Dragon Racing
| Founded | 2007 |
|---|---|
| Base | Los Angeles, California and Donington Park, UK. |
| Team principal(s) | Jay Penske |
| Founder(s) |
Jay Penske Stephen J. Luczo |
| Current series | FIA Formula E |
| Former series | IndyCar Series |
| Current drivers |
 Loïc Duval.svg.png){kind=small} Jérôme d'Ambrosio |
| Website | http://www.dragonracing.com |
Dragon Racing (formerly Luczo-Dragon Racing) is an American auto racing team, involved in many areas of motorsport. The Dragon Racing team competed in the IndyCar Series from 2007 until 2014, and in 2014 Dragon Racing became one of the founding FIA Formula E teams. Dragon Racing was founded in 2007 by Jay Penske and Stephen J. Luczo. Dragon Racing is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, the largest EV (electrical vehicle) market in the world, and has additional operations in Great Britain at the Donington Park racing circuit.
Notable Dragon Racing drivers include Jérôme d'Ambrosio, Sébastien Bourdais, Loïc Duval, Ryan Briscoe, and Paul Tracy.
Dragon Racing is currently competing in the Formula E Championship. The Penske led team finished 2nd (runner-up) in the inaugural 2014-15 Formula E season with drivers Loïc Duval and Jérôme d'Ambrosio. Dragon Racing have won two races in Formula E. Jérôme d'Ambrosio took victory at the 2015 Berlin ePrix after Lucas DiGrassi was disqualified with Loïc Duval finishing in third, and d'Ambrosio was again awarded the victory at the 2016 Mexico ePrix after Lucas DiGrassi was disqualified after the race had finished.
The Dragon Racing team's motto or slogan is the Latin phrase: E Pluribus Unum (out of many, there is one)
History
Formula E (2014-Present)
Dragon Racing started the inaugural 2014-15 Formula E season with drivers Jérôme d'Ambrosio and Oriol Servià. After four rounds Servià retired from racing in order to take up an executive position within the team, he was replaced by French driver Loïc Duval. The two drivers remained with the team the rest of the season as well as the following season.
2014-15
Dragon Racing was off the pass of the top teams in the opening 2/3 of the season, but showed great reliability and consistency which kept them within striking distance of the top teams. Despite sitting in 6th in the Teams Championships for the majority of the season Dragon Racing achieved 4 podiums and a win at the 2015 Berlin ePrix in the final four rounds of the championship. Due to their late season form Dragon Racing finished 2nd in the championship having surpassed ABT in the final round with an impressive double podium finish.
2015-16
Dragon started the 2015-16 champaign in similar fashion to their impressive season ending form from the prior season with a 4th and 5th-place finish in the opening round. Both drivers failed to finish in Putragya having both been in contention of a podium finish due to reliability on d'Ambrosio car and a driver error by Loïc Duval. At the Punta del Este ePrix Dragon Racing achieved their first front row lockout with d'Ambrosio on pole and Duval in second having capitalized on Buemi and Di Grassi mistakes in qualifying. In the race the Dragon cars could only manage 3rd and 4th having lacked the pass of the ABT and Renault cars of Lucus Di Grassi and race winner Sebastien Buemi. At the inaugural Mexican ePrix d'Ambrosio finished 2nd but was later promoted to the win as a result of di Grassi being disqualified.
Luczo Dragon Racing
The team debuted as Luczo Dragon Racing in 2007. The team fielded a one-off entry at the 2007 Indianapolis 500 with driver Ryan Briscoe. Jay Penske and Stephen J. Luczo were co-owners. Briscoe qualified 7th and finished 5th at Indianapolis 500. The car was notable for being painted in a "retro" paint schemes to resemble Rick Mears' 1988 Indianapolis 500 winning car, with Norton software as the lead sponsor.
Luczo Dragon ran a six-race schedule in 2008 including the Indianapolis 500 with IndyCar veteran Tomas Scheckter,[1] this time without support or cars from Penske Racing. While qualifying well, qualifying 3rd and leading numerous laps at the Indy 500 before being knocked out by mechanical trouble.
The team expanded to a full-time entrant in 2009, fielding 2008 Indy Lights champion Raphael Matos.[2] Matos and the Dragon Racing team went on to win the Rookie of Year honors in 2009 and scored multiple top-10 finishes.
