ISport International

iSport International is a British Championship motor racing team that was formed to compete in the GP2 Series from its inception in 2005. The decision to race in the GP2 series was based upon the opportunity that the series created to feed drivers to F1 and the profitability of the overall business model. iSport won the Championship title in 2007 and won the 2010 GP2 Asia Series and achieved the second highest GP2 series total of points won up to the end of 2012. iSport provided a successful platform for four F1 driver careers. The decision to cease racing in the 2013 GP2 series was based upon the declining profitability of the original business model and the decline in the number of race drivers with sufficient sponsorship to invest in motor sport. iSport is currently reviewing its future motor sport options.

Overview

iSport International was founded in 2004 to compete in the new Formula One feeder series GP2 after F3000 series ended. The team is composed of several former members of the Petrobras Junior Team who took Bruno Junqueira to his Formula 3000 championship victory in 2000. Their factory is based in Carleton Rode near Norwich, England.

Jonathan Williams, son of Williams F1 founder Sir Frank Williams, is an advisor for the team.

Racing history

GP2 Series

The inaugural season of the GP2 series saw iSport take the fastest time in the shoot-out for race numbers, giving drivers Scott Speed and Can Artam numbers 1 and 2 for the season. While the team was regularly fast at races, neither driver was able to win a race. Nevertheless, Speed finished third in the championship with consistent points-scoring finishes, whilst Artam was 22nd overall with two points. iSport finished the season in fourth place in the teams' championship. For 2006, Speed graduated to Formula One with a drive at Scuderia Toro Rosso and Artam left the series. iSport filled its seats with Ernesto Viso and Tristan Gommendy, the latter of whom was later replaced by Timo Glock at the mid-season point. Viso took the team's first two victories in the category and Glock added two more; the part-season driver overhauling his team-mate's points tally to finish the year fourth overall in the drivers' standings, with Viso sixth and Gommendy 20th. iSport improved to third in the teams' championship.

Bruno Senna driving for iSport at the Silverstone round of the 2008 GP2 Series season.

Glock remained with the team for 2007 and was joined by 2006 race winner Andreas Zuber. Glock won five races on his way to the championship title, prevailing in a season-long duel with Lucas di Grassi (ART Grand Prix). Zuber supported him with a single further victory on his way to ninth overall, although the team-mates embarrassingly collided whilst accelerating away from the front row of the grid at the feature race of the round held at Magny-Cours. To cap a successful year, iSport also won its first teams' championship. For the 2008 season, iSport joined the GP2 Asia Series in its inaugural year, signing Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok. After a low-key Asia campaign, which saw the team finish fifth in the standings, the Senna-Chandhok combination was retained for the main series season, in which Senna emerged as champion Giorgio Pantano's main rival, accumulating two victories on his way to the runner-up position in the drivers' table. Chandhok also won a race and finished tenth overall; iSport ended the season second in the teams' championship to the Barwa International Campos Team.

Diego Nunes (iSport) leads Álvaro Parente and Romain Grosjean at the Turkish round of the 2009 GP2 Series season.

For the 2008-09 Asia Series season, the departing driver line-up was replaced with reigning Formula Renault 3.5 Series champion Giedo van der Garde and a series-encouraged Asian driver, Hamad Al Fardan. Van der Garde and Al Fardan scored 13 points between them, resulting in an eighth-place championship finish for the team. For the 2009 main series, Van der Garde was retained with Diego Nunes replacing Al Fardan; Van der Garde won three races but only managed seventh in the drivers' championship, whilst Nunes was back in 20th. iSport finished fifth overall in the teams' championship. Both drivers then moved on, and were replaced by Davide Valsecchi and Oliver Turvey for both the 2009-10 Asia Series and the 2010 main series. In the Asia Series, Valsecchi won three races and sealed the championship title, with rookie driver Turvey backing him up to take sixth overall, allowing iSport to win the Asia teams' championship for the first time. In the main series, however, the team was unable to maintain this level of form: Valsecchi ended the season strongly with the outfit's sole victory at Yas Marina, but was overshadowed by Turvey, who concluded the year sixth in the drivers' championship to Valsecchi's eighth. iSport maintained its fifth place in the teams' championship.

iSport again signed two new drivers—Sam Bird and Marcus Ericsson—for the abortive 2011 Asia Series and the 2011 main series. On this occasion, neither driver won a race: Bird finished sixth in the final standings with a single position, with Ericsson four places behind him but the team improving to fourth overall. Ericsson was retained for 2012, with Jolyon Palmer signed from the Arden team to replace the Formula Renault 3.5-bound Bird. The drivers' fortunes improved, as they took a race victory apiece, but iSport slipped to sixth in the teams' championship at season's end.

The iSport GP2 contract was acquired by Russian Time for the 2013 season.

Formula One

The iSport team was believed to have been evaluating an entry to Formula One, but team principal Paul Jackson said that he was waiting for the FIA to finalise its plans to cap budgets in the sport before making any solid plans. "For many years I've said if the conditions were right and the numbers made sense, then we'd enter F1," said Jackson. "The budget cap could be the perfect opportunity for us, but until we find out what the magic number is, I don't know if it's do-able or feasible. When it's all in print, we'll look at it, start doing our sums and talking to potential investors." iSport's possible F1 entry was cancelled after they pulled out of GP2.

Results

GP2 Series

Year	Car	Drivers	Races	Wins	Poles	F.L.	Points	D.C.	T.C.
2005	Dallara-Mecachrome	Scott Speed	23	0	1	5	57.5	3rd	4th
		Can Artam	23	0	0	0	2	22nd
2006	Dallara-Mecachrome	Ernesto Viso	21	2	0	1	42	6th	3rd
		Tristan Gommendy	9	0	0	0	6	20th
		Timo Glock	12	2	0	1	58†	4th
2007	Dallara-Mecachrome	Timo Glock	21	5	4	4	92	1st	1st
		Andreas Zuber	21	1	1	2	30	9th
2008	Dallara-Mecachrome	Karun Chandhok	20	1	0	0	31	10th	2nd
		Bruno Senna	20	2	3	1	64	2nd
2009	Dallara-Mecachrome	Giedo van der Garde	20	3	0	0	34	7th	5th
		Diego Nunes	20	0	0	0	8	20th
2010	Dallara-Mecachrome	Oliver Turvey	20	0	1	0	47	6th	5th
		Davide Valsecchi	20	1	1	0	31	8th
2011	Dallara-Mecachrome	Sam Bird	18	0	1	0	45	6th	4th
		Marcus Ericsson	18	0	0	0	25	10th
2012	Dallara-Mecachrome	Marcus Ericsson	24	1	0	0	124	8th	6th
		Jolyon Palmer	24	1	0	0	78	11th

† Glock had scored 5 points for BCN Competición during the first 9 races of the season.

GP2 Asia Series

Year	Car	Drivers	Races	Wins	Poles	Fast laps	Points	D.C.	T.C.
2008	Dallara-Mecachrome	Karun Chandhok	10	0	0	0	7	13th	5th
		Bruno Senna	10	0	0	3	23	5th
2008-09	Dallara-Mecachrome	Giedo van der Garde	11	0	0	0	11	12th	8th
		Hamad Al Fardan	11	0	0	0	2	20th
2009-10	Dallara-Mecachrome	Oliver Turvey	8	1	0	0	17	6th	1st
		Davide Valsecchi	8	3	1	4	56	1st
2011	Dallara-Mecachrome	Marcus Ericsson	4	0	0	0	9	6th	5th
		Sam Bird	4	0	0	0	2	12th

External links

• iSport International official website