018 WCC Position – 8th (7 pts)
2018 WDC Position – 13th (Alessandro Lucarelli – 12 pts*), 22nd (Shinobu Katayama – 2 pts), 30th (Jean-Vincent Albertini – 0 pts)
Venturi Formula weren’t on the ARWS grid until mid-January after the last-minute withdrawal of Sunshine Racing and the decision by the Commonwealth Group to focus on their highly successful Formula One program. In that regard, the team acquitted themselves well by striking up a technical partnership with Voeckler GPE and acquiring customer Yamaha engines. The team also did well on the driver front, signing experienced campaigners Jean-Vincent Albertini and Shinobu Katayama to spearhead the team for 2018.
However, neither of them were to score the team’s biggest result of the season. That fell upon Alessandro Lucarelli, who was brought into the team after losing his seat at Kjellerup to Dutchman Bastiaan van Nieuwenhuijzen. The Italian scored a scarcely believable third place for the team in Germany, and was rather unlucky to add more to the tally. Katayama in the other car scored more points in her home race in Japan, which helped the team finish a respectable 8th in their first season of competition.
Despite that however, none of their 2018 drivers will be retained for the upcoming season. Venturi scored a minor coup signing the highly-experienced Fredo Mestolio to lead the team into 2019, and alongside him have added AR3.5 front-runner Kenan Ardaoglu. Ardaoglu has already proven extremely difficult to deal with in the paddock, and doubts over him and his value only increased with an underwhelming debut as a supersub for Fusion at Macau. With question marks hanging over the squad, Venturi cannot let any issues take hold before they derail the impressive progress made so far.
2018 Rating: 6/10
2019 WCC Prediction: 8th
Nurminen Grand Prix - Holden
2018 WCC Position – 9th (7 pts)
2018 WDC Position – 18th (Marko Jantscher – 4 pts), 21st (Danny van Rijkens – 3 pts*), 31st (Martin McFry – 0 pts)
One got the impression from Nurminen that they were going in circles for most of 2018 as they seemed lost trying to overcome the deficiencies of the car. The team showed flashes of form during the year, such as Marko Jantscher scoring points on his full-time debut at Adelaide, but for the most part they were stranded in the midfield while being unable to break into meaningful results unless other cars fell off the road before them.
This wouldn’t have been that big an issue if it wasn’t for the fact it was normally their cars and drivers falling off the road. Reliability was never the strong suit of the team, but it wasn’t helped by Jantscher testing the team’s patience through multiple accidents, and McFry breaking it altogether by the middle of the season. Drafting in the demoralised Danny van Rijkens failed to improve matters apart from a few somewhat fluky points finishes to close the season.
As a result, the team has opted for a radical range of changes for 2019. Van Rijkens has been given his marching orders and the team is rumoured to be in talks with BMW over a potential engine supply deal in place of the lethargic Holden powerplants. Rumours of a radically new chassis have also done the rounds as the team aims to build their future around the mercurial Jantscher. While the long-term plans for the team are fundamentally solid, finding the budget to put the plans in place might prove to be a hindrance, with the recent loss of a few secondary sponsors brought in by McFry and Jantscher having few personal backers of his own.
2018 Rating: 5.5/10
2019 WCC Prediction: 9th
Equipe Gauthier – Pure Hart
2018 WCC Position – 10th (6 pts)
2018 WDC Position – 4th (Bastiaan van Nieuwenhuijzen – 49 pts*), 21st (Danny van Rijkens – 3 pts*)
Everyone was expecting big things out of Guillaume Gauthier’s squad for 2018, and the predictions seemed to have fulfilled when Bastiaan van Nieuwenhuijzen scored a podium for the team on his ARWS debut in Adelaide. More points quickly followed at Monza, but from there the going got much tougher. Being stuck in a logjam with Kjellerup and Simpson for much of the first half the season proved difficult to overcome, and the team were unable to add to their tally of 6 points, much of which was fuelled by Danny van Rijkens’ apathetic driving in the lead car.