Dragon Racing
In February 2011, Jay Penske re-branded the team as Dragon Racing in April 2011 and jointly announced that Paul Tracy had signed a five-race deal to compete for the team. Additionally the team entered two cars in the Indy 500[3] for drivers Scott Speed and Ho-Pin Tung. Tung crashed his car during qualifying and suffered a concussion crashing with only two corners to go, Tung would have qualified in the top 5. Scott Speed was unable to get his car up to speed, and the team let him go during practice.[4]
In January 2012, Dragon Racing had operations in Indianapolis and Los Angeles. It entered two cars in the 2012 IndyCar Series season; one driven by Katherine Legge, and the other driven by four-time Champ Car champion Sébastien Bourdais,[5] but on June 1, 2012, it was revealed that they would reduce operations to just 1 team with Bourdais driving the street courses and Legge on the ovals. Bourdais finished 25th in points with a best finish of fourth. Legge finished 26th with a best finish of 9th.
On February 12, 2013, it was announced that Sebastián Saavedra would be joining the team for the 2013 season in the No. 6 car while Bourdais would return in the No. 7.[6] Bourdais and team continued to dominate at Road and Street courses capturing three podium finishes, including two in the double-header in Toronto. Saavedra finished 21st in points, last among full-time drivers, with two top-10 finishes. In 2014, the team left IndyCar racing to focus on the new Formula E electric powered series.[7]
Drivers
- Sébastien Bourdais (2012–2013)
Ryan Briscoe (2007)
Patrick Carpentier1 (2011)
Raphael Matos (2009–2010)
Sebastián Saavedra (2013)
Tomas Scheckter (2008)
Scott Speed1 (2011)- Paul Tracy (2011)
Ho-Pin Tung (2011)
Oriol Servià (2014-2015)- Jérôme d'Ambrosio (2014–Present)
- Loïc Duval (2015–Present)
Racing results
Complete Formula E Results
| Year | Chassis | Tyres | No. | Drivers | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | Points | T.C. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014–15 | Spark-Renault SRT 01E | M | BEI | PUT | PDE | BNA | MIA | LBH | MON | BER | MSC | LON | 171 | 2nd | |||
| 6 | Oriol Servià |
7 | 7 | 9 | 9 | ||||||||||||
| Loïc Duval |
7 | 9 | Ret | 3 | 15 | 8 | 3 | ||||||||||
| 7 | Jérôme d'Ambrosio |
6 | 5 | 8 | 14 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 11 | 2 | 2 | |||||
| 2015–16 | Spark-Venturi VM200-FE-01 | M | BEI | PUT | PDE | BNA | MEX | LBH | PAR | BER | MSC | LON | 112* | 3rd* | |||
| 6 | Loïc Duval |
4 | 16† | 4 | 6 | 4 | 8 | Ret | |||||||||
| 7 | Jérôme d'Ambrosio |
5 | 14† | 3 | 16 | 1 | 7 | 11 | |||||||||
* Season still in progress.
Complete IndyCar Series Results
(key)
- 1 Non-points-paying, exhibition race.
References
- ↑ Cavin, Curt; Ballard, Steve (February 1, 2008). "Scheckter likely back at Indy 500". The Indianapolis Star (Gannett Company). Retrieved July 19, 2015.
- ↑ DiZinno, Tony (October 7, 2008). "Matos, Luczo Dragon latest to confirm 2009 plans". Motorsport.com (Motorsport.com, Inc.). Retrieved July 19, 2015.
- ↑ Miller, Robin. Tracy To Lead Restructured Dragon Racing, Speed TV, April 2, 2011, Retrieved 2012-01-14
- ↑ "Tung joins Schmidt Dragon for Sonoma". GPUpdate.net (JHED Media BV). August 24, 2011. Retrieved July 19, 2015.
- ↑ Glendenning, Mark (January 12, 2012). "Sebastien Bourdais secures full-time IndyCar return with Dragon Racing". Autosport (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved July 19, 2015.
- ↑ "Saavedra in at Dragon, to pair with Bourdais". IndyCar Series (IndyCar). February 12, 2013. Retrieved July 19, 2015.
- ↑ Formula E, Electric Racing: Part 3, Editorial Triple League Racing, March 3, 2014. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dragon Racing Formula E Team. |
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