Alexey Pchelintsev

Alexey Pchelintsev (born October 16, 1982 in Almaty, Kazakhstan) is a Kazakh racing driver currently competing in the F5000 series. He has led a journeyman stop-start career in many series, which included two races in the 2014 F1RWRS season with the Mitie Aviation Racing team, becoming the first and so far only driver from Kazakhstan to compete in the series. Pchelintsev would later form his own team to extend his career, Pchelintsev Power Team. He is currently heavily supported by the government-owned Kazakh nuclear power firm Kazatomprom.

Early Career - Almaty to Moscow

Alexey Pchelintsev was the second child born to a wealthy Kazakh family in the city of Almaty (then Alma-Ata), the largest city in Kazakhstan. Alexey's father, a financial advisor, had no interest in motor racing but Alexey was fascinated by the sport. After a great deal of persuasion on his thirteenth birthday the young Pchelintsev was given enough money to buy a Lada 110. Over the next three years, boy and car competed in numerous races in the wider Almaty area on dirt and ice tracks, depending on the time of year. By the end of the three years the Lada was completely knackered and Alexey faced a crucial decision - leave Khazakhstan for the Russian national motorsport scene, or give up on what until this point had been little more than a hobby and join his father in finance.

Confident he could hold his own in a proper motorsport series, at the end of 1998 and at the age of sixteen Alexey and his older brother Dimitar moved to Moscow in a small flat. This would be the base from which the two brothers would operate for the next decade. Whilst they had been gifted money from their parents, it wasn't enough to realistically pursue a motorsport career for Alexey. As a result, both would work in various menial jobs for their entire time in Moscow, which helped to keep them afloat.

With Dimitar as his mechanic and manager, Alexey began competition in 1999 in the Russian Formula 1600 Championship having purchased a second-hand Estonia 25 chassis. Results were few and far between, the pair were woefully inexperienced and Alexey was frequently the slowest qualifier and last-placed finisher when he did complete races. 2000 and 2001 were little better, still with the Estonia chassis, which became less and less competitive. By the end of 2001, Alexey realised he needed a change, and the newly formed Formula RUS was the opportunity he was after.

Four seasons in the Formula RUS class yielded an improvement in form, with a best result of sixth overall in his final year in 2005. It was a step down from Formula 1600 which allowed Alexey to get better acclimatised to single seater cars, and at the end of 2005 he was ready to step back up to Formula 1600. The next two years were spent in Formula 1600 with a new ArtTech car and whilst results were better than his first stint in the class, they were still only minor points finishes. When the series folded at the end of 2007, the Pchelintsev brothers, like many competitors moved to the re-launched Russian F3 series in 2008.

Russian F3 was cancelled after 2008 as well which left Alexey without a realistic series to compete in. In 2009 and 2010 he was reunited with a Lada and made a number of one-off appearances in Russian touring car races. Moderate success in these brought him to the attention of Superleague Formula, where he was signed to drive the Team Russia car for the season. When that series folded as well, Pchelintsev left Moscow and joined Auto GP. Two seasons brought a string of points finishes and Alexey's first podium, a third place at Donington Park in 2013. At the end of the year he was invited by Garry Rogers Motorsport to drive one of their cars in the non-championship 2013 F1RWRS Indianapolis 500. After spinning into the infield early in the race, Alexey recovered, albeit many laps down, and finished the race 22nd and last, 13 laps off winner Jack Christopherson. Remarkably it was enough to attract the attention of Michael Alexander who was looking for a partner to Matthias Valsattis as he moved his Mitie Aviation team into F1RWRS.

Reality Bites - F1RWRS and Sabbatical

There was no question in anyone's mind that Mitie, and the fellow newcomers to F1RWRS in 2014 would struggle to even make the grid on Sundays. Alexey was up against it from the start. Initially hired as the team's reserve driver, Pchelintsev was given the opportunity to drive the second car when a lack of suitable other drivers were available to be hired. In his first race at the season-opening Tasman GP, Alexey was only 12th fastest in pre-qualifying with Valsattis 11th. Both were 4.5 seconds away from the fastest times and were therefore no-where near making the main qualifying session.

