Rapax Team was an Italian 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."The Renaissance Men of GP2", Autosport Magazine pg. 40–41. May 8, 2008 Issue (Vol. 192, No. 6) 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.

History During 2009, the team was sold and all remaining ties with part-owner Nelson Piquet were severed. The team was rebranded "Rapax" (Latin for "predator") at the beginning of 2010, after the Legio XXI Rapax Roman legion. Pastor Maldonado rejoined the team, alongside Luiz Razia. Maldonado won six races on his way to the drivers' championship, and Razia backed him up with 11th place overall, allowing Rapax to win the teams' championship for the first time, and in the first year of its new identity.

For 2011, Maldonado graduated to Formula One with the Williams team and Razia moved to the new Caterham Team AirAsia; Rapax signed Fabio Leimer and Julián Leal to replace them. Leimer won a single race but was unable build on it, restricting him to fourteenth place in the drivers' championship, whilst Leal did not score at all; Rapax dropped to tenth in the teams' championship.

In 2012, the team improved to ninth overall through the combined efforts of Tom Dillmann, Stefano Coletti, Ricardo Teixeira and Daniël de Jong. Dillmann was the most successful with a single victory, but was dropped for budgetary reasons mid-season and replaced by De Jong. De Jong's Auto GP racing commitments also resulted in him missing the final two races of the championship, for which he was replaced by Scuderia Coloni refugee Coletti. By contrast, Teixeira competed in all but one round of the season, but failed to score any points.

For 2013 the team kept Coletti and signed with Simon Trummer. Coletti took three race wins and improved to the fifth place in the standings. While Trummer had six point-scoring finishes on his way to the 20th place in the driver standings.

Trummer was retained for the 2014 GP2 Series. He was joined by Adrian Quaife-Hobbs. The team had suffered a weak season, with just one podium that Quaife-Hobbs had collected.

The team had completely changed their line-up for the 2015 GP2 Series, signing with Sergey Sirotkin and Robert Vișoiu. The team had scored its first win since 2013 Monaco round with Sirotkin in the 2015 Silverstone round. Sirotkin was also the first Rapax driver since Maldonado who had finished in the top-three in the driver standings with the team. For the last two rounds of the season Visoiu was replaced by Gustav Malja.

Malja remained with the team for the full 2016 GP2 Series campaign. Arthur Pic completed the team line-up. Malja had podiums at Spa and Monza, while Pic finished on podium at Hockenheimring. Pic was replaced by Johnny Cecotto Jr. in the two final rounds. Rapax ended ninth in the team standings.

In , the GP2 Series was rebranded to FIA Formula 2 Championship. The team had started the season with Cecotto and Nyck de Vries. De Vries won the Sprint Monaco F2 race — the first race win for the Rapax since Sirotkin in 2015. At Spielberg Cecotto was replaced by Sergio Canamasas. Rapax field two new drivers at Spa, signing with Louis Delétraz and Roberto Merhi. René Binder had a one-off round appearance for Rapax at Jerez. Despite not having a permanent driver line-up, results shown by De Vries helped the team to achieve fifth place in the teams standings — the highest position since they took the teams' championship back in 2010. But the team decided to stop their racing activity and leave the FIA Formula 2 Championship.

Results

GP2 Series Year Car Drivers Races Wins Poles Fast laps Points 2010 Dallara GP2/08-Mecachrome Pastor Maldonado 20 6 0 5 87 1st 1st Luiz Razia 20 0 0 1 28 11th 2011 Dallara GP2/11-Mecachrome Fabio Leimer 18 1 0 1 15 14th 10th Julián Leal 18 0 0 0 0 27th 2012 Dallara GP2/11-Mecachrome Stefano Coletti 22 0 0 2 50 13th† 9th Tom Dillmann 14 1 0 0 29 15th Daniël de Jong 8 0 0 0 0 26th Ricardo Teixeira 22 0 0 0 0 29th 2013 Dallara GP2/11-Mecachrome Stefano Coletti 22 3 1 5 135 5th 7th Simon Trummer 22 0 0 0 20 21st 2014 Dallara GP2/11-Mecachrome Adrian Quaife-Hobbs 22 0 0 0 30 13th 9th Simon Trummer 22 0 0 0 26 17th 2015 Dallara GP2/11-Mecachrome Sergey Sirotkin 21 1 1 1 139 3rd 6th Robert Vișoiu 18 0 0 0 20 17th Gustav Malja 3 0 0 0 1 25th‡ 2016 Dallara GP2/11-Mecachrome Gustav Malja 22 0 0 0 53 13th 9th Arthur Pic 18 0 0 0 36 14th Johnny Cecotto Jr. 4 0 0 0 18 18th

FIA Formula 2 Championship Year Car Drivers Races Wins Poles Fast laps Points Dallara GP2/11-Mecachrome Nyck de Vries 22 1 0 2 114 7th† 5th Sergio Canamasas 14 0 0 0 21 14th† Johnny Cecotto Jr. 8 0 0 0 16 16th Louis Delétraz 22 0 0 0 16 17th† Roberto Merhi 8 0 0 0 16 18th† René Binder 2 0 0 0 0 28th † Shared his position and results with another team.

