2018 RWRS Universe Silly Season Thread

[pi314159]

Team Mecha welcomes Fushida-san!

And Fushida signs for Team Mecha.

[the Masked Lapwing]

Zimmer confirms F1 entry, Rosenforth takes over F1RWRS team
At a press conference at ZimSport's workshop at Eastern Creek, Sydney, Frank Zimmer today officially confirmed that he would no longer be running the Holden F1RWRS Racing Team, and would instead be moving the squad over to the Formula One World Championship for 2018.
Zimmer said that he was approached by the FIA halfway through the season, shortly after HRT was relegated to pre-qualifying. Zimmer has been on poor terms with F1RWRS boss Daniel Prieto after Prieto's comments about HRT at the time, and the FIA took advantage to patch up their differences, following Zimmer's problems with the FIA in 2009 that led to the creation of the F1RWRS.
"It is with great sadness that I announce that, as of today, I will be having nothing to do with the F1RWRS or the running of a team in that series. When Prieto took over the series, it was run well, and professionally, but over time, it has gone downhill, and over the last season, having money has become more important. The Commission's attempts to regulate how the teams can go about sponsorship was what made me consider withdrawing, but Prieto's willingness to mock teams who aren't performing to best of their abilities goes against the very spirit of the beginnings of the series. I do not agree with the way it is moving, and since by this point, the series is now a mere shadow of what Formula 1 has become in the last few years, I have decided to leave the series."
Zimmer said that not only was he moving to F1, he would remain as the leader of the works Holden open-wheel team, with the Australian manufacturer being allowed to produce an engine. Despite the late start to development, Holden has used it's existing F1RWRS engine, the LSF1, as a base for its new unit, which will continue the LSF1 line as the LSF1-18. Likewise, HRT's chassis will continue it's F1RWRS numbering scheme, to be called the Holden HRT-008, although this car will be designed from scratch.
However, this does not mean that Holden's involvement in F1RWRS will end. With new engine regulations for 2018, Holden have designed the LSWS-18, and have already found a new works team, in Rosenforth Engineering, which will see one of the foundation teams of the F1RWRS return to the sport for the first time since 2011.
Rosenforth was originally acquired during 2011 by the Zimmers, who used the technical knowledge of Jimmy Rosenforth to enhance their cars and become a contender for podiums and wins during 2012 and 2013. Since then, Rosenforth has given his name to ZimSport's operations in various series, including AR2.0 and the team's Pagani Zonda program in GT-R WC. Rosenforth was on hand at Eastern Creek to confirm his plans for the 2018 F1RWRS season:
"I will be effectively taking over Frank's F1RWRS operation, however it will be based out of our British shop next season rather than here. The car, which will be called the RF18, is basically a slightly updated version of the existing HRT-007, but hopefully Holden's new engine will be able to haul it up the grid, and we hope to sign some decent drivers to drag it up the grid even further."
On the topic of drivers, neither Zimmer nor Rosenforth have signed any contracts as yet, however it is believed that Carter Simpson, who has risen through the ZimSport ranks, will be given his choice of seat in either F1 or F1RWRS, and has not yet come to a decision, while former HRT driver Rhys Davies has also been linked with a seat in both series.

[MinardiFan95]

Simpson Motorsport announce Jean-Luc Schiller as driver for 2018

Simpson Motorsport have officially announced that Jean-Luc Schiller will be one of their drivers for the 2018 F1RWRS season - making the move from MRT in what is expected to be a driver swap with Phillippe Nicholas, who finished off the season with Simpson in 2017. Schiller is expected to bring sponsorship from Credit Suisse to the once cash-strapped Australian team, plus the team have announced that a number of other sponsors have come onboard for the season ahead.

This image captured at a fan-day held by the team at Sydney Motorsport Park shows an older chassis running in what is believed to be the 2018 Simpson livery, notably without Dacia sponsorship on the side - though this is believed to only be due to the engine contract with Renault being up for renewal.

[DemocalypseNow]

Is F5000 a career dead-end?

