Russian Time

Russian Time

Founded	2013
Founder(s)	Igor Mazepa Timo Rumpfkeil
Folded	2018
Base	Norwich, Norfolk, England
Team principal(s)	Svetlana Strelnikova
Former series	FIA Formula 2 Championship GP2 Series
Noted drivers	Sam Bird Mitch Evans Luca Ghiotto Raffaele Marciello Artem Markelov
Teams' Championships	GP2 Series : 2013 FIA Formula 2 Championship : 2017
Website	http://www.rus-time.com

Russian Time (previously known as RT Russian Time) was 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.

From 2015 to 2018, the team was managed by Virtuosi Racing. ^[1]

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. ^{[2] [3]} The team had sought an entry to the GP2 Series for two years before finally being accepted in 2013, replacing iSport International. ^[3] 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. ^[4]

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. ^[5] 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. ^[6] 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. ^{[7] [8]}

The team's preparations for the 2014 season were disrupted by the death of Mazepa from complications relating to thrombosis in February 2014. ^[9] Following this, Motopark Academy ended their partnership with team, leaving their participation in the 2014 GP2 and GP3 seasons in limbo. ^[10] 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 were 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. ^[11] 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. Markelov achieved his maiden victory at the Monaco feature race, having started fifteenth on the grid. Marciello finished fourth in the standings and Markelov tenth with the team taking third in the constructor's championship.

FIA Formula 2 Championship

In 2017, Markelov remained with the team for a fourth season with Luca Ghiotto joining the team, moving from Trident. ^[12] Their combination brought six wins—five for Markelov and one for Ghiotto—and the first teams' title in the history of FIA Formula 2 Championship. ^[13] The team was omitted from the preliminary entry list for the 2018 championship, ^[14] but later confirmed their participation, ^[15] retaining Markelov and hiring European Formula 3 driver Tadasuke Makino to replace Ghiotto. ^{[16] [17]} The team was not able to repeat their success with the new F2 car, finishing the season fourth in the teams' standings, while Markelov downgraded to fifth in the drivers' championship with three wins. Makino won a feature race at Monza, but finished outside the top-ten in the drivers' standings. The team were sold before the 2018 finale and became UNI-Virtuosi Racing. ^[18]

Results

GP2 Series

Year	Car	Run by	Drivers	Races	Wins	Poles	F.L.	Points	D.C.	T.C.
2013	Dallara GP2/11-Mecachrome	Motopark Academy	Sam Bird	22	5	2	3	181	2nd	1st
			Tom Dillmann	22	0	1	2	92	10th
2014	Dallara GP2/11-Mecachrome	iSport International	Mitch Evans	22	2	0	1	174	4th	5th
			Artem Markelov	22	0	0	0	6	24th
2015	Dallara GP2/11-Mecachrome	Virtuosi Racing	Mitch Evans	21	2	0	3	135	5th	5th
			Artem Markelov	21	0	0	0	48	13th
2016	Dallara GP2/11-Mecachrome	Virtuosi Racing	Raffaele Marciello	22	0	0	0	159	4th	3rd
			Artem Markelov	22	1	0	3	97	10th

FIA Formula 2 Championship

Year	Car	Drivers	Races	Wins	Poles	F.L.	Points	D.C.	T.C.
2017	Dallara GP2/11-Mecachrome	Artem Markelov	22	5	1	6	210	2nd	1st
		Luca Ghiotto	22	1	0	0	185	4th
2018	Dallara F2 2018-Mecachrome	Artem Markelov	24	3	0	5	186	5th	4th
		Tadasuke Makino	24	1	0	0	48	13th

GP2 Series

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Chassis Engine Tyres	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	T.C.	Points
2013	GP2/11 Mecachrome P		SEP FEA	SEP SPR	BHR FEA	BHR SPR	CAT FEA	CAT SPR	MON FEA	MON SPR	SIL FEA	SIL SPR	NÜR FEA	NÜR SPR	HUN FEA	HUN SPR	SPA FEA	SPA SPR	MNZ FEA	MNZ SPR	MRN FEA	MRN SPR	YMC FEA	YMC SPR	1st	273
		Sam Bird	7	Ret	6	1	21†	12	1	24	1	5	13	8	10	8	1	14	2	4	8	1	10	4
		Tom Dillmann	14	11	8	4	5	26	11	25	3	6	8	Ret	20	11	5	9	3	5	6	14	Ret	DNS
2014	GP2/11 Mecachrome P		BHR FEA	BHR SPR	CAT FEA	CAT SPR	MON FEA	MON SPR	RBR FEA	RBR SPR	SIL FEA	SIL SPR	HOC FEA	HOC SPR	HUN FEA	HUN SPR	SPA FEA	SPA SPR	MNZ FEA	MNZ SPR	SOC FEA	SOC SPR	YMC FEA	YMC SPR	5th	180
		Mitch Evans	14	7	14	20†	2	6	7	4	1	7	1	11	12	9	5	4	3	20†	2	4	3	5
		Artem Markelov	15	10	11	Ret	Ret	Ret	21	16	18	17	Ret	12	16	20†	7	Ret	21	Ret	16	12	Ret	19
2015	GP2/11 Mecachrome P		BHR FEA	BHR SPR	CAT FEA	CAT SPR	MON FEA	MON SPR	RBR FEA	RBR SPR	SIL FEA	SIL SPR	HUN FEA	HUN SPR	SPA FEA	SPA SPR	MNZ FEA	MNZ SPR	SOC FEA	SOC SPR	BHR FEA	BHR SPR	YMC FEA	YMC SPR	5th	183
		Mitch Evans	6	17	2	DNS	Ret	DNS	10	5	Ret	20	17	22	5	3	3	1	11	8	3	1	3	C
		Artem Markelov	13	12	12	5	Ret	14	5	DSQ	21	14	22	18	3	5	5	14	Ret	12	16	8	Ret	C
2016	GP2/11 Mecachrome P		CAT FEA	CAT SPR	MON FEA	MON SPR	BAK FEA	BAK SPR	RBR FEA	RBR SPR	SIL FEA	SIL SPR	HUN FEA	HUN SPR	HOC FEA	HOC SPR	SPA FEA	SPA SPR	MNZ FEA	MNZ SPR	SEP FEA	SEP SPR	YMC FEA	YMC SPR	3rd	256
		Raffaele Marciello	8	5	6	3	3	11	3	4	9	6	4	8	3	7	4	5	2	14	6	2	10	13
		Artem Markelov	4	4	1	8	Ret	5	Ret	11	10	12	9	4	Ret	9	5	21†	10	10	DNS	13	3	7

