ArrowTech-Acuri Autosport

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Flag of Canada.svg.png ArrowTech
ArrowTechAcuriLogo.png
Full Name ArrowTech-Acuri Autosport
Base Montreal, Canada
Founder(s) The Fox
Team Principal(s) The Fox
Technical Director Andrea Acuri
Current Drivers #7 - Flag of France svg.png Phillippe Nicolas
#8 - Flag of Japan svg.png Hansuke Shioya
Other Noted Drivers Jari Kekkonen
Nicolas Steele
Daniel Melrose
Daniel Martins
Saeed Al Faisal
Mirko Bosevic
Debut 2011 F1RWRS British Grand Prix
Races 93 (85 starts)
Constructors' Championships 0
Drivers' Championships 0
Race Wins 2
Podiums 13
Points 145
Pole Positions 2
Fastest Laps 0


ArrowTech-Acuri Autosport, known simply as ArrowTech, was a Canadian AutoReject World Series racing team founded in 2011 by a man known only as The Fox as ArrowTech ART. It then merged with Acuri Autosport after the 2014 season and changed their name to their current one.

History

ArrowTech's logo used in the 2011 season. The slogan reads Destroying careers one race at a time!, a light-hearted jibe whilst the team suffered with poor results. Both slogan and logo were retired at the end of the season.

2011 Season

The team was founded by "The Fox," whose real identity, and the reason he keeps it secret are not known. The team began competition when it received permission for an entry at the 2011 British GP, hiring Jari Kekkonen and Nicolas Steele. Over the course of the 2011 season the team bounced back and forth in pre-qualifying though the team finished in the points on three occasions. Kekkonen scored consecutive points finishes at New South Wales and Surfers Paradise, the latter being his best finish of the year, 5th place. Steele could only score points once, on the team's debut at Silverstone and with only a single other finish to his name he was sacked and replaced by Portuguese driver Daniel Martins for the 2012 season.

2012 Season

The ArrowTech AT-02, driven by Kekkonen and Martins. Almost identical to the AT-01, it shared the same livery.

The 2012 season started well for ArrowTech, with a major sponsorship deal secured with Bud Light, and new Lamborghini engines. Combined with the AT-02 chassis, Kekkonen and Martins still struggled with pre-qualifying, particularly in the first half of the season, but overall enjoyed a more successful year. Kekkonen scored on four occasions, though he was unable to repeat his best result from 2011, with a best finish of 6th at Brands Hatch. Martins meanwhile brought the team its best ever finish, which still stands to this day, with 2nd place at the Australian GP, though the Portugese driver failed to score at any other point during the season, failing even to finish in the top 10 at any other race.

2013 Season

Saying that the team was uncompetitive, Kekkonen left after 2012, and was replaced by three-time F1 world champion Daniel Melrose for 2013. The new AT-03 chassis was the most promising yet, and along with new engines from Ford, ArrowTech went from strength to strength. The team amassed more podium finishes, with Melrose matching the team's best result of second in only his third race for the team at Mexico, where Martins followed him home in third. It was comfortably ArrowTech's best ever race. Melrose collected a third place finish at Belgium, and Martins scored his second third place of the year in France. It was a far better season for the team, who ended up finishing a strong fifth in the constructors championship.

At the Dutch GP The Fox surprised the paddock by announcing that the team was up for sale, later clarifying that he would part with 50% of the team. Nigerian Prince Falik bought the 50% stake in ArrowTech, assuming control of the team's development and sponsorship, whilst The Fox retained control over chassis, engine and driver choice.

The Fox offered contracts to Martins and Melrose for the 2014 season, although Prince Falik was keen to sign up current championship leader Mark Dagnall. It was then confirmed that Melrose would leave the team at the end of the season, but he left with two races to go, filling the vacancy created at Castrol Jones Racing who'd fired Kay Lon. Melrose was replaced by Frenchman Sebastian Groves for the remainder of 2013.

A test was run following the end of the 2013 season to determine who would secure seats at ArrowTech for 2014. Those confirmed in the ArrowTech test were Mirko Bosevic, Saeed Al Faisal, Dave Simpson, Kay Lon and Issac Evans (a test driver for the F1RLFS Cup team Engine Failure Racing).

2014 Season

Eventually, The Fox cut the tension loose and signed Bosevic to a 1-year deal. There was a campaign after Prince Falik was released from prison to have Daniel Martins become a pay-driver, but it was rejected by the F1RWRS council. The team switched to Peugeot engines.

In Monaco, against the varying conditions, Mirko Bosevic scored ArrowTech's first pole position. It was rather varied in the race, as Bosevic finished fourth, but it did give the team a huge confidence boost.

Despite the consistency of the car, the team has trouble scoring points. Martins has already announced he was stepping down from his position at the team, the rumours speculated Rosco Vantini, Alberto Cara and Nathanael Spencer to the second seat.