Once upon a time, F5000 was Australia's premier domestic racing series. The best of the best that Oceania had to offer plied their trade in the juiced-up single seater formula, with legendary drivers like Bruce McLaren, Jack Brabham, Denny Hulme, Chris Amon stealing the show, going wheel to wheel with foreign superstars like Jim Clark, Phil Hill, Jackie Stewart and Jochen Rindt.

2017 saw F5000 organisers try to reboot what had become a historic club series back to the fore of world motorsport. The concept was to act as the main international series for the eastern continents. Expanding its horizons to Asia, with rounds in Malayisa and Indonesia, the organisers tried to paint the series in a new light. One where both established stars could continue strut their stuff after their top-flight careers had come to a close, but also act as a feeder towards the truly global series for young drivers from down under and surrounding regions.

Question marks however are being raised at whether the reboot was a true success in regards to raising the national series' profile. While there were indeed some familiar faces from the world of Formula 1 competing -most notably Jeremy-Etienne Voeckler, who despite being 57 years of age still looked dominant every time he showed up - many others who had pedigree elsewhere in international motorsport struggled to bed in. Nor did the locals or youngsters do particularly well - only FPR's two drivers, Dean O'Lauchlan and Wiremu Tamati, managed to make the championship Top 10 at the end of the year. O'Lauchlan's background in F1RWRS and Indy had made him a pre-season favourite for the title, and was the only driver from the series' homelands to make any sort of impact.

Instead, the Europeans turned up in their droves and ruled the roost - seven of the top 10 coming from what is often considered the centre of world motorsport. Many of these drivers were drivers who had tried and failed to make an impact in their own continental series, and were looking for a way to get themselves back on the racing map. One such driver is John Bean, who after his inital foray into Formula 1 with Marussia was a false-start, went on to win the F5000 title this year. Despite coming to a new corner of the planet to ply his trade, and winning the title at his first go, he says it hasn't raised his profile at all.

"The offers aren't coming in," he said. "I have a great management team now. Endurance racing when I wasn't able to land a single seater drive kept me going at least, but in F5000 I finally feel at home with the car, and I have to thank my new management at Voeckler for landing me a drive with the factory Nismo team."

"But despite all of these steps, I still don't have any new offers. VTM at least managed to get me a drive in the Japanese national series, with a team that initially wasn't interested. But it seems that nobody considers my F5000 title to be a sign that I've still got what it takes to succeed."

Even after the refocus of the series to try and position itself as a premier single seater championship once more, few drivers who have succeeded in the renewed formula look to be making any significant steps afterwards. While series champion Bean paints a dystopian future for his post-F5000 career, it seems few others can expect forward progress either.

Championship contender Guadalupe Alvarez Reina has been linked to a drive in the reborn FIA Formula 3 series, while Sandra Yoo, who despite being a consistent backmarker in the series, has landed herself a works Skoda drive in the International Pro Car series next year. This aside, most drivers seem to be fighting simply to continue in F5000, not even daring to dream of progressing to any of the worldwide-oriented series.

"We are getting enquiries from quite a few experienced single seater drivers about next year," said NISMO team principal Jeremy-Etienne Voeckler, who himself raced occasionally for the Japanese marque in 2017. "I imagine it will be difficult for the young drivers who weren't quite able to get to grips with the unique feeling of these cars to get a renewal with these experienced names knocking at the door."

"We are talking about drivers who, perhaps because they don't have quite large enough budgets, can't simply buy their way into a top series, and as a result, they are getting displaced by worse drivers with more money. Guys who can get the job done in terms of bringing home points every week but you wouldn't tip for a world title."

Despite what would appear to be criticism of the system, Voeckler indicated his team were in line to do exactly this, displacing young talents John Bean and Hans Einhrin for more experienced hands.

"There were some youngsters here in pre-season I expected to do well, and they didn't quite deliver. Some of them I think will end up displaced by veteran drivers from all over the globe. Admittedly our team is one of those, we expected John [Bean] to have plenty of offers in other series, and Hans [Einhrin] indicated to us he didn't really want to continue. When you have guys knocking at your door that are race winners in the highest profile single seater series out there, it's hard to say no."

