SMP Racing

SMP Racing

Founded	2013
Nation	Russia
Founder(s)	Boris Rotenberg
Base	Moscow, Russia
Website	www.smpracing.ru

BR Engineering BR1 of SMP Racing.

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.

History

Origins

The 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

Born in Saint Petersburg, Russia on (1957-01-03) 3 January 1957 (age 69), 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).^{[ citation needed ]}

In 2001 Boris and his brother 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. This company created the BR Engineering BR1 and BR Engineering BR01; both cars achieved podiums in their categories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Current status

On 8 July 2019, SMP announced that it was withdrawing their BR1 LMP1 cars from the 2019–20 WEC season only three weeks ahead of the Prologue pre-season test session. The team said in a statement that it had achieved the best possible results as a privateer LMP1 entry "given the circumstances" after its 3rd place podium result at the 2019 24h of Le Mans ahead of all other privateer entries and only behind two works Toyota TS050 Hybrids. ^{[3] [4]} It continued to sponsor the AF Corse GTE Pro cars until the conclusion of the 2019–20 WEC season. ^[5]

BR Engineering BR03 at launch

In May 2021, SMP and BR Engineering unveiled the BR03, a prototype sportscar intended for national-level endurance racing. ^[6] It was first raced on-track at an exhibition race at Moscow Raceway in August 2025, and is planned to race as part of a monoclass in the Russian Circuit Racing Series starting in 2026.

The 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 happen, 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.^{[ citation needed ]}

Championships Description

FIA World Endurance Championship

SMP Racing competed in the FIA World Endurance Championship full time between the years of 2014-2016. They made 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. 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. ^[2]

24 Hours of Le Mans

BR1 LMP1 Prototype

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. ^[7]

FIA Formula 2 Championship

SMP 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.^{[ citation needed ]}

Ferrari 488 GT3 of SMP Racing at Monza.

BR Engineering BR01 of SMP Racing at Le Mans.

Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 of SMP Racing at Le Mans at night.

Other championships

• 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 ^[8]

List of Drivers

• 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

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship Results

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

24 Hours of Le Mans

Year	Entrant	No.	Car	Drivers	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2014	SMP Racing	27	Oreca 03R-Nissan	Anton Ladygin Mika Salo Sergey Zlobin	LMP2	303	37th	12th
		37		Kirill Ladygin Maurizio Mediani Nicolas Minassian		9	DNF	DNF
		72	Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	Aleksey Basov Andrea Bertolini Viktor Shaytar	LMGTE Am	196	DNF	DNF
2015	SMP Racing	27	BR Engineering BR01-Nissan	David Markozov Maurizio Mediani Nicolas Minassian	LMP2	340	14th	6th
		37		Mikhail Aleshin Anton Ladygin Kirill Ladygin		322	33rd	13th
		72	Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	Aleksey Basov Andrea Bertolini Viktor Shaytar	LMGTE Am	332	20th	1st
2016	SMP Racing	27	BR Engineering BR01-Nissan	Mikhail Aleshin Maurizio Mediani Nicolas Minassian	LMP2	347	11th	7th
		37		Kirill Ladygin Vitaly Petrov Viktor Shaytar		353	7th	3rd
2017	SMP Racing	27	Dallara P217-Gibson	Mikhail Aleshin Viktor Shaytar Sergey Sirotkin	LMP2	330	33rd	16th
2018	SMP Racing	11	BR Engineering BR1-AER	Mikhail Aleshin Jenson Button Vitaly Petrov	LMP1	315	DNF	DNF
		17		Matevos Isaakyan Egor Orudzhev Stéphane Sarrazin		123	DNF	DNF
		35	Dallara P217-Gibson	Norman Nato Harrison Newey Viktor Shaytar	LMP2	345	14th	10th
2019	SMP Racing	11	BR Engineering BR1-AER	Mikhail Aleshin Vitaly Petrov Stoffel Vandoorne	LMP1	379	3rd	3rd
		17		Egor Orudzhev Stéphane Sarrazin Sergey Sirotkin		163	DNF	DNF

GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup

Year	Car	Drivers	No.	1	2	3	4	T.C.	Points
2020	Ferrari 488 GTE	Sergey Sirotkin (All) [9] Miguel Molina (Rd. 1-3) [10] Davide Rigon(Rd. 1-3) [11] Antonio Fuoco (Rd. 4) [12] Toni Vilander (Rd. 4) [13]	72	IMO 20	SPA 14	NUR 19	LEC 7	1st [a]	80

Notes

1. While SMP was awarded the teams championship, the number 51 AF Corse Ferrari scored all the points.

Branding

SMP 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

• Escuderia Telmex, a Mexican team founded by similar ambitions.

References

1. Laurent Mercier (9 May 2014). "The present and future of SMP Racing". Motorsport.com.
2. "About the program". smpracing.ru. Retrieved 2023-07-19.
3. "SMP Racing withdraws from 2019/2020 WEC season | RACER". racer.com. Retrieved 2026-01-04.
4. "SMP Racing withdraws LMP1 entries from 2019/20 WEC season | Crash.net". www.crash.net. 2019-07-08. Retrieved 2026-01-04.
5. Goodwin, Graham (2021-03-05). "2021 FIA WEC AF Corse Ferrari Colours Unveiled At Misano". www.dailysportscar.com. Retrieved 2026-01-04.
6. Goodwin, Graham (2021-05-18). "SMP Racing Unveils Their New BR03 Endurance Racer". www.dailysportscar.com. Retrieved 2026-01-04.
7. "Track Record". 24h-lemans.com. Retrieved 2023-07-19.
8. "List of series which SMP compete in on official website".
9. Sergey Sirontkin GTWC stats page
10. Miguel Monilana gtwc page
11. davide rigon GTWC stats page
12. antonio fuoco GTWC page
13. Toni Vilander GTWC stats page

External links

• Official website (in Russian)