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Arden International

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Founded
  
1997

Arden International httpspbstwimgcomprofileimages7767350317462

Base
  
Banbury, Oxfordshire, England

Team principal(s)
  
Richard Dent Kenny Kirwan Ben Bloomfield

Current series
  
GP2 Series GP3 Series Formula V8 3.5 F4 British Championship

Former series
  
GP2 Asia Series Formula 3000 Italian Formula 3000 A1 Grand Prix

Current drivers
  
Sean Gelael Norman Nato Niko Kari Leonardo Pulcini Steijn Schothorst Ghislain Cordeel Zane Goddard Dan Ticktum Yves Baltas Olli Caldwell Oscar Piastri Ayrton Simmons

Teams' Championships
  
Italian Formula 3000: 2000 International Formula 3000: 2002, 2003, 2004 Formula V8 3.5: 2016

Founders
  
Christian Horner, Garry Horner

Profiles

Arden international factory tour with ford msa formula drivers


Arden International is a multiple formula racing team created and run by Christian Horner, Red Bull Racing's F1 team principal. It currently runs teams in the GP2 Series, GP3 Series and the Formula Renault 3.5 series.

Contents

It has been competing since 1997 and has raced in the Formula 3000 International Championship, the Italian Formula 3000 series, and the A1 GP series for Great Britain.

Due to the Arden's strong business connections and sponsorship, and because Horner is team principal at Red Bull Racing, the team often signs Red Bull Junior Team drivers as a way to pave forward future F1 drivers. Many drivers have been Red Bull Juniors, including Michael Ammermüller, Neel Jani, Adrian Zaugg, Filipe Albuquerque, Sébastien Buemi, Lewis Williamson, António Félix da Costa, Daniil Kvyat, Carlos Sainz, Jr., Niko Kari and Dan Ticktum.

The telmex arden international gp2 car


Formula 3000

The team was initially created as a vehicle to enable Horner to race in F3000 in 1997. According to Horner he set the team up with borrowed money, including a loan from his father, and persuaded P1 Motorsport founder Roly Vincini (who Horner had driven for in his first season of F3) to take on the role of his race engineer. He bought a second-hand trailer for the team from Helmut Marko, who as head of the Red Bull Junior Team was one of Horner's main rivals as a manager in F3000, and who he later worked closely with at Red Bull. He stayed in F3000 for 1998 and was joined at Arden by Kurt Mollekens, who showed good pace and led the championship at one stage. In the winter of 1998 family friend David Richards had been approached by Russian oil company Lukoil to enable them to enter motorsports sponsorship. As entries to F3000 were restricted, Richards agreed a deal with Horner that Prodrive would take a 50% stake in Arden, in return for Horner becoming team manager. As a result, the team signed Viktor Maslov as a driver under the Lukoil deal from 1999. The team started off poorly, and didn't have the pace to qualify for many races.

At the end of 1999, Richards sold a stake in Prodrive to Apax Partners, who didn't want to continue in F3000. Horner hence exercised the option to buy back the Prodrive stake. As the years went on, the team began to reap the results and was the best team of Formula 3000 in its last 3 years, showing new talents to motorsport world like Darren Manning, Tomáš Enge, Björn Wirdheim and Vitantonio Liuzzi.

The team won the Teams' Championship in 2002, 2003 and 2004. During those years, Wirdheim won the drivers championship in 2003, and Luizzi won it in 2004.

During the teams 8 years in the series, it has scored 359 points, won 16 races and achieved 20 pole positions.

Italian Formula 3000

The team joined the Italian Formula 3000 series for 1999 and 2000. Their first season was poor with only one point to their name, but the 2000 season went significantly better, with Warren Hughes taking two wins, one pole position and three fastest laps for the team, and Darren Manning taking one win, one pole and one fastest lap too. The team finished with Hughes second in the championship, and the team winning it outright 51 points.

A1 GP

Arden operated A1 Team Great Britain in the first season of the A1GP series for 2005-2006. The team fared well in their first season, collecting 8 podium finishes and a single pole position, leaving the team 3rd in the championship with 97 points overall.

GP2

In 2005, the F3000 series was rebranded as the GP2 Series, Arden stayed on for the new series and achieved second place in the teams' championship with Heikki Kovalainen and Nicolas Lapierre, and second place in the Drivers' Championship with Kovalainen, who had 5 wins, 4 pole positions and a fastest lap to his name.

In 2006, Arden competed in GP2 with Lapierre and the rookie Michael Ammermüller (Neel Jani acted as a substitute for Lapierre when the latter was injured in the race at Monaco). This year, Arden suffered a significant drop in performance, and had only 57 points to show and a single win from Ammermüller, compared to the previous season's 126. Overall the team came fourth in the championship.

For 2007, Arden signed Bruno Senna, nephew of triple F1 champion Ayrton Senna, and A1 Team South Africa driver Adrian Zaugg. Zaugg was replaced for the final round of the season by Filipe Albuquerque. This season was even worse for the team compared to the previous year, only managing 42 points which resulted in a seventh-placed finish in the teams' championship, with Senna finishing ninth overall in the drivers' championship.