Behind the scenes and all was not well with the team. Gauthier had been one of the most outspoken critics of the ARWS Commission’s running of the series, and by mid-season, the issues had reached a boiling point. When the team arrived with a skeleton crew at Austria, many thought the team had financially collapsed without warning. However, it soon became apparent that Gauthier had voluntarily withdrawn from the series in protest against the Commission.
The shock decision mad ripples throughout the paddock with a flood of engineering and management talent now on the market. Many, including van Nieuwenhuijzen, ended up at Kjellerup, becoming the catalyst of a surge towards the front by the Franco-Scandinavian squad, while a number also ended up at teams such as Venturi, Mecha and USD. It brought about a sad end to what had been one of the most promising teams in the paddock, and the withdrawal of Guillaume from the paddock, who had been considered one of the series’ most influential and respected ambassadors to this point.
2018 Rating: 5/10
Peak Aeroracing Engineering – Audi
2018 WCC Position – 11th (5 pts)
2018 WDC Position – 16th (Daniel Martins – 5 pts), 28th (Hansuke Shioya – 0 pts*), 36th (Ashley Watkinson, 0 pts*), 47th (Renaldo Jimenez, 0 pts)
By any conceivable performance metric, 2018 was an absolute disaster from the Aeroracing squad. After a last-minute buyout by the New Zealand-based Peak group, the new owners proceeded to grossly mismanage the squad by continually making questionable decisions throughout the year. Signing the has-been Ashley Watkinson and the never-was Renaldo Jimenez was just the tip of the iceberg, and coupled with the short-on-power Audi engines, the team found themselves in pre-qualifying in short order.
Replacing the pair with test driver Daniel Martins and Hansuke Shioya failed to improve matters, and even when several teams collapsed mid-season, only a miracle podium at Sao Paulo saved the team from scoring a big 0 next to their name. While the two new drivers generally managed to keep it on the road, persistent unreliability with the package continued to let them down, as development was almost non-existent on the technical side of the team. Rumours that main sponsor KPMG had refused to pay many of their sponsorship payments added further doom and gloom to the situation.
While steps have been taken over the off-season to rectify the situation, it is still expected to be a long road ahead of the former championship contenders. Martins has been retained as lead driver, while noted Swiss driver Gregor Pascal has been brought to the team. The journeyman paydriver’s considerable backing from Adecco would be a welcome boost to the financially strapped squad, and could potentially be the precursor of a larger partnership with former championship rivals MRT. However, no single move will be the silver bullet for the team, as a long and painful rebuilding phase awaits them.
2018 Rating: 2/10
2019 WCC Prediction: 14th
Union Saver Developments – Daihatsu
2018 WCC Position – 12th (2 pts)
2018 WDC Position – 23rd (Naoki Shinjo – 2 pts), 34th (Marco Bizzarri – 0 pts*), 35th (Ashley Watkinson, 0 pts*), 41st (Jari Kekkonen, 0 pts*)
Unlike many of the other teams in the ARWS, Union Saver Developments have little open-wheeler experience to draw on, having made their name in International GT and Endurance Racing over the years. This didn’t deter them however as they developed a conservative, no-nonsense car and managed to leverage their considerable experience working with manufacturers to score a works Daihatsu deal after their own factory team was withdrawn at the end of 2017. Signing Finnish journeyman Jari Kekkonen was a continuation of the trend, but pairing him up with the relatively unknown Japanese rookie Naoki Shinjo was widely questioned by considerable wisdom.
The signing proved to be a masterstroke however, as the supportive team environment allowed Shinjo to flourish. The no-fear attitude that took him to considerable success in his native homeland translated well to the KS-01, and by the end of the season, some felt he deserved more than the two points he ended up scoring. This didn’t extend to the second car however, as both Jari Kekkonen and his replacement Marco Bizzarri got roundly trounced by the rapid Japanese cult figure, as their continually abject showings largely worked to waste the potential the package had in the hands of Shinjo.
