Melrose Racing Team

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MRT
MRTPDVSA.png
Full Name Melrose Racing Team
Base Cologne, Germany
Founder(s) Daniel Melrose
Dr. Mario Theissen
Team Principal(s) Pierre Depault
Technical Director Fredrico di Tolomeo
Current Drivers #3 - Alberto Cara
#4 - Salvatore Miccoli
Other Noted Drivers Daniel Melrose, Jeroen Krautmeir, Nathanael Spencer, Rhys Davies, Mark Dagnall, Jean-Luc Schiller, Fredo Mestolio, Phillippe Nicolas
Debut 2012 F1RWRS Bavarian Grand Prix
Races 130 (264 entries)
Constructors' Championships 2 (2015, 2018)
Drivers' Championships 1 (2015)
Race Wins 22
Podiums 61
Points 545
Pole Positions 38
Fastest Laps 34


Melrose Racing Team is a F1RWRS team formed by former 5 time Formula One World Champion Daniel Melrose after buying out JLD Motorsport during the 2011 Formula 1 Rejects World Race Series season. The team's current drivers are Australian former F1 world champion Rhys Davies and Frenchman Phillippe Nicolas, although Melrose himself has driven for the team since it existed in it's former guise JLD before moving to ArrowTech for the 2013 season.

The team has also competed in Rejects of LFS in 2011 (then F1 Rejects LFS Cup) and again in 2015. In addition, MRT runs a young driver development program in the F2RWRS with their own team and a satellite outfit in the F3RWRS through JLD.

History

Melrose Racing Team was formed in 2010 as part of the 2010 Formula One Rejects World Championship which Melrose drove in. Midway through the season, Qantas jumped on board as title sponsor for the team and stayed with the team before announcing they would no renew their contract mid way through 2013.

During the 2011 F1RWRS season, Qantas also become title sponsor of JLD Motorsport as part of the buyout plan between JLD, MRT and German manufacturer BMW, who had started supplying engines to the JLD team at the beginning of the 2011 season.

2012 season

MRT started the season with the M3 with a BMW V8 engine, which was based on the engines BMW used in Formula One. Whilst there was much change behind the scenes, the two incumbent drivers in Daniel Melrose and Jeroen Krautmeir were retained as the two drivers for the 2012 season. There was a lot of expectation riding on the team as Krautmeir had won the season ending United States Grand Prix and Melrose himself had finished runner up in the championship behind Prospec's Nathanael Spencer.

However Melrose's season got off to a disastrous start as he failed to Pre-Qualify for each of the first two races. Krautmeir had much better luck in qualifying by putting his MRT on pole at the Norisring. But as luck would have it, he would retire early on in the race due to a collision. This set up the catalyst of a disappointing season for the team. A single win for Krautmeir at the Kent Grand Prix ahead of Melrose (which incidentally was the first time in the series' history that a team scored a 1-2 in the race) and a few third places were the only real highlights of the season as by the end of the year, Melrose was out for the 2012 Budweiser 500 due to injury and the team had slipped to 6th in the constructor standings with their drivers 7th (Melrose) and 13th (Krautmeir). While Melrose initially had plans to promote Krautmeir to the lead driver role to spearhead MRT's 2013 season, they quickly went awry when the young German announced that he would be the star driver of the new Precision Motorsports program before that was cancelled when the new regulations were introduced.

2013 season

With Melrose announcing his retirement from the sport amongst the rule shakeup (before changing his mind and taking up the second ArrowTech drive), the team decided to sign on 2011 champion Nathanael Spencer and promote Frenchman Phillippe Nicolas to a full time drive after he did a respectable job filling in for the Australian at the Budweiser 500. In the development phase, the car was renowned for exceeding all wind tunnel expectations and looked like to be a formidable force for 2013. However it turned out very quickly that BMW had erred massively in the design of an all new engine as it proved to be relatively gutless. In fact, if it wasn't for the fact that they were effectively guaranteed starts at the beginning of the season the team would have been in even more dire straits.