In the North Sea GP, the team gained their first double points finish since the 2013 French Grand Prix, with Martins 5th and Bosevic 6th.

Buyout of Acuri Autosport

Following their dismal showing after the North Sea GP, ArrowTech experienced financial troubles, along with that of Andrea Acuri's team. Initially, The Fox sold the rights to the team name to Acuri, but later bought out the team, chassis and engines from Acuri for the 2015 season. The result is a merged team with The Fox managing the team while Acuri holds the commercial rights to the name, and also holding the position of Technical Director.

The buyout occurred after Acurigate, in which Acuri Autosport was attacked twice by Danish terrorists. The team lost money as a result (among other things), so The Fox bought out the team to improve the financial outlook for both teams (since Acuri had a boatload of sponsors at the time). The team was renamed ArrowTech-Acuri Autosport and will still retain the ArrowTech history, name, stats, etc. The name change will come into effect as of the end of the Japanese GP (but the constructor name will still be ArrowTech)

2015 Season

Shortly after the buyout, Martins was then replaced for the 2015 season by Saudi Arabian Saeed Al Faisal, who was originally rumoured for driving in 2014. Mirko Bosevic was signed on for another season alongside Al Faisal. It is obvious that Al Faisal was hired for his sponsorship money. Other drivers considered were Rosco Vantini (who signed for Jones Racing), Alberto Cara, Nathanael Spencer, Jean-Luc Schiller and James Davies. Davies was offered the third driver role for the team, and said that he will accept that in the event that he does not obtain a seat. He eventually signed with Sunshine Infiniti. Phil McCracken was also hired as test driver, but it is unlikely that he will be upgraded to a race seat considering he has not obtained a Super Licence yet. Eventually Sebastian Groves was signed as third driver for the team.

Bosevic scored a point in the first race at Adelaide. After that, the teams' performances went steadily downhill, having a run of six straight non-points finishes. This might have been prevented with Bosevic running second at Monaco before a transmission failure let him (and the team) down. After 8 races in the season, despite Bosevic scoring another point, ArrowTech was shifted down to Pre-Qualifying, and Al Faisal was sacked due to his poor performances. His replacement was his fellow teammate at Sunshine in 2013, Shinobu Katayama, loaned from Revolution Engineering DMS. Although the loan was to be from Germany to Austria (three races), further talks managed to extend the loan another race to Monza.

In Katayama's first race for ArrowTech, she scored in fourth, silencing the critics who thought her career was in shambles. After a sub-par race in Belgium, the team again put up an amazing points-scoring performance with Bosevic placing third (the first podium for a Croatian in the F1RWRS), and Katayama once again fourth. The points haul in that race alone (7) surpassed the amount they had gotten in the previous 10 races (5). After Katayama's loan ran out, Ron Mignolet was loaned to ArrowTech for the last four races of the season. He failed to impress, as he only finished once in the four races. Bosevic, meanwhile, picked up another podium in Zandvoort, which wound up being the last points finish for the team in the season. Bosevic and MRT refugee Phillippe Nicolas were signed for the 2016 season.

2016 Season

After signing with Gillet to power their cars, ArrowTech looked to be in their finest form. Nicolas scored in his team's debut with fourth place at Adelaide. It was followed by a fantastic victory in Bathurst, giving the team lots of optimism for the season. Bosevic placed second in Brands Hatch, before the team placed first and third at Monza. After four races, the team had the lead in both championships, with Nicolas leading the WDC. After a pointless race in Austria, they managed to score a podium in Montreal, the first time they did so on their home race.

The fallout from Jones Racing and their poor results meant that recently sacked driver Rosco Vantini signed for them as reserve driver. Jones' fortunes improved after the sacking, and after ArrowTech posted two straight double DNFs, Jones Racing took the lead in both championships. The team then only posted two fifth places from Nicolas, and the team fell further behind as outgoing Scuderia Alitalia passed the team for 2nd in the Constructors. A faulty upgrade from the team was to blame for the sudden lack of competitive pace.

In Monaco, Bosevic took pole position and led for most of the race, only to lose it in the closing laps after spinning. He also led in Belgium and spun, bt held on for third place. However, despite optimism saying otherwise, the pace of the ArrowTech fell behind, and the reliability troubles caught up to them, as the team only scored three points in the last four races. Bosevic was sacked after the season ended.

2017 Season

Replacing Bosevic for the 2017 season was Hansuke Shioya, who had two podium finishes to his name going into the season. High expectations were placed on him and the team, riding off their big finish in the Constructors' Championship the previous season. However, the season started terribly for the team, as both cars were well off the pace and eventually both cars retired off the race. The race in Bathurst went much better, as Nicolas dragged the car kicking and screaming to second place, as the competitors ahead of him retired from the points.

