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A year to remember at Racing Engineering

A look back at 2013 with Racing Engineering

Edited: Dec 18, 2013, 5:52 AM

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2013 champion Fabio Leimer

Now that the season has come to an end, its time to look back and sum-up the year. 2013 has been a year to remember for Racing Engineering, finishing third in the Team Championship and getting its driver, Fabio Leimer, to the top of the Drivers Championship. Its usually said that something that begins well finishes well, and that has been true for the Sanlucar based team. They started by winning the two first races of the season, at Malaysia and Bahrain with Leimer. After these wins they had several months of continuous work, accumulating points without rushing but also without stopping, until finally they won again at Monza with their Swiss driver again on the top step of the podium for the Spanish team.

It’s has also been an enjoyable year for Julián Leal, who not only managed to score points but also scored his first GP2 podiums this season. There is no doubt that 2013 has been the best season so far for the Colombia born driver in the category, an achievement that also delights the Spanish team.

A total of three wins, seven podiums, seven fastest laps and one pole position summarise the effort made by Racing Engineering in this campaign to score the 263 points that put them in third position in the Team Championship. A well deserved reward for a whole year of work and dedication, with the team and the drivers, especially Leimer, having to fight without pause until the very last race of the year.

Fabio Leimer

Photo by: GP2 Media Service

Although there are a lot of moments that stand out from this season, for both the Racing Engineering Sporting Director, Thomas Couyotopoulo, and for the engineer Sebastien Viger, there is nothing that compares with Fabio’s pole at Bahrain.

For Sebastian it was an exceptional feat, “having more than one second's advantage to the other drivers in a GP2 qualifying is something that I think very few have ever managed to do in this category.” Thomas also points out that “during that weekend was when Fabio and the team realised that they had the potential to dominate and win the 2013 GP2 Championship”.

Obviously, as the Sporting Director says, “We all knew that it wouldn't be easy, as there are a lot of factors that can negate the wins and points and that everybody will fight hard to achieve the same target”. Which actually made the difference is the mental aspect, “mentally, it has been very important to dominate for the whole weekend, both in qualifying and the race, because achieving it gives the driver a degree of confidence to get the title”.

With these results is impossible not to be happy. “It has been a great year and the whole team has done a great work”, emphasizes Alfonso de Orléans-Borbón, president of Racing Engineering. “I’m really proud of be working with them all throughout these years. It has been hard, there have been ups and downs, but in the downs you don’t hope but keep on working as you’ve always done. In the end, we’ve got the Championship for the second time in GP2, quite an achievement.”

It's just a month since the last race of 2013 and at Racing Engineering “we are already preparing fort he 2014 season. Our expectations will be the same as always”, says the team principal, whose target is clear: “to win the championship again even though we have to keep the feet on the ground and carry on with the same cautious approach of previous seasons", in Alfonso de Orléans-Borbón's own words, “there is still a lot ahead so we’ll know more in the first race of the year.”

Racing Engineering

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