GP2 Series (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year ChassisEngineTyres Drivers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Points 2010 GP2/08MecachromeCATFEACATSPRMONFEAMONSPRISTFEAISTSPRVALFEAVALSPRSILFEASILSPRHOCFEAHOCSPRHUNFEAHUNSPRSPAFEASPASPRMNZFEAMNZSPRYMCFEAYMCSPR 1st 115 Luiz Razia Pastor Maldonado 2011 GP2/11MecachromeISTFEAISTSPRCATFEACATSPRMONFEAMONSPRVALFEAVALSPRSILFEASILSPRNÜRFEANÜRSPRHUNFEAHUNSPRSPAFEASPASPRMNZFEAMNZSPR 10th 15 Fabio Leimer Julián Leal 2012 GP2/11Mecachrome SEPFEA SEPSPR BHR1FEA BHR1SPR BHR2FEA BHR2SPR CATFEA CATSPR MONFEA MONSPR VALFEA VALSPR SILFEA SILSPR HOCFEA HOCSPR HUNFEA HUNSPR SPAFEA SPASPR MNZFEA MNZSPR MRNFEA MRNSPR 9th 44 Ricardo Teixeira Tom Dillmann Daniël de Jong Stefano Coletti 2013 GP2/11Mecachrome SEPFEA SEPSPR BHRFEA BHRSPR CATFEA CATSPR MONFEA MONSPR SILFEA SILSPR NÜRFEA NÜRSPR HUNFEA HUNSPR SPAFEA SPASPR MNZFEA MNZSPR MRNFEA MRNSPR YMCFEA YMCSPR 7th 155 Stefano Coletti Simon Trummer 2014 GP2/11Mecachrome BHRFEA BHRSPR CATFEA CATSPR MONFEA MONSPR RBRFEA RBRSPR SILFEA SILSPR HOCFEA HOCSPR HUNFEA HUNSPR SPAFEA SPASPR MNZFEA MNZSPR SOCFEA SOCSPR YMCFEA YMCSPR 9th 56 Adrian Quaife-Hobbs Tio Ellinas Kevin Giovesi Simon Trummer 2015 GP2/11Mecachrome BHRFEA BHRSPR CATFEA CATSPR MONFEA MONSPR RBRFEA RBRSPR SILFEA SILSPR HUNFEA HUNSPR SPAFEA SPASPR MNZFEA MNZSPR SOCFEA SOCSPR BHRFEA BHRSPR YMCFEA YMCSPR 6th 159 Sergey Sirotkin Robert Vișoiu Gustav Malja 2016 GP2/11Mecachrome CATFEA CATSPR MONFEA MONSPR BAKFEA BAKSPR RBRFEA RBRSPR SILFEA SILSPR HUNFEA HUNSPR HOCFEA HOCSPR SPAFEA SPASPR MNZFEA MNZSPR SEPFEA SEPSPR YMCFEA YMCSPR 9th 107 Gustav Malja Arthur Pic Johnny Cecotto Jr.

GP2 Final (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year ChassisEngineTyres Drivers 1 2 Points 2011 GP2/11MecachromeYMCFEAYMCSPR 8th 0 Dani Clos Ret 9 Mihai Marinescu 17 Ret

GP2 Asia Series (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year ChassisEngineTyres Drivers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Points 2009–10 GP2/05RenaultYMC1FEAYMC1SPRYMC2FEAYMC2SPRBHR1FEABHR1SPRBHR2FEABHR2SPR 12th 0 Vladimir Arabadzhiev 13 10 17 7 12 9 Daniel Zampieri Ret 15 11 8 Luiz Razia Ret 13 2011 GP2/11MecachromeYMCFEAYMCSPRIMOFEAIMOSPR 8th 9 Fabio Leimer 10 6 6 2 Julián Leal Ret 17 16 18

FIA Formula 2 Championship (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year ChassisEngineTyres Drivers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Points GP2/11Mecachrome BHRFEA BHRSPR CATFEA CATSPR MONFEA MONSPR BAKFEA BAKSPR RBRFEA RBRSPR SILFEA SILSPR HUNFEA HUNSPR SPAFEA SPASPR MNZFEA MNZSPR JERFEA JERSPR YMCFEA YMCSPR 5th 137 Nyck de Vries Louis Delétraz Johnny Cecotto Jr. Sergio Canamasas Roberto Merhi René Binder

Notes and references

External links

Official website