Thanks to the luck of the draw concerning pre-qualifying, MRT were virtually guaranteed two cars on the grid for the first half of the season but very few people could see how they could stay there. Stay there they did though thanks to yet another race of attrition at Bathurst where the MRTs picked up the spoils with Spencer 5th and Nicolas 6th. Coupled with a second 6th place finish for Phillippe at Monaco where the car was genuinely competitive meant that MRT avoided the dreaded pre-qualifying for the second half of the season by the skin of their teeth

The tradeoff for staying out of pre-qualifying through was that now the team wasn't guaranteed two spots on the gird. It showed with Nicolas missing the cut for the first 2 races in a row in what was the beginning of an even more horrific second half of the season as even Spencer's considerable talent couldn't get anything out of the lamentable M4. For round 11 at Estoril, both MRTs were on the grid before both were taken out in the first lap pileup before the season lurched went to a new low as both MRTs failed to make the grid for the first time that season at Cyprus. The dreadful performance was allegedly the catalyst for Melrose being arrested by authorities in Cyprus for trashing his hotel room in a fit of uncontrollable rage.

A top 10 finish in Macau for Spencer was followed by another DNQ as neither car looked like having a chance at top 10 results in the races by season's end. The team eventually finished a dismal 14th in the constructors championship, which was nothing short of an unmitigated disaster for such a large organisation.

2014 season

Sweeping changes were made in the backroom of the team as part of the fallout of the 2013 season. In addition to that, a stroke of genius from the marketing department meant Virgin become title sponsors of the team after Qantas decided not to renew their contract. With the brand new BMW P89 turbo engine, the team showed up to pre-season testing in the M5 and were immediately well over a second clear of the rest of the field. This pace was confirmed at the first race in Australia where Spencer collected both pole and fastest lap. However, thanks to two spins and an eventual BMW engine failure, it was Nicolas who collected the spoils, scoring the first win of his career around the streets for Adelaide.

While the MRT was incredibly quick, the new BMW engine proved fragile as in the first 5 races, the team's two drivers had only 3 finishes between them, all of them being victories. This meant that MRT entered the European season leading the constructors championship from main rivals DGNgineering, the team Chris Dagnall had formed in late 2012, having bought up some of Jones Racing's unwanted assets. The unreliable BMW engine continued to be a thorn in the side of MRT's season long campaign as time and time again, the engine would blow up whilst the teams two main drivers Spencer and Nicolas were in competitive positions on the track.

Off the track and trouble had started brewing between Spencer and team boss Daniel Melrose on the back of several costly accidents and poor performances over the course of the year for the Brit. Eventually, Melrose's patience with the former F1RWRS champion ran out when he benched Spencer for the Mediterranean Grand Prix, with Melrose's long time friend Dave Simpson driving for a one-off event while Melrose looked for a permanent replacement for 2015 and beyond. Spencer returned for two more races before he was given the sack for good and replaced by former four time F1 world champion Rhys Davies, another close friend of Melrose.

Despite signing a two year deal with the Australian, it didn't improve the fortunes of the team in the last two races as their two cars made it to the finish line only 8 times all year. However, all but two of them were race victories and with a further 2nd place finish for Nicolas, the team had amassed a total of 66 points, which was enough for second in the Constructors Championship, a far cry from the woes of the year before. 46 of those points were scored by Nicolas as the Frenchmen had a breakout year, winning four races and finishing runner-up in the title race whilst upstaging the more experienced Spencer in the other car.

2015 season

MRT entered the 2015 pre-season as the championship favourites, despite the ban on turbo-charged engines that had come into effect over the off-season. Their pre-season buildup wasn't without problems however with Nicolas injuring himself in a skiing accident over Christmas, ruling him out for the entirety of pre-season testing. In his place, MRT drafted in yet another former F1 world champion in Brit Nathan McKane, who immediately impressed team bosses up and down the paddock with his blistering pre-season form in both the pre-season tests, which helped earn him a drive in the ROLFS in his attempts to gain a superlicense for the F1RWRS.

While it soon became apparent that several teams had closed the gap to MRT, the team still had the edge over its rivals as Davies graphically demonstrated with two comfortable wins in the first two races of the year at Adelaide and Bathurst, becoming the first Australian driver to win a home race since 2011 in the process.