So what are the prospects for an F5000 graduate? The only way out seems to be attracting enough sponsorship from positive performances in Oceania, and take that large chequebook elsewhere. It seems results alone from F5000 aren't worth the paper they're written on, according to some teams at international level. Yet, open wheel veterans are still flocking in their numbers. F5000 is going to have a hard time shaking the 'historic' tag, when it isn't just the machinery that's from a previous generation.

[MinardiFan95]

Response to Motorsport Editorial

A recent article published by Motorsport entitled "Is F5000 a career dead-end?" has raised questions within the motor racing community about the status of F5000 within the open wheel racing career ladder. Originally, the series was formed primarily to increase the interest of open wheel racing within the Oceanic region where touring car racing has reigned supreme since the 1960's. It was also formed to give young drivers from the region a stepping stone to higher level international series' without having to move to Europe. At the moment, we feel we are well on the way to achieving the first goal, but to use an Australian Rules term, we've kicked a behind on the second goal.

At the start of last season, there were rumours floating around that F5000 would one of the new major feeder series for Formula One - indeed, there were rather strong talks with their management which resulted in the return of F1 to Australia at Surfers Paradise where F5000 was the main support series. A lot of the international teams most likely signed up thinking they'd get a head start for when the series expanded globally, but this turned out not to be the case as F3 Eurasia became the F1 feeder series. As we are not looking at expanding too much in the coming seasons we will most likely see a lot less international outfits in the series for 2018.

The engine manufacturers are getting more involved with the series, especially given that the manufacturers title will be refined and more significant this upcoming season. As part of this, they mostly want to supply engines to teams and drivers that are marketable in the regions that F5000 will visit in the coming seasons.

In terms of drivers, there will be a greater percentage of Australian, Asian and New Zealander drivers on the grid this season due to the series staying within the Asia-Pacific region. In saying that, we expect that there'll be a significant influx of experienced drivers who have not been able to find a seat elsewhere come down-under to keep their skills in check. Hopefully, this will entice some up and coming local talent to sign up for a full time seat or enter in a privateer entry for a few rounds so they can measure their skills against proven talent.

For the management team, the first season of F5000 was an experience in learning the ropes in running a racing series. The adjusted rule package for 2018 is currently under development, with some improvements based on feedback from the team owners. Hopefully this will lead to the series gaining a higher level of reputation on the open wheel racing ladder in the coming years.

[CaptainGetz12]

With Race of Rejects draft in progress, Blokkmonsta now has it's full driver lineup for the 2018 ARWS season. I will post an introductory post for Blokkmonsta when the 2018 thread forms.

[V8fan12]

Peak Motorsport Group buys out troubled Aeroracing Engineering
In an announcement today, the Peak Motorsport Group, owner-operator of such teams as Ziegler Auto Racing and Mont Blanc Racing, broke the news that they had purchased all assets of the embattled F1RWRS operation of Aeroracing Engineering. The team, who was experiencing financial difficulties, had been put up for sale by confidential tender a few weeks ago. F1RWRS management transferred the team's licence to PMG late this afternoon after the owners of Aeroracing accepted their offer. The new team will be known as Peak-Aeroracing Engineering in homage to the rich history of the team.

The assets bought do not include the contracts of drivers Kay Lon and Alexey Buyvolov, neither that of reserve driver Akira Yamamura, due to the fact that the team is now under new management. PMG has moved quickly to secure new drivers for the 2018 ARWS season, placing bids in the Race of Rejects for former F1RWRS drivers Renaldo Jimenez and Jari Kekkonen. It is understood that they are also looking at other options.

TL;DR: Aeroracing's F1RWRS team is now under the control of me.

[AndreaModa]

...in homage to the rich history of the team.

Haha!

PMG has moved quickly to secure new drivers for the 2018 ARWS season, placing bids in the Race of Rejects for former F1RWRS drivers Renaldo Jimenez and Jari Kekkonen.

Christ, what a waste of a good car! Surely there must be a better option than those two clowns?

