Ocean Racing Technology

Ocean Racing Technology (ORT) was a racing team that took part in both the GP2 Main Series and the GP2 Asia Series Championships. The team, owned by Tiago Monteiro and José Guedes, was formed at the end of the 2008 season after being purchased from BCN Competición. The driver and the entrepreneur created a structure based on recognized professionals and quickly started to secure first-class results, making it possible for the Portuguese Racing team to fight with the more advanced teams in the FIA accredited championship that is the main feeder series for Formula One.

History

BCN Competición was bought by the Portuguese former F1 (and current WTCC) driver Tiago Monteiro and José Guedes in November 2008, in a move that relocated the team to the Algarve circuit, being renamed Ocean Racing Technology. The change to ORT meant a full transformation the team kept only the frames, discarding all the rest, and hiring new staff.

Racing history

GP2 Series

In the 2009 season, drivers were Álvaro Parente and Karun Chandhok. Parente won the first race for the team at the 2009 Belgian Feature Race, in a round where he also got pole position and fastest lap and was 8th in the final Championship standings. Ocean finished the Teams' Championship in 9th, but only two points behind 5th-place finisher iSport International.

For 2010, Ocean recruited Max Chilton and Fabio Leimer, with Leimer taking the team's second win, but the team slipped back to twelfth overall in the standings.

The following year, Ocean hired Kevin Mirocha (who was later replaced by Brendon Hartley) and Johnny Cecotto Jr.: Hartley scored the team's only points with a fifth-place finish at Spa-Francorchamps, this poor showing again resulting in a twelfth-place teams' championship result.

For the 2012 season, Ocean signed Nigel Melker, and Jon Lancaster, the latter of whom was swiftly dropped when he ran out of money. He was replaced by Hartley for two rounds of the championship, before Victor Guerin took the seat for the remainder of the season. Melker scored 25 points under the revised system, raising Ocean's performance to eleventh overall following the Coloni team's exclusion from the championship.

At the end of 2012, its owner Tiago Monteiro reported that the Government of Portugal owed the project around €6 million and that without that money they would not be able to continue in the competition. On January 16, 2013, Hilmer Motorsport was announced as a replacement of the team in the GP2 Series.

GP2 Asia Series

Yelmer Buurman and Fabrizio Crestani drove for the team in the 2008-09 GP2 Asia Series season, replacing BCN drivers Yoshimoto and Luca Filippi who competed in the first round of the championship.

GP3 Series

In 2012 they entered the GP3 Series shortly before the start of the season, replacing Tech 1 Racing, they finished seventh in the championship with 56 points thanks to the results of Kevin Ceccon.

Complete series results

GP2 Series

In detail

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

GP2 Final

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

GP2 Asia Series

† These drivers raced for more than one team during the season. Their final position includes results for all teams.

In detail

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

• * Team was known as BCN Competición at round one in Shanghai, before Tiago Monteiro bought over the team's assets and renamed it as Ocean Racing Technology.

GP3 Series

In detail

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

External links