Ragnar Larsen
Ragnar Larsen (born 30 March 1995, in Sölvesborg) is a Swedish racing driver currently contracted to Peak Driver Talent, the driver management arm of the Peak Motorsport Group.
He has competed in the Rejects of LFS and F3RWRS championships for RonDen Racing Engineering, Nurminen Racing Engineering, Aeroracing Engineering, and Parma Corse. He has also tested for Winton Racing. He retired from racing in 2016, only to return for the 2017 Le Mans Cup with Mont Blanc Racing.
Early career
Ragnar Larsen started his single-seater career in Scandinavian Formula Ford, winning the title in 2013. He started 2014 in World Series by Renault 2.0, and had already signed a contract to race for Virgin Inter Corse in 2015. However, when said team went bankrupt, they were bought by Scuderia Alitalia, and Larsen was retained as part of their young driver programme.
F3RWRS
He was intended to drive for the team in F3RWRS, however with Alessandro Lucarelli and Gianluigi Pazzini already taking both seats, he was instead sent out on loan to RonDen Racing Engineering's junior team, The Team Formerly known as Lotus Developement With Group Lotus Professional and Team Lotus Bakeries featuring Scuderia Alitalia Together with Octan Driver Academy By RonDen Racing Engineering Vs The Cillit Bang Gang Simply Known As Lotus. Results were not good however - the team had not produced a good car and it was desperately slow, often failing to make the cut for Races 2 and 3. A 5th place in China was his only points and Top 10 result all season.
Just before the 2015 F3RWRS Round of Germany, Takagi Racing Enterprises failed to nominate a replacement to Hendra Naufal in time. This gave Nurminen Racing Engineering an entry to the race, and Niko Nurminen drafted Larsen into the second car in an agreement which also saw him moving under Nurminen's management. In his debut for the team he was the best of all drivers managed by Nurminen, with 19th place after having started 28th. The second race brought further improvement with a 16th place finish after starting 31st. At Spa he was involved in a very serious collision, but managed to limp to the pits for repairs and eventually finished 29th.
Despite not scoring points, Larsen was signed to NRE as their lead driver for the 2016 F3RWRS season where the team debuted as a full-time entrant. Larsen thanked for this opportunity by finishing 13th in the first start of the season in Adelaide, but a water leak put him out from the second start. At the first start of the British round he drove a clean and uneventful race to finish 18th, but was then the main instigator in a first-lap collision in the second start which also took out Tommi Hämäläinen. Two anonymous races in Italy led to 24th and 20th place finishes, and while he had scored the team's only points so far at the opening round he was given an ultimatum to score points at the next race or be sacked. However, he was given one more chance after the Pau SuperPrix, where it was the team's poor strategy calls which made him lose the chance of scoring points. He then failed to improve at Canada with a meager 23rd place finish and was promptly sacked from the team in favor of Herberto Dominguez.
Having now lost his final lifeline in RWRS, Larsen decided to end his racing career completely despite his young age. Some time later he took up a management role in his father's surströmming factory.
Rejects of LFS
At the same time he also competed in Rejects of LFS for Parma Corse - however, he was comprehensively beaten by his senior team-mate Carsten Jancker, who outscored him at a ratio of 4:1. While Jancker was promoted to F3RWRS with Aegean Hydook Junior Racing for his efforts, Larsen was released by Scuderia Alitalia, and left without a drive for 2015. However, in a last minute deal, he was signed up by Ilmor Winton Racing as test and reserve driver for the 2015 RoLFS season. Despite promising test times, Larsen did not land a race seat until the season-ending Nippon Super 200, where Aeroracing Engineering needed a quick replacement to Tanner Jason who had been banned for his part in causing the death of Nobushige Fukuda. However, the car did not suit the oval track at all and Larsen DNQed.
Larsen was also part of Winton Racing's entry at the 2015 Aston 24 Hours endurance event. However, while he drove his stint without any major problems, Nathan Nurmester, who drove the car after him, proceeded to cause multiple accidents with an already-damaged car. Winton Racing was disqualified as a result.
Le Mans Cup
Larsen returned to racing, this time in the Le Mans Cup endurance series with Mont Blanc Racing, a French team owned by the Peak Motorsport Group, who had taken up his Driver Entitlement Contract from Nurminen Racing Engineering. Larsen will compete in the 2017 cup, sharing the #3 with Sebastian Bourdais and Vic Sunset.
Results
Le Mans Cup
Year | Entrant | Car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2017 | Mont Blanc Racing | Onroak LMP1-Zytek | PAR | SIL | SPA | LEM | MON | MIL | IND | FUJ | SEP | ADE | 0 |
F3RWRS
Year | Team | DC | Pts | |||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2014 | RonDen Racing Engineering | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 31st | 2 | ||||||||||||
AUS | USA | GBR | GER | BEL | CHN | SUR | ||||||||||||||||
Ret | DNS | DNS | 20 | Ret | DNS | 26 | 5 | 17 | 17 | |||||||||||||
2015 | Nurminen Racing Engineering | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 55th | 0 | |||||||||
AUS | TUR | MON | USA | GBR | GER | SPA | ITA | JPN | SUR | |||||||||||||
19 | 16 | 29 | ||||||||||||||||||||
2016 | Nurminen Racing Engineering | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 3 | 43rd | ||||||||
AUS | GBR | ITA | FRA | CAN | GER | NED | BEL | SMR | JAP | SUR | ||||||||||||
13 | Ret | 18 | Ret | 24 | 20 | 27 | 23 | C |
Rejects of LFS
Year | Team | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | DC | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2014 | Parma Corse | Scaven S11B | Lancia-Judd 3.0 V8 | BLA FEA 5 |
BLA SPR 10 |
SOU FEA 15 |
SOU SPR Ret |
FER FEA 8 |
FER SPR 15 |
KYO FEA 17 |
KYO SPR 5 |
WES FEA 6 |
WES SPR 12 |
AST FEA 9 |
AST SPR 12 |
20th | 3 | |
2015 | Aeroracing Engineering | Scaven S15 | Audi-Zytek 3.0 V8 | BLA HEA |
BLA FEA |
WES HEA |
WES FEA |
FER HEA |
FER FEA |
SOU HEA |
SOU FEA |
AST HEA |
AST FEA |
KYO HEA |
KYO FEA |
KYO 200 DNQ |
53rd | 0 |
- * Season in progress