F1RWRS Results

Year Chassis Engine # Driver 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 CC Pts
2011 ArrowTech AT-01 Cosworth CR-6 3.0 V10 BAV GER SAX LUX BEL GBR ENG KEN NED TAS AUS NSW SUR CHN USA 17th 11
24 Flag of Finland svg.png Jari Kekkonen 9 14 16 DNPQ 12 DNPQ 6 5 DNPQ DNPQ
25 Flag of the United States svg.png Nicolas Steele 5 13 DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ DNS DSQ DNPQ DNPQ DNPQ
2012 ArrowTech AT-02 Lamborghini BAV SAX GER LUX BEL NED GBR KEN ENG TAS SUR NSW AUS CHN USA 500 =11th 17
29 Flag of Finland svg.png Jari Kekkonen DNPQ 7 DNPQ Ret 8 DNPQ DNPQ 6 DNPQ 16 18 25 8 20 20 14
30 Flag of Portugal svg.png Daniel Martins DNPQ 14 12 Ret DNPQ 17 DNPQ DNPQ 17 DNPQ 20 23 2 Ret Ret 11
2013 ArrowTech AT-03 Ford HB IV TAS AUS MEX USA MON FRA GBR GER NED BEL POR MED MAC CHN JPN BRA 5th 30
36 Flag of Portugal svg.png Daniel Martins 8 Ret 3 7 Ret 3 9 9 Ret Ret Ret 6 Ret 7 12 DNQ
37 Flag of Australia svg.png Daniel Melrose 5 4 2 Ret Ret 6 8 10 Ret 3 9 Ret 5 11
Flag of France svg.png Sebastian Groves 18 4
2014 ArrowTech AT-04 Peugeot A7 TAS AUS BRA MEX USA MON FRA GBR GER BEL ITA MED NDS MAC CHI JPN 8th 13
9 Flag of Portugal svg.png Daniel Martins 10 13 6 Ret 10 Ret Ret Ret 10 10 10 Ret 5 Ret 11 6
10 Flag of Croatia svg.png Mirko Bosevic 14 Ret 10 Ret 5 4 5 6 Ret Ret 8 8 6 Ret 10 12
2015 ArrowTech AT-05 Renault RS1 TAS AUS MED MON MEX USA CAN GBR GER BEL AUT ITA NDS CHI JPN BRA 7th 16
15 Flag of Croatia svg.png Mirko Bosevic 6 8 13 16* Ret Ret 7 6 14 DNQ 3 14 3 Ret 11 Ret
16 Flag of Saudi Arabia svg.png Saeed Al Faisal 13 17 17 14 Ret Ret 10 16
Flag of Japan svg.png Shinobu Katayama 4 15 4 Ret
Flag of Belgium svg.png Ron Mignolet 10 Ret Ret Ret
2016 ArrowTech AT-06 Gillet GV11 AUS NSW GBR ITA AUT CAN SUS NUS GER NSE MON BEL MEX ARG CHN JPN 4th 54
11 Flag of Croatia svg.png Mirko Bosevic Ret 5 2 3 9 Ret Ret Ret 7 11 8* 3 7 Ret Ret Ret
12 Flag of France svg.png Phillippe Nicolas 4 1 Ret 1 Ret 3 Ret Ret 5 5 Ret Ret Ret 4 Ret Ret
2017 ArrowTech AT-07 Gillet GV11B AUS NSW GBR ITA AUT CAN SUS NUS GER NDS BEL MON MAR ARG JPN CHN 5th 20
7 Flag of France svg.png Phillippe Nicolas Ret 2 Ret 6 Ret Ret DNPQ DNPQ 3 3 Ret 7 DNPQ
Flag of France svg.png Marie Simon 7 10
Flag of Italy svg.png Rosco Vantini DNPQ
8 Flag of Japan svg.png Hansuke Shioya Ret 10 Ret Ret Ret 14 DNPQ DNPQ DNQ 6 DNQ 6 DNPQ 8 DNQ DNPQ

*Car retired but finished 90% of the race distance.

ARWS Constructors
2019 Season ARWS Constructors
Aeroracing Blokkmonsta Euromotor Fusion Gillet ENB Jones Kamaha Kjellerup Lomas
Mecha MRT Nurminen Simpson USD Venturi Voeckler Vincent
Former ARWS Constructors
Acuri - AMR - ARC - ArrowTech - Autodynamics - Bangelia - Boxtel - Calinetic - CR - DGNgineering - Dofasco - FAT - Flying Fish - Foxdale - Gauthier - Hemogoblin - HRT - Horizon
IBR - JLD - Kingfisher - KQ - Lotus - MAN - Minardi - Mitie - Pacchia - Phoenix - Prospec - Revolution - Rosenforth - SOTL - Sunshine - Tassie - Tropico - Trueba - Virgin - West Cliff - ZimSport