Fusion Lotto Racing

Fusion Lotto Racing

Full Name	Fusion Lotto Racing
Base	Bath, England
Founder(s)	Miguel Rocha, Jacques Couteau
Team Principal(s)	Jacques Couteau
Technical Director	Adrian Oldey

Fusion Lotto Racing, formerly Fusion Motorsports is a Belgian racing team based in Bath, Somerset, and currently operates within the AutoReject World Series. They became the high-performance arm of the Astro Racing Group after the group's formation in late 2015. Previously, the team had entries in F3RWRS and RoLFS, but these was handed over to Nebula Grand Prix after their birth as a junior team. Fusion also raced in F2RWRS in 2016, but after joining F1RWRS the entry was passed over to Nebula again.

History

Fusion Motorsports was founded in 2014, and was originally based out of a lock-up garage in Bath, in which the team took delivery of one Scaven S15 chassis for the RoLFS. The team spent 2014 testing their car at Castle Combe and Thruxton, in the absence of actual racing competition. After signing Diego Álvarez Torrente and Jari Lappalainen to the team, the Bath City Council gave Fusion a grant of £1M to create a factory within the city on the proviso that they link up with the University of Bath's Engineering Department. The team entered the 2015 RoLFS season with Torrente, and loaned Lappalainen to the Donkervoort Automobielen team in F1RDS.

As the F3RWRS expanded its grid for 2015, Fusion made a late bid for an entry with drivers Leandro Moreira and Marko Jantscher. They were accepted into the sport with other newcomers Kamaha Motorsports, Foster's Good Call Racing and West Cliff Racing. Despite the team's finances becoming stretched by entering two series at an early stage and with the drivers bringing a minimal budget, PepsiCo, GAC Logistics and ExxonMobil provided funds to the team. Audi also supported Fusion with an engine deal. Their solitary season in F3RWRS was a success; Jantscher in the hunt for the championship for most of the season and taking 5th in the Teams' Championship.

As Fusion lodged applications into F1RWRS and F2RWRS, they handed their RoLFS (now IFRC) and F3RWRS entries to sister team Nebula Grand Prix, fronted by flamboyant Frenchman Jacques Couteau. This was done in order to let Fusion develop their facilities ready for higher formulae.

Fusion found themselves on the 2016 F2RWRS grid after Michael Alexander, the owner of Kingfisher Racing, became ill and had to scale back his team's involvement in junior series. The contract for Dutchman Martin van der Maeyede was kept in place, although Mitchell Macklin was drafted into the second seat in place of Latvian Matthias Valsattis, since the team were after an experienced driver to lead the operation. Macklin brought the team their first win at Austria in a race that saw Astro Racing Stars Diego Álvarez Torrente and Marko Jantscher flank the Australian on the podium.

That was as good as it got for the British team, as the pairing of Macklin and van der Maeyede underperformed often throughout the second half of the season, and although they made a few forays out of pre-qualifying their race performances were middling. At the end of the season, both drivers were fired by the team. However, as Fusion received a late entry into F1RWRS at the end of 2016, again the team handed their F2RWRS entry to Nebula, who replaced the driver lineup with young Brits Quentin Reatherson and Thomas Yorke.

F1RWRS/ARWS

2017

2017 Fusion CL1/17

After CR Motorsport and Dofasco Racing left the paddock of the RWRS' premier series, two new slots were opened up in time for the 2017 F1RWRS season. Nurminen Racing Engineering were the first team to join the field; the Finnish team had pedigree in the lower ranks and impressed the F1RWRS commission enough to give them a space. The second slot was expected to be filled by an entry with backing from an unknown Singaporean consortium, but after the investors defaulted on payments the slot was handed to Fusion. For their first season, the team hired pay-drivers Miko Fäkkinen and Geoff Donnelly for their first assault of F1RWRS. The team developed a very experimental chassis, and to ensure they could develop the chassis further in their first year signed a free engine supply with Great Wall. The Chinese automotive company had procured the engine designs from the former Prospec team, and began to manufacture them in exchange for free marketing.