[Salamander]

PMG has moved quickly to secure new drivers for the 2018 ARWS season, placing bids in the Race of Rejects for former F1RWRS drivers Renaldo Jimenez and Jari Kekkonen.

Christ, what a waste of a good car! Surely there must be a better option than those two clowns?

You'd think so, but... not really. Even most of the good junior prospects have been snapped up.

[V8fan12]

...in homage to the rich history of the team.

Haha!

PMG has moved quickly to secure new drivers for the 2018 ARWS season, placing bids in the Race of Rejects for former F1RWRS drivers Renaldo Jimenez and Jari Kekkonen.

Christ, what a waste of a good car! Surely there must be a better option than those two clowns?

Yeah, well who would you suggest?

[AxelP800]

Markus Mk Co. Confirms Changes for 2018 Kyalami 9 Hours

Behind the success of the Kyalami 9 Hours revival, there were quite a turbulence between Markus and GTR-WC Commission due to the usage of GT1 cars. GTR-WC didn't contact Markus at all and threatened whoever participated in 2017 Kyalami 9 Hours in GT1 class will be banned from entering GTR-WC anymore. Markus Mk Co. have thought about a possible solution for 2018 event.

Classes maybe will separated into 3: GT, TC2X, SL.
GT class will remain the top class, but possibly with new breed of cars but not the slower GTE and GT3 or those cars but tuned with higher spec.
TC2X is a development of four TC2 cars upgraded to "Extreme": Alfa Romeo 156, BMW 320si, SEAT Leon TDI, and Chevrolet Lacetti. Marcas cars looks like will no longer participate or one of them will be upgraded to "Extreme" too.
Now the interesting one, SL. What is SL? SL is Supercars Light. They will include Ariel Atom, BAC Mono, KTM X-Bow, and Caterham 7 series. They hoped this class will atract some local drivers to participate due to the low cost.

All we know is the decision is not final and with a lot of months to go, who knows?

[V8fan12]

Peak-Aeroracing secure race drivers
Days after the announcement that Coventry-based Aeroracing Engineering had been bought out by the Peak Motorsport Group, the new owners have managed to fill both race driver seats, drivers being enticed by the race-winning package shown by Aeroracing in 2017.

Ashley Watkinson joins the outfit as team leader. Watkinson's last involvement in F1RWRS/ARWS was as a tester for Revolution Engineering in 2016, having formerly been a driver for Prospec, Holden, Mitie, Team Phoenix, Hemogoblin, Pacchia and CR, where he made his debut, winning the first ever F1RWRS race back in 2010. Watkinson is a proven race winner, but it is yet to be seen whether his return to the series will see him competing for the top step on the podium once again.

Renaldo Jiménez of Tropico fills the second seat. Jiménez has most recently been a race driver for Mecha Grand Prix in 2016, after testing for his nation's national team Tropico Grand Prix from 2014-2015. He also competed in SARS for Himalayas Racing. Jiménez brings his Tropican sponsors to the team, cash expected to help develop PAE's package even further.

PAE's chassis is expected to be designated PAE01-04, following on from Aeroracing's 2017 chassis ARE01-03. They are also looking at renewing the Audi engine contract and have been advertising for test driver roles.

[DemocalypseNow]

Analysing Automercato: Slim pickings for teams slow off the mark

With the opening procedures of the new ARWS season almost upon us, most teams have by this point tied up their drivers for the upcoming year. Yet some have stalled, been pensive over their choices and generally taken too long to decide. With has-beens that long faded into obscurity such as Ashley Watkinson, Jari Kekkonen and Kazuki Fushida finding their way into the championship for next year, the situation looks desperate for teams still taking CVs.

Rosenforth Engineering
#13 Michael Robertson (AUS) / #14 Carter Simpson (AUS)
The former works Holden team was sold off to Jimmy Rosenforth, as the Holden marque has elected to switch their focus to Formula 1 after a number of poor seasons in F1RWRS. With it seems to have gone any sort of effort to keep the team competitive. With car development stalling, and a general sense of apathy emanating from the management, don't expect them to pull off any surprise signings before the season starts. A last minute announcement of a renewal for the ineffective Michael Robertson, and an overdue promotion of Holden junior driver Carter Simpson is on the cards.

