Josef Kaufmann Racing

History

In 1982, Josef Kaufmann Racing was founded by Josef Kaufmann, who was a racing driver and raced in his own team in the German Formula Three Championship. In the first year of the team's existence Gerhard Berger and Kaufmann finished third and fourth respectively in the German Formula 3. Josef Kaufmann Racing first drivers' title was achieved by Volker Weidler, who won the German Formula Three Championship in 1985. Their next success was in 1994, when Arnd Meier won B-Cup of the German F3 Championship. The team remained in the German Formula Three Championship till 2002.

In 2003 the team decided to concentrate on Formula BMW ADAC championship, which they joined in 2002. Nico Hülkenberg won their first Formula BMW ADAC title in 2005. The success was repeated in the following year by Christian Vietoris. In 2008, ADAC series was merged with UK series into Formula BMW Europe. Esteban Gutiérrez brought their first title in the series and with help of Kazeem Manzur and Marco Wittmann their first teams' title ever. The team repeated titles in the both drivers' and teams' championships in 2010 with Robin Frijns.

As Formula BMW Europe was folded, the German outfit decided to move to Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 in 2011 and Frijns won another drivers' title for the team. Stoffel Vandoorne achieved their second Eurocup title in the following season. Lando Norris collected another Eurocup drivers' championship for the German squad in 2016. Also the team won the teams' championship in Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup in 2014 and 2015, as well as drivers' title for Louis Delétraz.

For the 2017 seasons, the team signed Sacha Fenestraz, Red Bull Junior driver Luis Leeds and French F4 champion Ye Yifei.

Drivers who graduated to F1

The following drivers who have competed for any of Josef Kaufmann Racing series teams have successfully graduated to F1:

Nico Hülkenberg

Competed with Josef Kaufmann Racing's Formula BMW team in 2005. He joined Williams F1 in 2010, Force India in 2012 and 2014, Sauber F1 in 2013 and Renault F1 in 2017.

Esteban Gutiérrez

Competed with Josef Kaufmann Racing's Formula BMW team in 2008. He joined Sauber F1 in 2013 and 2014 and Haas F1 in 2016.

Stoffel Vandoorne

Competed with Josef Kaufmann Racing's Formula Renault 2.0 team in 2012. He joined McLaren for one round in 2016 and full-time in 2017.

Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0

^† Guest driver, who was ineligible for championship points.