Bertrand Baguette, 24, who won the 2009 World Series by Renault Championship, has signed with Conquest Racing for a full campaign in the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series.
I’m a little surprised to see Baguette abandon the traditional path to F1, but this is a really good signing for Conquest. Baguette will join teammate and fellow IndyCar rookie Mario Romancini under the Conquest tent in 2010.
Last season, in World Series by Renault competition, Baguette finished the year with 5 wins, 1 pole position and 10 podiums while driving for Draco Racing.
I’m a little behind on some World Series by Renault news. Here’s a quick recap of what’s been going on…
Red Bull junior driver Jean Eric Vergne has committed to running in the World Series by Renault with SG Formula in 2010. His main focus this season will be British F3–where he will be driving for Carlin— but, he plans to run both series. The two championships only have one overlapping date (May 1-2, 2010), where the Formula Renault 3.5 competitors will be running at Spa-Francorchamps and the British F3 pilots (including Vergne) will be competing at Silverstone. Vergne should do pretty well with SG Formula this season. He had a really solid test with the team back in October at Motorland Aragon where he topped the time charts in two consecutive sessions. More recently, he was the quickest WSR driver at the Jerez test. Vergne finished runner-up in the 2009 Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup with 4 wins, 4 pole positions and 8 podiums. He will be teamed with Marcos Martinez at SG Formula this season.
Sten Pentus will return to the series in 2010 with Fortec Motorsport. Pentus has kind of flown under the radar for many, but he did put in a few memorable performances during his rookie campaign in Formula Renault 3.5 last year. Last October, I wrote this about Pentus…
Sten Pentus continues to impress. The 27-year-old Estonian driver earned another ‘hard charger’ award this weekend after improving 13 positions in Round 17 of the World Series by Renault. I haven’t documented every result this year, but I have Pentus down for three previous ‘hard charger’ awards: Silverstone (improved 8 positions), Spa (improved 9 positions), and Catalunya (improved 17 positions).
It will be fun to watch Pentus progress in 2010 and I expect we will see even more improvement from the 28-year-old Estonian driver. Over the winter, Sten has been competing in the New Zealand Toyota Racing Series (TRS) where he has logged 2 wins and 7 podiums in 12 starts.
Daniel Zampieri, 19, has committed to running the 2010 World Series by Renault with Pons Racing. The young Italian driver, who won the 2009 Italian F3 Championship, is part of the Ferrari Driver Academy. Zampieri has a ton of potential and should do real well this season under the guidance of both Ferrari and Pons Racing. He just recently topped the time charts in the opening day of the Jerez test. During the winter months, he ran six races for Rapax in the GP2-Asia series logging a best finish of 8th at Bahrain.
You can view the results from the WSR Jerez test here.
Jake Rosenzweig
American Jake Rosenzweig has re-signed with Carlin to compete in the 2010 World Series by Renault. The 20-year-old drove for Trevor Carlin, Carlin Team Boss, last season in the Formula 3 Euro Series.
Aside from a stellar weekend at Zandvoort, Jake had a fairly tough year in 2009, one that was laden with DNF’s. His average finish (in races completed) was 13.69. His best finish of the season, in F3 Euro Series competition, was 3rd. He qualified off-pole for that race.
Jake has shown a tremendous amount of potential. Personally, I would have liked to have seen him run another season in the Formula 3 Euro Series. I’m still waiting for that break-out year from him.
His most recent racing endeavors include running two races in the GP2-Asia series with Super Nova Racing. Additionally, he spent some time in the sports car ranks driving in the British Porsche Carrera Cup.
Mikhail Aleshin announced that he will return to Formula Renault 3.5 competition in 2010 with Carlin. This will be his fourth full-season in the World Series by Renault.
The 22-year-old Russian driver spent last season in the FIA Formula 2 championship where he compiled 1 win, 5 podiums, and 13 top-ten finishes en route to 3rd in the overall championship. During his three previous seasons in Formula Renault 3.5 with Carlin, he logged six podiums and one win (Monza-2007).
He should do pretty well in 2010 as he (at least at this point) will be the most experienced driver in the field. He had 6 top-five finishes during his 2008 FR 3.5 season and his average finishing position, excluding two DNF’s, was 8.4.
Spaniard Victor Garcia has signed with KMP Racing for the 2010 World Series by Renault. He will join Anton Nebylitskiy who signed with the team early last month.
