Tech 1 Racing - family team turned to be a factory of champions
Tech 1 Racing is a French racing team, founded by Simon Abadie in 2000 and based in Toulouse, which currently competes in the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup. Since its foundation, the team captured numerous championship titles in different open-wheel racing competitions, including four teams’ titles in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series and two teams’ titles in the FR 2.0 Eurocup.
Four drivers became champions while driving for Tech 1 Racing – Alvaro Parente in the 2007 Formula Renault 3.5 Series, Pedro Petiz in the 2007 Megane Trophy Eurocup, Javier Tarancon in the 2011 Formula Renault 2.0 Alps and Pierre Gasly in the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup.
Simon Abadie
Simon Abadie founded a team in 2000
Simon Abadie founded a racing team in 2000 when he couldn’t find a competitive and affordable seat in other teams which competed in the French Formula Renault 2.0 Championship. The small team settled in the region of Toulouse.
In his debut season with his own team, Abadie scored seven podiums in nine races to finish as the championship runner-up, behind Renaud Derlot. The team stayed in the series for five more seasons, reaching a peak in 2003 with second place in the teams’ standings.
Three championship titles in the Megane Trophy Eurocup
After half a decade in the national open-wheel competition, Tech 1 Racing turned to the Eurocup Megane Trophy, organized as a part of the World Series by Renault. The team fielded two cars for Simon Abadie and Matthieu Lahaye. With one victory, Abadie was 10th in the final standings, Lahaye finished one place ahead.
In 2006, Lahaye was the second-placed driver and the team captured its first championship title. Abadie ended his racing career so he was replaced by Bernard Delhez and Bruce Lorgere-Roux. In 2007, Tech 1 Racing team had four cars, winning both Teams’ and Drivers’ titles. Pedro Petiz was a champion, ahead of teammate Dimitri Enjalbert. In 2008, the team took its third consecutive championship title. Tech 1 Racing left Megane Trophy at the end of 2009.
Tech 1 Racing’s truck in 2005
Competing in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series since 2006
In 2006, parallel to its commitments in the Megane Trophy, Tech 1 Racing entered the Formula Renault 3.5 Series, the World Series by Renault’s first category competition which was the last step on a way to Formula One.
The team took over Saulnier Racing’s racing structure and equipment, fielding two cars for Jerome d’Ambrosio and Ryo Fukuda. In the second part of the season, D’Ambrosio was replaced by Marco Bonanomi and Patrick Pilet. Fukuda was 16th in the points, the team was 12th.
2008 Formula Renault 3.5 Series champions
Four FR 3.5 Series championship titles for the team
In 2007, Alvaro Parente and Julien Jousse were driving for the team. Parente was the race winner two times and he dominantly took the championship title. Jousse was tenth in the points, contributing to team’s maiden championship title in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series.
In the following five seasons, Tech 1 Racing captured three more championship titles, in 2008, 2010 and 2012. In that period, Tech 1 Racing’s drivers were Julien Jousse, Charles Pic, Brendon Hartley, Edoardo Mortara, Daniel Ricciardo, Jean-Eric Vergne, Kevin Korjus, Arthur Pic, Daniel Abt and Jules Bianchi.
The team left Formula 3.5 after 2015
Tech 1 Racing stayed in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series until 2015, which was the last season under Renault sponsorship. The last three seasons weren’t so successful as previous years, with fifth place in 2013 as the best team’s result.
Between 2013 and 2015, Tech 1 Racing’s drivers were Mikhail Aleshin, Nigel Melker, Marco Sorensen, Alfonso Celis Jr, Nicholas Latifi, Roy Nissany and Aurelien Panis.
Pierre Gasly is the last champion from Tech 1 Racing’s garage
Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup regulars since 2010
Since 2010, Tech 1 Racing is the regular entrant in the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup, certainly one of the most challenging young drivers’ championship in the world. In its debut season, Tech 1 Racing took the championship title for the teams. The full-time drivers were Arthur Pic, Hugo Valente and Aaro Vainio.
Thre years later, the team scored double triumph, winning teams’ championship and drivers’ championship with Pierre Gasly. Other drivers in that season were Egor Orudzhev and Matthieu Vaxiviere. In the recent period, the team recorded best results in 2016, when Tech 1 Racing was second among the teams and Dorian Boccolacci was the championship runner-up.
In 2017 Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup, Tech 1 Racing competes with four cars for Gabriel Aubry, Max Fewtrell, Thomas Maxwell and Thomas Neubauer.
Tech 1 Racing’s line-up for 2017
Technical partnership with Panis Barthez Competition
In 2016, Tech 1 entered endurance racing for the first time, not as a standalone team but as a partner to all-new Panis Barthez Competition team. Tech 1 provided logistic, engineering and technical assistance to the team that competed in the European Le Mans Series with LMP2 and LMP3 prototypes.
In June 2016, they participated in 24 hours of Le Mans and finished 8th in the LMP2 class. In 2017, they failed to finish the race.
Photos: Tech 1 Racing FB,
