2018 Preview : GR Motorsports

One of FF1M’s more enigmatic teams have yet to taste championship glory since their debut in 1988 (canonically). GRM’s early seasons were characterised by final Teams Championship placings that had two digits rather than one with 2009 being the best of their backmarker days. Rubens Barrichello even managed three pole positions and their maiden podium finish at a wet Monaco. Since then, they have established themselves as a solid midfield team, beating FJR for 5th in the championship during 2017, in part thanks to an understated season from Sergio Perez, but also due to a well-developed chassis that had been carried over from the season before.

Best Season: 2015

GRM’s best season in FF1M can be traced back to 2013 when they signed Valtteri Bottas, who had comfortably won the FF2M championship the season before with Spaniel, Tornado Motorsport’s junior team. At this point, GRM were in the doldrums having finished last in the championship in 2012, and for much of 2013, nothing had changed, but then came Hungary, a race where rain wreaked havoc with no driver seemingly wanting to stay on circuit. Bottas was by far the most consistent driver with only two off-track moments, and never looked back once he inherited the lead and win after compatriot Kimi Raikkonen suffered a tyre failure in the closing stages. In 2014, Bottas famously inherited another race win at Montreal when Jenson Button’s gearbox failed with only three corners remaining, but GRM’s car was much improved and they improved from 9th to 6th before improving even further for 2015.

The combination of Bottas and Carlos Sainz was somewhat mismatched with Sainz arguably having been promoted into FF1M too soon and therefore not having gained the necessary experience in the junior series. Even so, it was the Spaniard who scored the team’s first points of 2015 at Melbourne before Bottas finished 2nd at Mugello after starting 11th on the grid. The Finn was on course to win at Estoril but crashed out at the tricky first corner, but redeemed himself at Road America with another 2nd despite a technical issue forcing an unscheduled stop. The demise of Nico Rosberg on the final lap promoted Sainz to 3rd for GRM’s only recorded double podium finish to date. It took Bottas another four races before scoring points, but these came in the form of back to back wins at Spa and Monza. Spa was another inherited win after Sebastian Vettel suffered a puncture with a few laps remaining, but Monza was a masterclass. By the end of the season, Bottas finished four points off of the runner up spot in the Drivers Championship, while GRM narrowly missed out on 3rd thanks to a resurgent Gojira.

Worst Season: 2008

GRM were one of two returning (canonically) teams alongside Autodynamics, who like GRM, previously raced in the 1988 season. For their return, GRM recruited veteran Giancarlo Fisichella and novice Romain Grosjean, whose FF2M Asia championship challenge was forced to end early due to the hiring. By the end of the season, the Franco-Swiss would regret his decision for one main reason, technologies… or rather, lack of. FF1M was experiencing a technological race amongst its established teams with turbos, aerodynamic devices, and windtunnels in full force, and GRM entered FF1M with none of these, which resulted in failing to qualify for all 17 races. The following season saw Grosjean return to FF2M and finish runner-up to Vitaly Petrov on countback, while Fisichella disappeared into the ether.

Present day

Keen to keep up the momentum of a decent season, GRM have carried over their MT-16B chassis from 2017, now updated to 16C specifications. In fact, everything is virtually identical compared to 2017 from the driver line-up, engine, and tyres, so the familiarity could lead to a strong start to the season. Aerodynamic development won’t be as strong compared to the newer chassis, plus they are at the mercy of Shake ‘n’ Bake in terms of engine development, but if they play their spreadsheet right, the solid line-up of Bottas and Perez could be in for a few good results early in the season.

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