Plus One Kingfisher
#15 David Neuberg (GER) / #16 Quentin Reatherson (GBR)
With Neuberg having what seems to be an infinite contract, the only question at Plus One Kingfisher was ever going to be who partnered the German. With Alessandro Lucarelli jumping ship to Kjellerup only months after joining as a mid-season replacement, the constant revolving door of their second seat continues to rotate. They need now to tie down a promising youngster on a long-term deal and wait for them to grow into a stable driver in the same manner Neuberg has been allowed to. Given he debuted with them as a temporary replacement for Lucarelli late last year, and has been a dark horse in the F2RWRS title race in 2017, Quentin Reatherson seems a sensible choice.

Kamaha Motorsports
#21 Rosco Vantini (ITA) / #22 Daniel Melville (AUS)
Despite not only avoiding sacking Daniel Meville for the whole of 2017, but also renewing his contract for 2018, the attitude towards Kamaha has not changed. Their two-faced management has put off almost all potential suitors for the vacant drive left behind from Hagane Shizuka's retirement. This means their new lead driver is extremely likely to be a driver closely linked to the team in general.

Rosco Vantini looked a certainty to form part of ArrowTech's lineup for next year, until the team failed to meet the registration deadline and vanished from the sport. Vantini, closely affiliated with Kamaha through connections with Prince Falik and his eponymous junior team, can't return to 3.5 next season, and while Kamaha might have other options in Shinobu and Yuka Katayama, and possibly even dragging Barii Mori out of retirement, the unwavering faith in Vantini's ability against the evidence from Falik's entourage will likely be enough for him to secure the ride.

Team Mecha Racing
#29 Jesus Plaza (MEX) / #30 Kazuki Fushida (JAP)
Hardly a sought after drive, the Mecha team has been a permanent fixture of Pre-Qualifying for many seasons in a row now. They have in the past possessed some decent drivers - James Davies and Jean-Luc Schiller come to mind - the quality of their squad has taken a nosedive recently. The oft-derided Hiroto Tojo, who was nothing short of hopeless during his brief spell with Dofasco in 2016, saw out the whole season in 2017, and while they had the somewhat faster Jesus Plaza in the other car, the extra talent made no difference, as the car broke down on literally every occasion it qualified for a race.

Kazuki Fushida is not an upgrade on Hiroto Tojo. Jesus Plaza has sensed as much, and bailed out of a contract extension only a day after the Japanese driver was announced as his new team-mate. Clearly his management thought they could find him a better ride with a more skilled team-mate elsewhere.

His management were wrong. The other new teams, along with many of the backmarkers from last season, have executed some excellent off-season moves, snapping up proven talents and hot prospects like Nicolas Steele, Terry Hawkin, Nick Nurmester, Tomo Kazama and Marko Jantscher. Plaza has nowhere to go. Not even his test contract with Voeckler is worth the paper it's written on any more - with Nathanael Spencer and Pippa Mann, two former world champions, also in their test and reserve roster, Plaza has been completely marginalised.

If Plaza is unwilling to suck it up and decides to stay on the sidelines, expect F5000 champion John Bean to take his place, who has been in negotiations with the team for the drive, but with talks stalled by the Mecha team waiting on the Plaza situation to be resolved.

Valerian
#39 Shinobu Katayama (JAP) / #40 Jean-Vincent Albertini
Valerian have already been busy in the pre-season marketplace. In an attempt to make themselves a true top level conglomerate, they have expanded rapidly beyond just their Formula 1 effort, branching out into many facets of motorsport. They signed on Andrej Kremnicky as a client, but instead of hoarding him for themselves, arranged a contract renewal with Revolution for him. And so they must look externally for drivers for their own outfit in ARWS.

Valerian have made an aggressive, concerted effort to acquire the services of Autodynamics refugee Jean-Vincent Albertini. On many days, the Monegasque native was able to hold his own against more experienced team-mate Nicolas Steele, and given his financial backing, seems an astute choice for the French team. However, Albertini's management is notoriously difficult to negotiate with, which may hamper their efforts to acquire his services.

