Virtuosi Racing (formerly Virtuosi UK) is a British racing team currently competing in the F4 British Championship. The team previously raced in the Auto GP series, in addition to running the Russian Time outfit in Formula 2 and its predecessor GP2 Series from 2015 to 2018. With the withdrawal of Russian Time, the team assumed its new name UNI-Virtuosi Racing for the 2019 Formula 2 season. A partnership with watch company Invicta resulted in a further name change for 2023,[1] a partial takeover which saw the birth of Invicta Racing in 2024,[2] and a full takeover in 2025.[3]
The squad prolonged Andrea Roda for 2014 campaign.[13] Also the team expanded to three cars for two opening rounds, fielding Richard Gonda and Sam Dejonghe.[14] At Imola, second car was occupied by returnee Varhaug but he was replaced at Spielberg by Tamás Pál Kiss, who left Zele Racing.[15][16] Also at Spielberg Roda won a reverse-grid race, it was first win for Virtuosi since 2012.[17] Kiss collected another two wins for the team at Nürburgring and Estoril.[18][19] The team finished as runner-up in the teams' standings.
UNI-Virtuosi's Luca Ghiotto racing at the 2019 Spielberg Formula 2 round
On 4 December 2018, it was announced Virtuosi would replace the outgoing Russian Time outfit in the FIA Formula 2 Championship in 2019 under the name UNI-Virtuosi.[22] The following day, the team confirmed Guanyu Zhou as its first driver.[23] The next day Luca Ghiotto filled the remained slot in the Virtuosi's line-up.[24] The team finished in second place in the Teams' Championship its first season as Virtuosi, with Ghiotto taking four wins.
For 2020 the team retained Zhou as its first driver, whilst replacing the outgoing Ghiotto with Callum Ilott.[25] The team repeated its runners-up finish in Teams' Championship from the previous year, again with four wins.
In 2021, Zhou was once again retained by the team, this time joined by Felipe Drugovich in the other car.[26] For the third year in a row the team finished in second place in the Teams' Championship, once again with four wins, all scored by Zhou. On 20 October, Virtuosi Racing announced its expansion to Formula 4 racing by entering the F4 British Championship from the 2022 season onwards.[27]
With Zhou graduating to Formula 1 in 2022 with Alfa Romeo, his seat was filled by Jack Doohan, with Marino Sato replacing Drugovich.[28] Despite Doohan taking three wins in his rookie season the team could only finish in seventh place in the Teams' Championship.
Prior to the 2023 season, the team announced a new title partnership deal with the Invicta Watch Group.[29] The 2023 season saw Doohan remain with the team, this time joined by Belgian Amaury Cordeel.[30] Cordeel would have an uncompetitive season, finishing 20th in the standings. Doohan had a slow start to the season, but would rebound with two poles and three feature race wins to finish third in the standings.[31]
Ahead of the 2024 season, Invicta announced that it had purchased an ownership stake in the team, which would thereby compete as Invicta Racing. Virtuosi would still co-own and operate the team. With Jack Doohan graduating to a test and reserve driver role with the Alpine F1 Team and Amaury Cordeel switching to Hitech, the team had a brand new driver lineup in Indian Alpine junior Kush Maini and reigning FIA Formula 3 champion Gabriel Bortoleto.[32][33][34] It proved to be a breakthrough season for both parties, as Bortoleto collected two wins and narrowly beat Campos Racing's Isack Hadjar to the title in his rookie year. Maini's points in turn helped Invicta clinch the teams' championship, the first for Virtuosi since 2017, when the British outfit ran Russian Time.[35] Another milestone quickly followed, as Bortoleto and Doohan became the first Virtuosi Racing drivers ever to graduate to Formula One, joining Sauber and Alpine respectively.[36][37]
In March 2025, Invicta completed acquisition of the Formula 2 squad and split from Virtuosi, with the exception of Roche, who would remain a consultant.[38][39]
↑ Mills, Peter (13 April 2012). "Sergio Campana leads Marrakech Auto GP practice". Autosport. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 13 April 2012. Norwegian Varhaug has a new team-mate at Virtuosi UK this weekend. Former Euro Series 3000 veteran and IndyCar starter Franceso Dracone replaces Formula Renault 3.5 race winner Sten Pentus.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
TBA. Martin Molnár