For 2008 and the newly founded Asia Series, the team was renamed Trust Team Arden, after its Dutch title sponsor Trust. The duo of Red Bull junior driver Sébastien Buemi and Yelmer Buurman was its race line-up for both championships. For the Asia Series, Adam Khan raced for the first two rounds before being replaced by Buurman. The overall result in the Asia Series was the team finishing second in the championship, with 50 points and one win, and Buemi finishing second in the drivers' championship. Mid-season in the main series, Buurman was replaced by ART Grand Prix outcast Luca Filippi. The season went slightly better than the previous one with the team picking up 50 points, enough to take sixth place, and Buemi picked up two race victories to finish sixth overall in the drivers' championship.

Arden again took part in the Asia Series for the 2008–09 season, signing Luiz Razia and Mika Mäki. For the second round of the championship, held at the Dubai Autodrome, Mäki was replaced by Renger van der Zande, who was subsequently replaced for the rest of the season by Edoardo Mortara. Razia scored the team's only win of the campaign, which allowed Arden to finish sixth in the teams' championship. For the 2009 main series season, the team signed F3 frontrunners Sergio Pérez and Mortara. This was also another poor season for the team, as it finished well down the order in eighth place overall with only Mortara managing a single win.

For the 2009-10 Asia Series season, Arden signed Charles Pic and Rodolfo González. After the first round, González was replaced by Javier Villa for the rest of the season. This was the team's most successful outing in the Asia Series, with an end result of 37 points and second in the teams' championship. Villa finished fourth overall in the drivers' championship with 19 points, and Pic finished fifth with a single race victory. For the 2010 main series, the team kept Pic and resigned González. However, the success from the Asia Series did not quite continue into the main series as the team eventually finished seventh with one win, courtesy of Pic. Arden finished with fewer points than in 2009, but still managed to beat the previous teams' championship result of eighth position.

For the 2011 GP2 Asia Series and 2011 GP2 Main Series seasons, the team signed Josef Král and Jolyon Palmer. The year was the team's worst so far in its GP2 history, as neither driver managed a win, pole or fastest lap in either series, and the team ended up finishing tenth in the Asia series and eleventh in the main series.

As the GP2 Asia Series had joined together with the GP2 main series in 2012, there were no longer two separate series. The team signed former 2008–09 Asia season driver Luiz Razia and former MW Arden GP3 sister team driver Simon Trummer for the 2012 season. Razia won the feature race of the first round in Malaysia, picked up two 2nd-place finishes during the two Bahrain rounds, and won again at Catalunya, Valencia and Silverstone. He finished the season as runner-up to champion Davide Valsecchi, whilst Trummer had a best race finish of seventh place to take 23rd in the drivers' championship. Arden finished third in the team's championship; its best result since 2005.

Since then, Arden have consistently struggled in subsequent GP2 Series, their highest constructor's finish being an eighth in 2013.

GP3

From 2010 onwards, they have operated a GP3 Series team with Mark Webber, the team is called MW Arden. This builds on the fact that Mark Webber raced for Red Bull Racing, which is run by Arden Team Owner and Team Principal of Red Bull Christian Horner. They signed Michael Christensen, Miki Monrás and Leonardo Cordeiro for their debut season. Their first venture into the new series proved difficult as they only accumulate 18 points for the whole season with 2 fastest laps, leaving them 9th in the championship.

For 2011, the team completely refreshed their line up by signing Mitch Evans, Simon Trummer and Lewis Williamson. The season overshadowed the previous as the team came second overall in the constructors championship with 69 points, and both Williamson and Evans scoring 1 win each and coming 8th and 9th in the drivers championship respectively. This would also be the season where the team picked up its first pole positions with 2 from Evans and 1 from Williamson.

For 2012, they retained Evans, and partnered him with David Fumanelli and Matias Laine. Evans former team mates Simon Trummer and Lewis Williamson had moved to the GP2 sister team, and the new Formula Renault team Arden Caterham respectively. At the first round in Spain, Evans won the feature race. At the third round in Valencia, Evans managed to collect pole position and went on to win another feature race.

Evans went on to win the championship in the 2012 season.

The team scored their second driver's championship with Daniil Kvyat the following season, with Carlos Sainz, Jr. and Robert Vișoiu finishing tenth and eleventh respectively. In the following two seasons, Arden scored fifth and third in the team's championship respectively, with the highest driver standing coming from a fourth place for Emil Bernstorff in 2015.

Jake Dennis, 2015 Eurocup champion Jack Aitken and Colombian Tatiana Calderón competed with the team for the 2016 season. Calderón being the first women to compete for the team in its 19-year history. With three victories from Dennis and Aitken, the team finished as runners-up to ART Grand Prix in the constructor's standings.

