Equipe Gauthier

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Equipe Gauthier
Full Name	Sasol Equipe Gauthier
Base	La Crau, Var, France
Founder(s)	Guillaume Gauthier
Team Principal(s)	Guillaume Gauthier
Technical Director	Arnaud Gauthier
Current Drivers	#21 - Danny van Rijkens #22 - Tomo Kazama
Other Noted Drivers	Jesus Plaza, Hansuke Shioya, Robert Anderson
Debut	2016 Australian Grand Prix
Races	25 (32 entries)
Constructors' Championships	0
Drivers' Championships	0
Race Wins	0
Podiums	1
Points	7
Pole Positions	0
Fastest Laps	0

Equipe Gauthier is a racing organisation formed by former French Formula 1 driver Guillaume Gauthier. The team competes across several categories, including F1RWRS, the Siemens Ausdauer Reject Series, the Rejects Rallycross Championship, as well as the now-defunct F1 Rejects Grand Prix 2 Championship, from where the team's origins are traced.

History

F1RGP2C (1997-)

1997

Equipe Gauthier was formed during the 1996 F1RGP2C off-season, as the struggling Tyrrell team sought to off-load their operation there as it was a big financial drain on the organisation as a whole. Guillaume Gauthier, having retired from full-time racing after the close of the 1995 season, acquired backing from some major investors to finance a takeover of the team, with him taking the team principal position and a plurality shareholder stake. Gauthier moved to have the team renamed in light of the change of ownership, however, this was blocked by the mercurial Andreas Stefano, team principal of Ferrari's F1RGP2C effort. The team hired Samael Meerwick and Lawrence Tucker to drive for them, both of whom carried a fair amount of sponsorship money. However, both drivers failed to do anything of note, and were both sacked after 5 races. Thanks to some underhanded contract wrangling, Gauthier was able to keep a large portion of the sponsorship money from both drivers, and set about looking for a new pairing to finish out the season.

Robert Anderson was eventually hired, and with a large amount of backing from British-American Tobacco, which enabled Gauthier to sign a more talented driver to lead the team - he eventually settled on Martin McFry. While Anderson's backing was signficant, his pace was not - he failed to qualify in half of his outings for the team, and while McFry was quicker than anyone else who drove the car that season, he regularly wound up making driving errors and crashing. Anderson's lack of pace would spark a feud between the Brit and team boss Gauthier, which eventually came to a head with Anderson's infamous actions at the Belgian race, where he collided with title-contender Tom Douglas, arguably costing Douglas the championship, proceeded to set his car on fire, and then assaulted journalists after the race. He was promptly fired and sued by Gauthier, with the full amount of his sponsorship money being paid to the team by BAT in an out-of-court settlement.

The team quickly replaced him with Plinio Vida for the Italian GP, before lining up Frédéric-Maxime Voeckler and Tracey Windham to finish the season. Gauthier however ran out of patience with McFry, and the two mutally agreed to part ways following Italy, with Johan Gustafsson finishing out the season in McFry's car. By the end of the season, the team wound up 13th in the Constructors' Championship, ahead of only the recalcitrant Lola team. The horrendous lack of pace, revolving door driver policy, and just Robert Anderson in general also guaranteed Gauthier the Reject of the Year award for 1997. However, thanks to his underhanded and shady contracts, he had amassed together enough money to buy out most of his fellow shareholders, and move the team's base of operations from Ockham, UK to La Crau, near Guillaume's hometown of Toulon. With uncontested control of the team, a new base from which to grow and expand, and a fairly healthy budget, things looked more promising for 1998.

1998

For the 1998 season, the team acquired the services of Johan Gustafsson and Frédéric-Maxime Voeckler - the Voeckler signing bringing a very lucrative sponsorship deal with Alstom, as well as signalling the beginning of a friendly business relationship between Gauthier and the Voeckler family.