FIA Formula 2 Championship

Year	Chassis Engine Tyres	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	T.C.	Points
2017	GP2/11 Mecachrome P		BHR FEA	BHR SPR	CAT FEA	CAT SPR	MON FEA	MON SPR	BAK FEA	BAK SPR	RBR FEA	RBR SPR	SIL FEA	SIL SPR	HUN FEA	HUN SPR	SPA FEA	SPA SPR	MNZ FEA	MNZ SPR	JER FEA	JER SPR	YMC FEA	YMC SPR			1st	395
		Luca Ghiotto	7	2	2	7	5	4	16	7	14	4	6	2	6	8	2	3	4	1	7	4	3	5
		Artem Markelov	1	8	8	9	2	5	4	5	8	1	4	3	17†	9	1	Ret	9	15	5	1	1	6
2018	F2 2018 Mecachrome P		BHR FEA	BHR SPR	BAK FEA	BAK SPR	CAT FEA	CAT SPR	MON FEA	MON SPR	LEC FEA	LEC SPR	RBR FEA	RBR SPR	SIL FEA	SIL SPR	HUN FEA	HUN SPR	SPA FEA	SPA SPR	MNZ FEA	MNZ SPR	SOC FEA	SOC SPR	YMC FEA	YMC SPR	4th	234
		Artem Markelov	3	1	Ret	Ret	8	9	1	4	14	14†	8	1	6	4	8	13	6	5	2	2	11	5	2	7
		Tadasuke Makino	19	17	9	9	9	Ret	14†	Ret	8	Ret	7	6	12	11	9	12	12	11	1	14	10	11	9	Ret

References

1. "Virtuosi to run Russian Time GP2 team". eurosport.com. 19 February 2015. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
2. Игорь Мазепа: Мы ведём переговоры с Диллманом и Фряйнсом (in Russian). F1news.ru. 7 March 2013. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
3. 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.
4. Bradley, Charles (22 February 2013). "iSport on verge of selling GP2 entry". Autosport.com. Haymarket Publications . Retrieved 4 March 2013.
5. Bradley, Charles (21 April 2013). "Bahrain GP2: Bird wins thrilling sprint race victory by 0.08s". Autosport.com. Haymarket Publications . Retrieved 21 April 2013.
6. Bradley, Charles (24 May 2013). "Monaco GP2: Sam Bird wins in Monte Carlo again". Autosport.com. Haymarket Publications . Retrieved 24 May 2013.
7. Allen, Peter (27 September 2013). "Russian Time joins GP3 field for 2014". Paddock Scout. Retrieved 27 September 2013.
8. "Lotus team to compete in the 2014 ATS Formula 3 Cup". German Formula Three Championship . Formel-3-Vereinigung e.V. 30 October 2013. 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.
9. Allen, Peter (5 February 2014). "Russian Time team principal Igor Mazepa dies". Formula Scout. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
10. "Motopark splits with Russian Time following Igor Mazepa's death - F2 - Autosport". Autosport. 17 February 2014.
11. Mills, Peter (18 March 2015). "Virtuosi to run Russian Time GP2 team". eurosport.com. Eurosport . Retrieved 25 April 2017.
12. "RUSSIAN TIME announces 2017 drivers". 15 February 2017. Retrieved 15 February 2017.
13. Allen, Peter (26 November 2017). "Charles Leclerc snatches last-lap victory in final F2 race". formulascout.com. Retrieved 26 November 2017. Luca Ghiotto and Artem Markelov finished fifth and sixth to secure the teams' title for Russian Time in its final race in the category ahead of Prema and DAMS.
14. Kalinauckas, Alex (16 November 2017). "Carlin among three new teams on 2018 F2 entry list". motorsport.com . Motorsport Network . Retrieved 16 November 2017.
15. "FIA Formula 2 Championship's 2018 teams confirmed". fiaformula2.com. FIA Formula 2 Championship. 8 February 2018. Retrieved 8 February 2018.
16. Allen, Peter (9 February 2018). "F2 runner-up Artem Markelov to continue in 2018 with Russian Time". formulascout.com. Retrieved 9 February 2018.
17. Allen, Peter (9 February 2018). "Honda protege Tadasuke Makino steps up to F2 with Russian Time". formulascout.com. Retrieved 9 February 2018.
18. Benyon, Jack (25 November 2018). "Russian Time sells Formula 2 team". motorsport.com . Motorsport Network. Archived from the original on 25 November 2018. Retrieved 25 November 2018.

External links

• Official website (in English and Russian)

Achievements
Preceded by DAMS	GP2 Series Teams' Champion 2013	Succeeded by DAMS
Preceded by Prema Racing (GP2 Series)	FIA Formula 2 Teams' Champion 2017	Succeeded by Carlin