Team West-Tec
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (March 2018) |
| Founded | 1988[1] |
|---|---|
| Founder(s) | Gavin Wills |
| Base | Corby, Northamptonshire, England |
| Team principal(s) | Gavin Wills John Miller |
| Former series | Euroformula Open British Formula 3 FIA Formula 3 European Championship British LMP3 Cup ASCAR Racing Series |
| Teams' Championships | 2011 European F3 Open |
| Drivers' Championships | ASCAR Racing Series 2005 (Vergers) ASCAR Racing Series 2006 (Playle) 2009 European F3 Open Copa Class (MacLeod) 2011 European F3 Open Copa Class (Gamberini) 2013 European F3 Open (Jones) |
| Website | http://www.teamwest-tec.com/ |
Team West-Tec F3 is a motor racing team owned by Gavin Wills and John Miller based in Corby in the United Kingdom, the most successful team in the history of the European F3 Open Championship, it also won two drivers championships in the ASCAR Racing Series.
History
From 2001 to 2006 the team took part in the ASCAR Racing Series which was mainly based locally at the Rockingham Motor Speedway. The team took two consecutive drivers titles in 2005 and 2006 with Michael Vergers and Oli Playle.
In 2007 Team West-Tec F3 became the first British team to compete in the Spanish Formula Three Championship, purchasing assets from leading GP2 team Racing Engineering. In 2009 the series was renamed the European F3 Open. Since 2007 the team has taken 44 wins and 116 podiums and three championship titles – including winning the support race at the 2008 European Grand Prix at Valencia.
In 2009 the team also returned to British Formula 3 International Series completing a full campaign with Max Snegirev as well as part campaigns for Mathieu Maurage, Miky Faccin, Jay Bridger and Ma Qinghua.
In 2010 the team continued in the European F3 Open but primarily used their British F3 cars for testing with drivers from F1, GP2 and GP3 – where young drivers get very little track time to develop and hone their skills. However the team continued to make occasional British F3 race starts and took a national class win with young Mexican, Juan Carlos Sistos on his series debut at Silverstone.
The team also announced a plan to form a new joint venture with China's motorsport team, Champ Racing, to enter an additional car under the banner of "Champ Motorsport with Team West-Tec". This venture started in September 2010 with experienced driver Michael Ho racing at Brands Hatch, Monza, Jerez and Barcelona. In his second race weekend, at Monza, Ho took third place in the Copa class, fifth overall.
The team was successful in the European F3 Open in 2010, challenging at the front in both classes and winning races with more than one driver, eventually finishing as runner-up in both the driver's and teams' championships.
For 2011 the European F3 Open team featured four full-season drivers in Victor Corrêa, Fabio Gamberini, Luca Orlandi and Sam Dejonghe, plus a number of other drivers racing on part programmes during the year such as Fahmi Ilyas, Kotaro Sakurai and Tatiana Calderón.
The 2011 season was also successful. Victor Corrêa won two races and Fahmi Ilyas one in the team's newest Dallara F308s, Ilyas having made a debut at Brands Hatch in the car later used by Tatiana Calderón who scored points at Barcelona after she stepped up from Star Mazda in the USA. Fabio Gamberini also won a race outright at Spa and also won an impressive ten times in the Copa class, where he was champion as well as being third overall. Sam Dejonghe twice featured on the overall podium and took four Copa class wins to finish as Copa runner-up and Luca Orlandi, despite missing two races, secured third in Copa for an unprecedented 1-2-3 for the team. Kotaro Sakurai featured on the Brands Hatch Copa podium in Luca's place on his debut in the series. The team won the overall 2011 Teams' Championship.
For 2012, Sam Dejonghe returned with a single win before being dropped at the end of the year, to be replaced by Ed Jones. Manu Bejarano started the season but stopped with no budget after two rounds, although Roberto La Rocca, from Venezuela, joined the team. Jordan Oon and Luca Orlandi drove the team's Copa F308 entries, with Orlandi replaced by Kiwi Chris Vlok after an injury at Brands Hatch. After a much improved end to 2012, with Dejonghe and new signing Ed Jones taking second place at each of the last three meetings, Team West-Tec F3 remained the most successful team in the history of the series.