Fusion failed to prequalify for the first event at Adelaide, although Fäkkinen did manage to set a quicker time than a number of more established runners. At Bathurst - the next round - Fusion took advantage of the wet conditions to send both cars into qualifying proper for the first time; a number of teams gambled on the rain subsiding and didn't leave the pit garages until late. Although Donnelly failed to qualify, Eric Swerts struggled with his Gillet and this let Fäkkinen into the race, to the surprise of everyone. The Finn drove a steady race to finish 12th and last on track, although Alexey Buyvolov's retirement meant the Russian was classified last. The deficit in engine power contributed to many more failures to pre-qualify, but the tighter, more technical layout of the Monaco streets allowed Fäkkinen to help Fusion make their second appearance on the grid proper. Although Donnelly once again failed to qualify, Fakkinen went one better than Bathurst and finished 11th; this performance allowed Fusion to jump Gillet ENB in the Constructors' Championship.

2018

2018 Fusion CL1/18

Midway through 2017, Fusion signed MRT driver Fredo Mestolio and AR3.5 champion Terry Hawkin to their race seats for the 2018 ARWS season, with the team looking to make decisive strides in the championship. The team also signed a title sponsorship deal with Coca-Cola, and won a bid for one of the much-coveted customer Renault engine packages which saw Infiniti sponsor the team in an engine rebadging deal. After a double-retirement in Adelaide, Fusion scored their first points at Bathurst before returning to Europe, where Hawkin took his and Fusion's first race victory at Monza with a commanding win over 2nd-placed Alberto Cara. Mestolio made it two drivers on the podium, with the Italian taking 3rd at his home race.

The next race at Marrakech saw both Fusion drivers become embroiled in contact with Mark Dagnall in two separate incidents, although Mestolio managed to salvage a 4th place from Morocco. In the North American leg of the season, Hawkin was able to win both American events with ease; the Brit lapped the vast majority of the field including his team-mate in both races, propelling the rookie driver to the top of the championship standings. Returning to Europe was difficult for Hawkin, and he didn't win again until the inaugural Scandinavian Grand Prix. He followed this up with a 2nd place finish at Spa-Francorchamps from pole, but Fusion lost Mestolio to injury after he sustained a massive crash with Dan Greenlaw at Blanchimont.

Tomo Kazama replaced Mestolio for the rest of the season, but was excluded from racing at South Africa following a crash with Phillippe Nicolas at Monaco. Nathanael Spencer covered for the Japanese driver, whilst Hawkin sustained a run of four retirements and putting his championship aspirations on ice. However, Hawkin won the drivers' title in his first season after winning at the Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji, aided by Alberto Cara's race ban for causing a collision at Argentina. Hawkin himself earned a ban for the final grand prix at Macau for causing contact himself, and was replaced by 2018 AR3.5 runner-up Kenan Ardaoglu. Kazama and Ardaoglu ended Fusion's brilliant season by taking 3rd and 4th in an incident-packed Chinese Grand Prix.

2019

2019 Fusion Lotto CL1/19

After agreeing a deal with Swiss financiers Bischoff & Adler Capital to sell a majority stake in the Fusion Motorsports team, it emerged that the group were unable to purchase the team thanks to a withdrawal from investors. Couteau instead sold the team to Miguel Rocha's Lotto Racing concern, who retained Couteau as team principal. The team would rebrand to Fusion Lotto Racing for 2019.

Before the first race of the 2019 season Couteau left the team for good, citing irreconciliable differences with the Lotto management. He became an analyst for Canal+ and reverted to managing his Nebula operations in AR3.5. The team announced that defending champion Terry Hawkin was staying onboard the team for 2019, while for the second seat was signed Formula 1 driver Marcel Agyemang-Badu. Badu's signing was a suprirse to many in the paddock, who didn't rate the french-ghanese driver as good enough to drive for a top team like Fusion.

The season started with a massive struggle for the team - the two year old chassis wasn't as competitive as it was before, and despite the team bringing slow improvements throughout the first few races, it wasn't enough to bring Fusion to the top step of the podium. At Australia, despite a top 10 start, Hawkin retired while running in a solid 3rd place, while Badu brought the car home in 7th place. At Bathurst, Hawkin brought the car home in 7th place for his first finish of the season, but earned himself a ROTR award for spinning and crashing with another car thrhough the race.