The second round was the Australian GP at Bathurst. This time Valsattis was closer, just 2.3 seconds away from pre-qualifying but Alexey was a further second back in 13th. Alexander wasn't happy, and with no money coming from the Kazakh into the team to improve the car, Alexey was shown the door and his F1RWRS career was over almost as soon as it had started. Replaced by pay-driver Steven Mackintosh, it was at this point that Alexey realised he needed serious backers if he was to continue his dream of a motorsport career.

With no prospect of a drive for the foreseeable future, Alexey took some time out from motorsport, and returned to Kazakhstan properly for the first time since he left for Moscow with his brother in 1998. He spent his time touring businesses, putting together a sponsorship portfolio that would allow him to resume driving once again. He visited numerous government-owned agencies and companies but the common answer was "no" - there was simply no interest in motorsport from a commercial point of view in Kazakhstan. Alexey spent the whole of 2015 and 2016 looking for sponsors and early 2016 entered protracted negotiations with Kazatomprom which ultimately proved successful. Despite two years out, with sponsorship behind him, Pchelintsev returned to racing once more.

Back on the Grid - F5000

Kazatomprom, as part of their deal with Pchelintsev, would now play an important role in determining where the Kazakh would drive, and identified the Toyota Reject Racing Series as the perfect opportunity for Alexey to demonstrate his talents to the world once again. He was given a seat at the Voeckler Grand Prix Engineering team alongside another veteran and F1RWRS outcast Ashley Watkinson. But whilst Watkinson romped away with three wins out of six and all but one pole position, Alexey struggled somewhat. His best weekend was at Bathurst, where he'd already driven in F1RWRS. A ninth place in the sprint race was followed up with a fourth in the feature. With no offers for his services forthcoming, he participated in an additional race weekend at Eastern Creek where over the three races he scored a second, eighth and fourth place to finish fourth overall.

It was finally enough to attract some attention and his support from Kazatomprom got him into a seat at Plus One Oceania for the new-for-2017 inaugural Formula 5000 series. Over the year Alexey picked up numerous points finishes as he learnt the Australian and New Zealand tracks, with a best result of fifth at Surfers Paradise. He beat teammate Rhys Jackson - the first time in his career he'd done so, and finished the year overall in 16th place with 49 points. With his profile on the rise, he was asked to drive for Melrose Racing Team in the 2017-18 AutoReject Nations Championship as a one-off Kazakhstan entry at the final race of the series in Argentina.

For 2018 however, Plus One pulled out of the F5000 series, leaving Alexey without a drive. After initial explorations into a potential FIA Formula 2 drive proved fruitless, Kazatomprom were forced to make a decision to protect their investment. They pushed Alexey to establish his own team in order to keep him racing, and as title sponsor of the team, Kazatomprom got the exposure they desired. Kazatomprom Pchelintsev Power Team was born, with Alexey the sole driver for the 2018 F5000 season.

Complete F1RWRS Results

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	DC	Pts
2014	Mitie Aviation Racing	Mitie MA-01	Ford DFR	TAS DNPQ	AUS DNPQ	BRA	MEX	USA	MON	FRA	GBR	GER	BEL	ITA	MED	NED	MAC	CHN	JPN	=26th	0

Complete F5000 Results

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	DC	Pts
2017	Plus One Oceania	Lola F2-16	Holden V8	SYD 36	SYM 6	SAN 7	BAR 9	HID 34	SUR 5	SEN 30	SEP 1 13	SEP 2 19	QLD 27	MTP 35	ADE 32	HIG 24	PUK 7	TER 28					16th	49
2018	Kazatomprom Pchelintsev Power Team	Lola F2-16	Nissan V8	ADE 1 3	ADE 2 2	MTP 21	ALB 1 14	ALB 2 5	SYM 1 20	SYM 2 17	SYM 3 13	BAR 1 9	BAR 2 8	BAR 3 8	TER 1 14	TER 2 12	TER 3 1	HIG	PUK	HAM	SUR	SYD	5th*	142*

• * denotes a season currently in progress.