Team West-Tec had eight drivers in 2013, with Ed Jones winning the championship and Nelson Mason and finishing third. Two further F312 cars were campaigned by Orlandi and La Rocca. The team also operated four Copa F308 cars for Sean (son of Tom) Walkinshaw, South African Liam Venter, Chinaman Huan Zhu and young British driver Cameron Twynham.
Team West-Tec F3 also returned with a three-car team to the reorganised British F3 series in 2013. Ed Jones took five wins from the twelve races in the second tier National Class.
In 2014, Yarin Stern, Tanart Sathienthirakul and Wei Fung Thong raced full-time for West-Tec in the renamed Euroformula Open. Nici Pohler did all rounds bar the final at Barcelona due to illness and was replaced by Fabian Schiller. Stern managed to grab the team 5 podiums over the year.
2014 also saw the beginning of West Tec's attack on the incredibly competitive FIA European F3 Championship with Felix Serralles taking on the whole season while Hector Hurst and Macau's Andy Chang split the season between each other.
Former series results
British Formula 3
| Class B | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Car | Drivers | Races | Wins | Poles | F/Laps | Points | D.C. |
| 1991 | Reynard 893 Volkswagen |  Thornton Mustard
|
3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 14th |
| British Formula Three Championship | ||||||||
| 2009 | Mygale M-09F3 Mugen-Honda | Jay Bridger
|
2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 28 | 15th† |
| National Class | ||||||||
| 2009 | Dallara F306 Mugen-Honda |  Max Snegirev
|
14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 108 | 4th |
 Mathieu Maurage
|
2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 9th | ||
 Qinghua Ma
|
2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 10th | ||
 Michele Faccin
|
2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 8th | ||
| 2010 | Dallara F306 Mugen-Honda |  Luiz Razia
|
3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 23 | 4th |
 Juan Carlos Sistos
|
6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 72 | 3rd | ||
| Rookie Class | ||||||||
| 2011 | Dallara F306 Mugen-Honda | Luca Orlandi
|
3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 45 | 3rd |
| National Class | ||||||||
| 2013 | Dallara F312 Toyota |  Roberto La Rocca
|
3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 7th |
 Chris Vlok
|
12 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 121 | 2nd | ||
| Huan Zhu
|
3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 10th | ||
 Jordan Oon
|
3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 45 | 5th | ||
| Ed Jones
|
6 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 103 | 3rd | ||
| Dallara F308 Toyota | Cameron Twynham
|
6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 82 | 4th | |
 William Barbosa
|
3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 38 | 6th | ||
| Sean Walkinshaw
|
3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 9th | ||
 Liam Venter
|
3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 23 | 8th | ||
† Shared results with Bridger Motorsport
Spanish Formula 3/European F3 Open/Euroformula Open
| Spanish Formula 3 Championship | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Car | Drivers | Races | Wins | Poles | F/Laps | Points | D.C. | T.C. |
| 2007 | Dallara F300-FPT | Andy Merrick [C]
|
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A [C] | 9th |
 Christian Ebbesvik [C]
|
16 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 118 | 1st [C] | |||
| Dallara F300-FPT Dallara F306-FPT |
Sean Petterson
|
6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 19th | ||
| 2008 | Dallara F306-FPT | Alex Waters [C]
|
4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A [C] | 7th |
| Qinghua Ma [C]
|
11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 24 | 7th [C] | |||
| Dallara F306-FPT | Christian Ebbesvik
|
17 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 39 | 10th | ||
| Dallara F308-FPT | |||||||||
| Dallara F300-FPT |  Francisco Villar [C]
|
16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 13th [C] | ||
| Jonathan Legris [C]
|
17 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 76 | 3rd [C] | |||
| European F3 Open Championship | |||||||||
| 2009 | Dallara F306-FPT |  Kristján Einar [C]
|
12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 9th [C] | 5th |
| Tom Tweedie [C]
|
2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 16th [C] | |||
| Callum MacLeod [C]
|
16 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 106 | 1st [C] | |||
| Dallara F308-FPT | Christian Ebbesvik
|
16 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 63 | 5th | ||
| 2010 | Dallara F308-Toyota | Callum MacLeod
|
14 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 112 | 2nd | 2nd |
| Dallara F306-Toyota |  Ramón Piñeiro [C]
|
2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 10th [C] | ||
| Kristján Einar [C]
|