Kinki Grand Prix was rock bottom for the team - in the wet, Badu failed to qualify while Hawkin was only 24th. This meant that the team dropped to pre-qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix, a shock in the paddock. Badu wasn't performing well, and Hawkin retired again from the Kinki GP. Then came the Italian GP, and Hawkin seemed to be able to fight for the podium once again... until he was involved in a high speed crash at turn 3 and was banned for the Moroccan GP. Badu, meanwhile, made the most of its Ford engine and brought the car home for its points and first podium of the season, in 3rd place. This marked the series of a number of high profile drives from Badu in the next 4 races - always qualifying near Hawkin, and grabbing 3 podiums, all 3rd's place, in 4 races. Mann, who replaced Hawkin at Morrocco, finished in 7th place, while Hawkin retired again from a podium place while fighting Bastian van Nieuwenhuijzen on track. Hawkin then led the ARWS Indy 500km, before a crash with Gary Pacer forced The Big One to happen.

Results

F1RWRS Results

Year	Chassis	Engine	#	Driver	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	CC	Pts
2017	Fusion CL1/17	Great Wall GWRS-17			AUS	NSW	GBR	ITA	AUT	CAN	SUS	NUS	GER	NDS	BEL	MON	MAR	ARG	JPN	CHN			17th	0
			37	Miko Fäkkinen	DNPQ	12	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	11	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ
			38	Geoff Donnelly	DNPQ	DNQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ
2018	Fusion CL1/18	Infiniti RSXXII			AUS	NSW	ITA	MAR	CAL	USA	CAN	GBR	AUT	GER	SCA	BEL	MON	SAF	BRA	ARG	JPN	CHN	2nd	115
			25	Fredo Mestolio	Ret	4	3	4	5	4	7	6	4	4	4	Ret	INJ	INJ	INJ	INJ	INJ	INJ
				Tomo Kazama													4	EX	5	Ret	Ret	3
				Nathanael Spencer														Ret
			26	Terry Hawkin	13†	6	1	Ret	1	1	1	2	6	Ret	1	2	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	1	EX
				Kenan Ardaoglu																		4

F2RWRS Results

Year	Chassis	Engine	#	Driver	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15		CC	Pts
2016	Zytek	Holden LSF2-16	32	Martin van der Maeyede	AUS 3	PAC DNPQ	GBR DNPQ	ITA Ret	AUT Ret	TUR 11	USA 9	GER 11	NDS Ret	MON 6	BEL DNPQ	MEX Ret	CHN 9	JPN DNPQ	100 12	100 DNPQ	11th	25
			33	Mitchell Macklin	AUS 9	PAC DNPQ	GBR DNPQ	ITA Ret	AUT 1	TUR 9	USA Ret	GER Ret	NDS 3	MON Ret	BEL	MEX Ret	CHN 10	JPN DNPQ	100 Ret	100 DNPQ
				Benoit Voeckler	AUS	PAC	GBR	ITA	AUT	TUR	USA	GER	NDS	MON	BEL DNPQ	MEX	CHN	JPN	100	100

Rejects of LFS

Year	Chassis	Engine	#	Driver	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	DC	Pts
2015	Scaven S15	Toyota-Zytek 3.0 V8	23	Diego Álvarez Torrente	BLA HEA 5	BLA FEA 3	WES HEA 1	WES FEA 3	FER HEA 4	FER FEA Ret	SOU HEA 4	SOU FEA Ret	AST HEA 4	AST FEA 14	KYO HEA 13	KYO FEA DNQ	KYO 200 20	10th*	16.5*

F3RWRS Results

Year	Chassis	Engine	#	Drivers	1		2		3	4		5		6		7	8		9		10	Points	CC
2015	Fusion FM-301	Audi F3-1			AUS		TUR		MON	USA		GBR		GER		BEL	ITA		JPN		SUR	73	5th
			33	Marko Jantscher	4	21	4	9	3	2	3	2	1	21	1	5	37	18	Ret	34	Ret
			34	Leandro Moreira	Ret	Ret	14	7	10	37	15	Ret	18
				Stefan Kuntz										29	8	26	17	23
				Thiago Mazzacane															12	10	21