Initially frontrunners to sign Jesus Plaza away from Mecha GP, it seems the Valerian management has had a change of heart, and are instead focusing their efforts on Japansese veteran Shinobu Katayama to lead their team. After a scattered season that saw selected apperances with Rob Lomas Racing and Nurminen RE, it seems the struggling driver may finally be able to lock down a permanent deal, her last full-time ride a complete disaster back in 2016 with the Revolution team.


Verdict: There are a couple of worthy candidates out there at this late hour, but there are scare few of them. Despite being last to the party by a long way, it appears that Valerian might do the best of all the remaining teams with vacancies to fill. PORE has the potential to make something happen, but most move quickly to tie down Reatherson before a rival swoops in.

[TomWazzleshaw]

Pascal hopeful for AWRS seat

After the recent news of the Commonwealth Group's bid for Sunshine, the career prospects of Swiss driver Gregor Pascal have been left in doubt for 2018. However, the former F2RWRS race winner remains optimistic he will pick up a race drive at this late stage in the off-season.

"Of course, it's not good finding out at this stage you've lost a drive before the new season", lamented Pascal, "But I'm looking at my options and hopefully something will crop up. There's still a few seats in the midfield left, which would be a good platform for me to prove myself this year."

While Pascal was reluctant to name what seats he may be interested in, it's believed that the Swiss driver is looking to take his Adecco backing to either Rosenforth or Plus One for the upcoming season.

[Normal32]

New team desesperate to sign Katayama?

It seems that with ther rumors linked to Valerian/Venturi taking the final slot in the grid, it seems no evident that the options are few.
However, there are strong rumors that Shinobu Katayama, who didn't got a full-time gig on 2017, is likely to do a full-time return in 2018 with Valerian/Venturi. While unavailable both sides were not available for comment, it remains as a possibility. It would be a great move giving the desesperate few amount of options on the grid.
To read more please upgrade to Autosport+, now only $99.9 per month

[SuperAguri]

Katayama signs for Venturi

After a long talk, Shinobu Katayama walked out of Venturi with a signed contract for a one year deal, in a brief statement she said "I hope I have better luck then I did last year and I can get some points. I at least want to make sure I am the best Japanese driver of the season and beat that prima donna Kazama.

[DemocalypseNow]

F5000 champion Bean to make ARWS debut with Team Mecha Racing

British driver John Bean will make a return to the higher echelons of motorsport after a 6 year absence, after signing a deal with Team Mecha Racing for the 2018 ARWS season.

Bean, who previously raced in Formula 1 in 2012, dropped back down the ranks to rebuild his career, and comes to ARWS on the back of becoming Formula 5000 champion last year.

"I'm happy to finally be back at the top level of racing," he said. "I put in the hard work and dedication to bring myself back to this level. I am looking forward to this new chapter in my career."

[Ataxia]

Reatherson closing in on Plus One drive

Reports have suggested that Nebula F2RWRS driver Quentin Reatherson is closing in on a drive with Plus One Racing Engineering's ARWS team for 2018.

Reatherson has been in impressive form over the past couple of seasons, and having made his debut as a substitution for Alessandro Lucarelli at the Plus One team last season it is believed that he impressed sufficiently to earn a shot at a full season.

[CaptainGetz12]

Blokkmonsta Confident for their First Season In ARWS

Amidst several teams withdrawing from the Auto Reject World Series (ARWS) and clients having second thoughts regarding entry into the series, Blokkmonsta Motorsport's Andrea Schnass expressed confidence that his team will find and remain financially stable for their entry in ARWS.

"We have a budding relationship with our friends at RUF and with the completion of a new garage in Pfaffenhausen we are more than ready to take on the world in this newly-rebranded series."

Finding their garage in Leipzig not up to the standards of holding ARWS machinery the team used its partnership with RUF automobiles to form a garage just for their ARWS effort in the car company's hometown.