2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 11th [C] | |||
 Michael Ho [C]
|
8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 28 | 6th [C] | |||
| Victor Corrêa [C]
|
14 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 62 | 5th [C] | |||
| 2011 | Dallara F308-Toyota | Victor Corrêa
|
16 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 59 | 6th | 1st |
 Fahmi Ilyas
|
4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 30 | 12th | |||
| Tatiana Calderón
|
6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 21st | |||
| Dallara F306-Toyota | Luca Orlandi [C]
|
16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 62 | 3rd [C] | ||
 Kotaro Sakurai [C]
|
2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 8th [C] | |||
 Sam Dejonghe [C]
|
18 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 118 | 2nd [C] | |||
| Fabio Gamberini [C]
|
18 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 130 | 1st [C] | |||
| 2012 | Dallara F312-Toyota | Sam Dejonghe
|
14 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 159 | 5th | 4th |
 Ed Jones [G]
|
2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A | |||
| Manuel Bejarano
|
4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 16th | |||
| Roberto La Rocca
|
12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 44 | 10th | |||
| Dallara F308-Toyota | Luca Orlandi [C]
|
9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 10th [C] | ||
| Chris Vlok [C]
|
2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 13th [C] | |||
| Jordan Oon [C]
|
16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 50 | 5th [C] | |||
| 2013 | Dallara F312-Toyota | Roberto La Rocca
|
6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 14th | 2nd |
| Emil Bernstorff
|
2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 20th | |||
| Jonathan Legris
|
2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 30th | |||
 Spencer Pigot
|
2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 16th | |||
| Ed Jones
|
14 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 256 | 1st | |||
 Nelson Mason
|
16 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 159 | 3rd | |||
| Luca Orlandi
|
8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 29th | |||
| Falco Wauer [G]
|
2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A | |||
| Hector Hurst [G]
|
2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A | |||
| Dallara F308-Toyota Dallara F312-Toyota |
Huan Zhu
|
16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 27th | ||
| Dallara F308-Toyota | Sean Walkinshaw [C]
|
16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 9th [C] | ||
| Cameron Twynham [C]
|
16 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 2nd [C] | |||
| Liam Venter [C]
|
13 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 31 | 6th [C] | |||
 Christopher Höher [C]
|
2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15th [C] | |||
| Euroformula Open Championship | |||||||||
| 2014 | Dallara F312-Toyota |  Yarin Stern
|
16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 125 | 5th | 3rd |
| Cameron Twynham
|
8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 53 | 9th | |||
 Igor Waliłko [G]
|
2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A | |||
 Nicolas Pohler
|
14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 38 | 12th | |||
| Fabian Schiller [G]
|
2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A | |||
 Tanart Sathienthirakul
|
16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 69 | 7th | |||
 Wei Fung Thong
|
16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 18th | |||
| 2015 | Dallara F312-Toyota | Yarin Stern
|
16 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 119 | 5th | 4th |
 Mahaveer Raghunathan [G]
|
2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A | |||
| Sam MacLeod [G]
|
2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A | |||
| Tanart Sathienthirakul
|
16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 133 | 4th | |||
| 2016 | Dallara F312-Toyota | Liang Jiatong
|
4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 28th | 9th |
FIA Formula 3 European Championship
| FIA Formula 3 European Championship | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Car | Drivers | Races | Wins | Poles | F/Laps | Points | D.C. | T.C. |
| 2014 | Dallara F314-Mercedes |  Félix Serrallés[2]
|
33 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 82 | 12th[3] | 6th[3] |
| Dallara F312-Mercedes | Hector Hurst[2]
|
24 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 24th[3] | ||
| Wing Chung Chang[2]
|
9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 30th | |||
| 2015 | Dallara F312-Mercedes | Fabian Schiller[4]
|
33 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 25th[5] | 9th[5] |
| Dallara F314-Mercedes | Raoul Hyman[4]
|
33 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14.5 | 21st[5] | ||
References
External links
