Over the last few years the EUROINTERNATIONAL Group has dominated the competition in the Formula BMW-Americas series. In fact, their success can be found in many series across the globe, including Formula BMW-Europe. In order to keep things simple, I will be focusing on their Formula BMW-Americas track record over the past few seasons.
As expected, the team's success in the FBMW-Americas series has developed over time. Their first race in the American series occurred 4-years ago this weekend. The #16 EuroInternational car was piloted by Edoardo Piscopo at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio. Piscopo and the team started off with a bang by putting their entry off-pole in their first qualifying session. Unfortunately, the race didn't offer a fairy tale ending as the team finished 16th out of 22 cars. Arguably, their first real success came at the end of the 2006 season when Canadian Robert Wickens joined the team at Round 9 of his championship winning season. The duo's first win together came the next day on the streets of San Jose during Round 10 on July 30th, 2006. In all fairness, Wickens was already leading the championship with Team Apex when he switched teams. Nonetheless, this seemed to be a catalyst for EuroInternational's future success.
In 2007, another Canadian driver joined the team--Daniel Morad. Morad and EuroInternational had a tremendous season enroute to winning the 2007 championship. Other notable drivers found in the team's paddock throughout the season were Sebastian Saavedra, Adrien Tambay, and Yannick Hofman. In 2007, EuroInternational claimed 40.5% of the podium spots available--17 podiums in 14 races. This percentage excludes the FBMW World Final.
The following season, 2008, the team improved even more. Once again, they found a very solid group of drivers and brought them to the grid. A few notables are Alexander Rossi, Ricardo Favoretto, Giancarlo Vilarinho, and Adrien Tambay. Not only did they find success with this talented group of drivers, they backed up their 2007 championship by winning once again. This time, the championship came from an American driver; Alexander Rossi. Rossi had an incredible year, with an unprecedented 10 wins (11 counting the World Final) and 12 podiums. The team found itself claiming 55.6% of the available podium spots during the 2008 season.
**Please note that Round 7 was cancelled and the results for Round 15 are not posted on the Formula BMW-Americas site.**
As stated above, the numbers for 2009 are likely to improve and look even better at the end of season. To date, the drivers have completed 7 Rounds of the 2009 championship.
In the meantime, I've compiled a few numbers from the current season that will likely impress anyone who views them. Thus far into 2009, EuroInternational has claimed 14 of the 21 available podium spots or two-thirds---which is an astounding 67%. To put their success into perspective all you really need to do is look at their 2009 win percentage--which is currently at 100%. Giancarlo Vilarinho, Gabby Chaves, and Michael Lewis have all stood on the podium for the team this season, but Vilarinho and Chaves are the only two drivers in the championship to win a race (so far). The future success of the team remains to be seen, but the numbers to date, are extraordinary.
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2 comments:
Easy to do so well when they are only racing against 2 other teams and 12 total cars.
The current entry numbers are disappointing to say the least, but I don't think it's fair to take anything away from the team's that are currently competing.
EuroInternational had two drivers finish inside the top-five of last year's World Final--which included 21 cars. They were racing against 7 other teams from across the globe, which -- to me-- is pretty impressive.
In the most recent event at Miller Motorsports Park, the series' had 6 teams competing. Which isn't great, but it's still more than the fore mentioned two.
EuroInternational is also leading the current Formula BMW-Europe standings with Felipe Nasr (1st) and Daniel Juncadella (3rd).
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