Both of them have since had forced departures from the team, as the Austrian squad have put all their eggs in the Shinjo basket. With the right nurturing, the rough diamond could turn into a very good all-round package, and the seeds at USD have already been sown to achieve that. The car and the Daihatsu package has pace that has yet to be fully exploited, and hiring a second driver with the same hunger and promise as Shinjo will go a long way to achieving that. Should USD succeed in finding such a driver, the sky could very well be the limit for them come 2020.
2018 Rating: 6/10
2019 WCC Prediction: 10th
Revolution Engineering – Pure Hart
2018 WCC Position – 14th (1 pts)
2018 WDC Position – 24th (Andrej Kremnicky, 1 pt*), 34th (Marco Bizzarri, 0 pts)
Several seasons from now, many will look at Revolution’s history and eventual demise as a classic “what could have been” story. After several years of slowly building their way through the field, the team finally found a driver in the form of Andrej Kremnicky to gravitate around. Complete with Marco Bizzarri playing a supporting role with his Lavazza backing and a technical partnership with Kamaha, fortunes for the small Japanese squad had been looking up for a few seasons now. The upbeat vibe around the team was soundly crushed by the decision by team owner Hagane Shizuka to withdraw at the end of the 2018 season.
Knowing they were potentially driving to save their career, Kremnicky and Bizzarri responded the best they could to the situation. Combining genuine pace and a newfound maturity, the pair of them put in several notable performances, with the former scoring what proved to be the team’s final point around the streets of Marrakesh. By the British round at Brands Hatch however, the team was no more, and what useful assets were available were sold to the Kamaha squad, contributing to their upturn in form in the second half of the year. Of the drivers, Bizzarri moved on to USD to fill in for the sacked Kekkonen, while Kremnicky’s performances earned him an audition with championship contenders MRT, which he proceeded to throw away in spectacular fashion.
With the benefit of hindsight, former F1RWRS race winner and all-round nice guy Hagane Shizuka was never cut out to be an ARWS team-owner. While many of his contemporaries considered him one of the greatest development drivers the series had seen, his quiet and methodical nature didn’t translate to team ownership, as he found himself out of his depth in the ruthless dog-eat-dog world of ARWS team management. Even so, many still considered him a generally competent manager, which makes one wistfully wonder what the team could have potentially achieved with a more ambitious outlook.
2018 Rating: 6/10
Rosenforth Engineering – Holden
2018 WCC Position – 15th (1 pts)
2018 WDC Position – 25th (Gregor Pascal, 1 pt*), 35th (Carter Simpson, 0 pts)
Holden Racing Team ended their tenure in the then F1RWRS as a below-average works team that was at war with the Commission. In a fit of frustration, the Zimmers sold out to Jimmy Rosenforth, packed their bags and headed 600 miles north to Paris to join Formula One. In their place, Rosenforth Engineering ended up being a below-average customer team that was still at war with the Commission. Speculation was rife around the team from the start, and premonitions about the team being in financial strife proved true, with the team being no more by the end of the European season.
Given the circumstances, drivers Gregor Pascal and Carter Simpson both did adequate jobs, as both kept their noses clean and brought the cars to the finish more often than not when they made the grid. While Simpson was generally regarded the faster of the two, Pascal was the one who scored the team’s sole point, with a gritty drive to 6th place at the season opener in Adelaide. Even that wasn’t enough to keep the team afloat however, as eventually Pascal departed for greener pastures, taking his Adecco backing to midfield rivals Blokkmonsta. The team collapsed shortly thereafter, taking Simpson with them.
The season was a microcosm of the issues surrounding the team as a whole, as they were average to below-average in all departments. While Alberto Cara provided some much-needed dynamism in 2017, there was no hiding the fact the new Holden engine was just as average as the last generation, and the car was decisively average. The general malaise surrounding the team proved to be its downfall, as they were unable to get out of the rut the team had been in since 2015 until it was too late. Regardless of the causes however, it will be a sombre day for the ARWS paddock when the Holden name disappears from the grid altogether, which currently lives on in customer engine deals elsewhere.
2018 Rating: 4.5/10
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