The team shows promise in their driver lineup as well, with the new team securing seasoned drivers Wouter Lamberigts and Nicholas Steele. "I didn't think I would be back with a minnow team," Steel said in a separate interview. "but this team looks a bit more prepared than most start-ups I've seen recently. With Lamberigts I think getting out of PreQualifying won't be as hard as either of us normally have it."

The team's engine and tire choices remain a question mark. While RUF is experienced in building cars and engines, as shown through their V8-powered RGT-8 and the electric-powered Model A, the firm announced that they will only be working on the chassis for the first season, and it will be up to Blokkmonsta to find an engine and tires. The team is also trying to build a better wind-tunnel, and is currently searching for a contract for a replacement for their current tunnel. Rumor has it that the team approached Melroes Racing Team to borrow their windtunnel, but said rumor has not been addressed by Blokkmonsta at this time.

[SuperAguri]

Desperate times for Kamaha and Mori
With teams having to publish their finances it became clear how desperate things have gotten for the Japanese F1 team Kamaha, The 13th place in the constructors championship with a single point was the worse result they had since the first championship back in 2010. Expensive but fragile Audi engines did nothing to help the team and the Michelin tyres proved to be useless in the races. Long time sponsors have walked away stating the poor results and the Japanese economy as a whole, this meant that Mori has remortgaged his home in Kent and has rented it out, causing him to live in one of the motorhomes and rather then replace a transport driver who retired, Mori got an HGV licence and is driving one of the trucks himself to save money. Money he earnt driver for teams last season has gone straight back into the team to help keep it afloat.

There was a rumour last year that Arrowtech, Revolution and Kamaha were going to merge to bring the best parts of each team but nothing seems to have come about this, however Prince Falik still has interests in FR1WRS but has lost money with The Fox disappearing with all the money that Arrowtech had left, which stops Prince Falik from purchasing any team outright.

It is not all bad news, Mori has persuaded Yamaha to return to the series and they have built an engine that should get Kamaha back up the field and pre pre season tests have shown it to be the 2nd best engine in the field. Melville was resigned and brings much needed money to the team too and was not as bad as preseason ratings said he was. The lead driver is still not confirmed but Rosco Vantini is rumoured to be purchasing a part of the team (with or without Prince Falik) to secure a drive.

Whether Kamaha can survive another season is debatable but they are looking for some good points and a good season should ensure their survival for another season.

[Salamander]

What is this, "pre pre season tests"? Is this Japanese Autosport talking merde, or were there actual tests? And for that matter, how would they know it is second best? I know nobody other than possible customers has had access to any of the dyno data for PURE-Hart, and I doubt any of them would be so foolish as to leak this and ruin their reputation.

Then again, considering who has published this drivel, it is perhaps no surprise it is full of garbage speculation.

[SuperAguri]

Mr Gauthier knows that pre pre season tests are the rough figures we get from insiders on bench tests and the Yamaha looks tasty!

[TomWazzleshaw]

Armannsson to make Shock ARWS Switch?

With just two seats left on the AutoReject World Series grid for 2018, rumours are flying around the paddock as to who could grab one of these seats. One of these, the second Plus One seat alongside incumbent German David Neuberg, has long been linked to Nebula F2RWRS driver Quietin Reatherson. The 24 year old Brit, who substituted for Alessandro Lucarelli at last year's Moroccan Grand Prix, is held in high regard by the team after his performance in the F2RWRS series.

However, it's believed that title sponsor Kingfisher has been against signing Reatherson up until this point, and are advocating for the team to sign a more well-known driver for the 2018 season. With many top drivers already locked up to contracts for the season, one name that's started to crop up in recent days is that of Icelandic driver Einar Ármannsson. The former Ferrari test driver subbed twice for Nathan McKane in Formula One during 2017, scoring a popular maiden win at the European Grand Prix in Silverstone on his way to 10th in the WDC, but has been shut out of the Formula One grid for 2018. Coupled with his reputed work ethic and marketability in Europe, it's rumoured that Kingfisher have been lobbying for the signing of Armannsson over Reatherson.

When asked for comment on the rumours, neither Plus One or Armannsson's management were available for comment, but an announcement is expected to be made over the coming days regarding the second Plus One seat.