2018 Preview : Ajay Motorsports

Having returned to the grid in 2017, Ajay Motorsports were forced to endure a season mostly at the back thanks to unreliable Hart engines, which were essentially rebadged Ilmor engines after Willows Racing relinquished their manufacturer status. Despite this, there were signs of promise from Spielberg onwards with James Clark qualifying a season’s best 6th plus four other top ten starts, while mid-season replacement Mattia Alfonsi stayed out of trouble at Macau for a commendable 7th in the race. Unfortunately, the team were rooted to last in the championship after Willows put in two particularly strong races at Portimao and Sepang to avoid collecting the wooden spoon.

Best Season: 1996

In what is considered to be the start of a new era in FF1M, 1996 brought about Ajay’s finest season for two main reasons. Firstly, they were sharing a works Ford deal with Gui Racing and strong engine development through the season helped their car to be competitive, and secondly, Damon Hill was available. Despite an inauspicious start to the season with two late retirements, the Englishman scored two consecutive podium finishes at Buenos Aires and the Nurburgring which were, amazingly, Ajay’s first podiums in their 5th (recorded) season canonically. More was to come, two wins for Hill at Barcelona and Monza, and Monza also saw the team’s second driver, Olivier Panis, join him on the podium in what is to date the team’s only career double podium finish. By the end of the season, Ajay finished a career best 4th in the Teams Championship with Hill taking bronze in the Drivers Championship.

Ajay since haven’t reached those lofty heights of 1996, but there have been glimpses of brilliance such as being the first ever turbo-powered car to win an FF1M race courtesy of Jacques Villeneuve at the 2002 European Grand Prix, and in the support series, taking Fabio Leimer to championship glory in the 2013-14 FF2M Asia Series.

Worst Season: 2006

Ajay’s worst season was in part down to their own making as the AFIA had opened up the maximum number of teams from 11 and consequently introduced a pre-qualifying system. This led to the return of Ajay Motorsports as a team, but unfortunately for them, it was in the midst of technological warfare and being one of the massively underdeveloped teams on the grid resulted in the team failing to qualify for all 17 rounds and lead driver Villeneuve leaving in a bit of a huff after Spa.

Present day

For 2018, Ajay Motorsports have retained manufacturer status of their Hart engines and have gained customers in Monolith Racing System and Tildesley GP. However, pre-qualifying has been reintroduced due to there being 13 teams this season, and Ajay may well be spending much of the season looking over their shoulder having taken the unique decision to run Avon tyres exclusively, but they should start off relatively well having carried over their AJ-17 chassis into this season.

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