Fortec Motorsports
Fortec Motorsports continued to be one of the leading teams in junior formulae, despite having their efforts spread around an immense amount of categories . After clinching the drivers? title in Formula Renault 3.5 with Robin Frijns last year, they picked his successor as Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 champion, Stoffel Vandoorne, and helped him to a similarly impressive season. Although Vandoorne wasn?t able to clinch the title, Fortec delivered a great car for the majority of the year and secured the runner-up spot in the teams? championship.
In Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, they ran three cars with the leading role going to one Jake Dennis, who finished fourth in the championship and massively helped Fortec to third place in the standings. In Formula Renault NEC, the Northamptonshire-based team entered with a giant lineup of twelve on-and-off drivers, eventually celebrating the title with Caterham-backed Matt Parry, while their other protege Jack Aitken finished second. Fortec also participated in Protyre Formula Renault with a four-car assault and wound up settling with another runner-up spot, courtesy of Malaysian Weiron Tan.
Although Fortec signed up to the newly-established FIA European F3 Championship with four cars, they had to face a tough season as two of their drivers, Dmitry Suranovich and Josh Hill, retired from racing during the season. Regardless, their two full-time racers, Pipo Derani and Felix Serralles helped the British team to fourth in the championship, taking numerous podiums along the way. The squad also took part in British F3 with William Buller and Felipe Guimaraes, but they had to settle with second once again behind Carlin.
Overall, Fortec collected a phenomenal 20 major victories over the 2013 season and had their representatives in at least the top four in all but one championship they entered. This kind of consistent class is worth a lot.
David Gruz