Garcia spent the bulk of last season in British F3-International competition where he logged 11 top-ten finishes. His best finish was 3rd at Spa-Francorchamps after starting the race in 13th position.
Keisuke Kunimoto
Epsilon Euskadi has signed Keisuke Kunimoto and Albert Costa for the 2010 World Series by Renault.
Both drivers should be a solid addition to the Spanish team. Costa won both the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup and the WEC title with Epsilon last season totaling twelve wins and nineteen podiums between the two series. Kunimoto ran four WSR events (2-Rounds) with Epsilon last season and completed a very successful test with the team last October at Motorland Aragon. This should be a pretty good year for the Epsilon Euskadi squad.
Epsilon Euskadi won the 2005 World Series by Renault title with Robert Kubica behind the wheel.
(photo: http://www.keisuke.jp/)
Nelson Panciatici announced that he will join the Lotus Racing Junior Team in the 2010 World Series by Renault. After spending three years in the Formula Renault 2.0 category, Panciatici ran one-year of Spanish F3 prior to making the jump to Superleague Formula and GP2 in 2009. The transition may have been a little steep for the now 21-year-old and he has since committed to running the 2010 World Series by Renault.
This will probably be a good move for Panciatici who may have rushed his development last season. Working with Fairuz Fauzy–who finished runner-up in the 2009 Formula Renault 3.5 category and is the current team owner of the Lotus Racing Junior Team— will hopefully be beneficial for the young Frenchman.
**update** It has been announced that Russian Daniil Move will also drive for Fauzy and the Lotus Racing Junior Team. Thanks to blog reader Craig for the update via the comment section.
Stefano Coletti
Comtec Racing has signed Stefano Coletti for the 2010 World Series by Renault. Coletti, 20, spent last season in the Formula 3 Euro Series where he logged 1 win, 2 podiums, 2 fast laps and 8 top-ten finishes. He also earned the hard charger award at both Zandvoort and Hockenheim.
He made his Formula Renault 3.5 debut last season in a one-off at Monaco with Prema. He finished a solid 10th after starting the race 13th.
In August 2009, he made his GP2 debut running four races for Durango (replacing Davide Valsecchi). His best finish in GP2 was 12th. While racing at Spa, in the GP2 Series, he suffered a fractured sternum after a major-off into the tire barriers. At the time of the incident, he was battling for a top-ten finishing position.
In November, he traveled to the United States and completed a test in a Indy Lights car with Team AFS/Andretti Autosport at Putnam Park, Indiana.
This year will mark his first full-season in the World Series by Renault. He will be teamed up with Greg Mansell under the Comtec Racing tent. This is a pretty decent signing for Comtec. As the season progresses, Coletti will likely be a driver to watch.
(photo: http://www.stefanocoletti.com)
Greg Mansell, 22, announced that he will return to the World Series by Renault in 2010 with Comtec Racing. He drove the final two races of the 2009 season with Comtec. Prior to that, he drove for Ultimate Motorsport where he logged a best finish of 9th at Spa-Francorchamps.
Away from his open-wheel endeavors in 2010, Greg plans to run an LMP1 car with his brother Leo (25).
P1 Motorsport has announced the signing of Jan Charouz and Walter Grubmuller for the 2010 World Series by Renault.
Jan Charouz, 22, has spent the last few years of his racing career focusing on sports cars and racing in the LMP1 division of the Le Mans Series. Prior to the 2007 season, he worked his way up through various ranks in single-seater competition by running 2 races in A1GP for Team Czech Republic, as well as F3000 International Masters, F3000 Italy and FBMW ADAC. He didn’t have a ton of success until the 2006 season in F3000 International Masters where he won the overall championship by claiming two victories and eight podiums. Last fall, he had the opportunity to sample a Formula Renault 3.5 car at both the Barcelona and Motorland Aragon tests with RC Motorsport.
Walter Grubmuller will be making the jump to Formula Renault 3.5 competition after a very impressive year in British Formula 3. Grubmuller, 21, finished the season ranked second in the final standings after compiling 2 wins and 9 podiums. The 21-year-old Austrian driver has done a nice job developing his craft and taking his time before jumping to the next rung on the ladder. Similar to Charouz… this will likely be a learning year for Grubmuller but I fully expect him to do quite well. Watch for some solid results as the season progresses.