In January 2017, Niko Kari was signed to the team for the 2017 season, making him the first Red Bull Junior to compete with the team since Kvyat and Sainz. A month later, Steijn Schothorst and Euroformula Open champion Leonardo Pulcini joined Arden.

Formula Renault 3.5

For 2012, Arden International entered an agreement with Caterham to join the Formula Renault 3.5 series as a joint team known as Arden Caterham. For their first season, they signed former GP3 driver for MW Arden Lewis Williamson, and one of Caterham F1's test drivers, Alexander Rossi.

Rossi scored his first podium finish with a third-place finish at the one race round at Monaco. After 3 rounds, Williamson was dropped by the team and the Red Bull Junior Driver Programme for failing to score a single point and was replaced by António Félix da Costa who had also replaced him at the Junior Programme too. On his debut, Da Costa scored two points with a ninth-place finish during the first race at the Nürburgring

Drivers who graduated to F1

The following drivers who have competed for any of Arden International series teams have successfully graduated to F1:

Vitantonio Liuzzi
Competed for Arden's F3000 team in 2004. He joined Red Bull Racing in 2005, Scuderia Toro Rosso from 2006 to 2007, Force India from 2008 to 2010 and finally HRT for 2011. Since 2012, he is without an F1 drive even though he is listed as a driver on the HRT website. His best finish in Formula One is a 6th place at both the 2007 Chinese Grand Prix and the 2010 Korean Grand Prix. He currently races in the International Superstars Series.
Robert Doornbos
Competed for Arden's F3000 team in 2004. He joined Jordan Grand Prix for the last three races of the 2004 as a test driver. He remained at this position in the 2005, until he was chosen to replace Patrick Friesacher at Minardi F1 Team after 11 races. For the 2006 he signed as a test driver at Red Bull Racing and he replaced Christian Klien for the final three races of the season. After Formula One he raced in the Champ Car World Series, the Indy Car Series, A1 Grand Prix and Superleague Formula.
Heikki Kovalainen
Competed for Arden's GP2 team in 2005. He joined Renault as a test driver in 2006, then raced a full season for them in 2007. He then raced for McLaren for 2008 and 2009, where he recorded his first race win in Hungary. He then joined Team Lotus for 2010 and 2011, who changed their name to Caterham F1 in 2012.
Bruno Senna
Competed for Arden's GP2 team in 2007. He joined HRT for their debut season in 2010. He was left without a drive afterwards before being signed as Lotus Renault GP's third driver in 2011, who then was promoted to race driver from the 2011 Belgian Grand Prix onwards. In 2012, he raced for Williams F1. His best finish is 6th place at the 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix.
Sébastien Buemi
Competed for Arden's GP2 team in 2008 for both the Asia and Main series. He joined Scuderia Toro Rosso for the 2009 season, and stayed with them up until 2011 before being dropped. He is currently Red Bull Racing's test driver and competes for Toyota Motorsport at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. His best finish in Formula One is 7th place at both the 2009 Australian Grand Prix and the 2009 Brazilian Grand Prix.
Sergio Pérez
Competed for Arden's GP2 team in 2009. He raced for Sauber from 2011 to 2012, where he scored his first podium at the 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix. He joined McLaren in 2013 and Force India in the 2014 season.
Charles Pic
Competed for Arden's GP2 Asia team for the 2009-10 season, and the main series for 2010. He raced for Marussia in 2012, and joined the Caterham team in 2013. In 2014, he became the test driver of the Lotus F1 Team.
Daniil Kvyat
Competed for Arden's GP3 team for the 2013 season and claimed the championship. He raced for Toro Rosso in 2014 and was promoted to Red Bull Racing in 2015 following Sebastian Vettel's departure to Ferrari, before being demoted back to Toro Rosso in favour of Max Verstappen early into the following season.
Carlos Sainz, Jr.
Competed for Arden's GP3 team for the 2013 season. He raced for Toro Rosso in 2015.

So far, only Kovalainen has won a race in F1, the 2008 Hungarian Grand Prix, and he has also appeared on the podium 3 other times. He is also the highest placing driver in the drivers championship with 7th in both 2007 and 2008 with Renault and McLaren respectively. Pérez is the only other driver to score a podium finish with a 2nd-place finish at 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix, and three more 3rd places.

GP2 Series

* Season still in progress. † Ran under a Dutch license.
‡ Involved as Trust Team Arden under a Dutch license.
[1] Involved as Telmex Arden International under a Dutch license
[2] Involved as Pertamina Arden.
†1 Tom Dillmann raced for Caterham Racing for 6 races in 2014 scoring 2 of his 18 points.

F4 British Championship

^ Collaboration with Caterham known as Arden Caterham.

GP2 Asia Series

  • † Involved as Trust Team Arden under a Dutch License.
  • ‡ Ran under a Dutch license.
  • Italian Formula 3000 Series

  • † Involved as Arden Team Russia
  • ‡ Involved as Lukoil Arden Racing
  • [1] collaboration with KTR team
  • References

    Arden International Wikipedia


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