MRT Junior Team

Main Article: Melrose Racing Team Junior Team

With the closure of satellite team Horizon Motorsport at the end of 2013 and the formation of the Formula 2 Rejects World Race Series, Melrose decided to enter a team in the feeder category with Australian Mitchell Macklin and Frenchwoman Marie Simon. The first race of the series was the Fedex 100 where Macklin finished a respectable 3rd and Simon 8th after the 100 lap race around the IMS.

At one stage, the MRT Junior Team included the F2RWRS, Rejects of LFS/IFRC, and Formula 3 Rejects World Race Series with JLD Motorsport. The organisation now races in Formula 2 and Formula 3, with drivers in other categories.

Engine Workshop

Main Article: Melrose Racing Team Engine Workshop

Alongside the main operations at Munich, MRT operate an engine construction, tuning and distribution workshop at the former Toyota F1 facilities in Cologne on behalf of BMW's engine supply program. Initially, the workshop was focused solely on the F1RWRS with the team supplying MRT and JLD with BMW works engines since 2011. Over the years, the workshop also supplied several customer teams with engines, most notably Australian Minardi, Horizon Motorsport and Simpson Motorsports.

However, most of the workshop's resources were dedicated to their profitable engine supply programs in the F2RWRS and F3RWRS when both categories were created. BMW was initially the sole engine supplier for the F2RWRS as they were the only manufacturer that had an available engine for the category before the market was opened up for 2015, which meant that BMW was reduced to supplying 5 teams, including MRT.

Meanwhile, in the F3RWRS, BMW were the biggest supplier of engines with 7 client teams including JLD for 2015. For commercial reasons, the majority of the engines in the F3RWRS are rebadged as Minis as part of BMW's promotion program for the company but the engines are otherwise identical to the BMW-badged powerplants.

With the restructuring of the feeder categories below the rebranded AutoReject World Series and Formula One in recent years however, BMW engine's program has contracted significantly. The Workship now focuses mostly on MRT's ARWS program and providing JLD Motorsport with engines in the Prototype Cup. The workshop also does considerable consultancy work for other engine designers and builders in Europe, supported by one of the most advanced dynos in the world.

Complete F1RWRS/ARWS Results

Year Chassis Engine # Drivers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Points CC
2012 Melrose Racing Team M3

Melrose Racing Team M3B

BMW P86/12 BAV SAX GER LUX BEL NED GBR KEN ENG TAS SUR NSW AUS CHN USA 500 73 6th
3 Flag of Australia svg.png Daniel Melrose DNPQ DNPQ 3 Ret 14* 3 4 2 7 9 Ret 3 Ret 15 Ret INJ
Flag of France svg.png Phillippe Nicolas 18
4 Flag of Germany svg.png Jeroen Krautmeir Ret 9 DNPQ Ret 11 DNPQ 5 1 5 8 11 5 Ret 19 23 Ret
2013 Melrose Racing Team M4 BMW P88 TAS AUS MEX USA MON FRA GBR GER NED BEL POR MED MAC CHN JPN BRA 4 14th
5 Flag of the United Kingdom svg.png Nathanael Spencer Ret 5 9 10 7 Ret Ret Ret 10 7 Ret DNQ 8 DNQ 13 14
6 Flag of France svg.png Phillippe Nicolas Ret 6 10 6 Ret Ret Ret DNQ DNQ Ret DNQ DNQ DNQ 16 DNQ
Flag of the United States svg.png Vidal Reyna-Sanchez 12
2014 Melrose Racing Team M5 BMW P89 TAS AUS BRA MEX USA MON FRA GBR GER BEL ITA MED NED MAC CHN JPN 66 2nd
24 Flag of the United Kingdom svg.png Nathanael Spencer Ret Ret 1 Ret 1 Ret Ret Ret Ret 8 Ret Ret Ret
Flag of Australia svg.png Rhys Davies Ret DNQ
Flag of Australia svg.png Dave Simpson Ret Ret
25
Flag of France svg.png Phillippe Nicolas 1 Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret 1 Ret 1 Ret 1 2 Ret Ret
2015 Melrose Racing Team M6 BMW P90 TAS AUS MED MON MEX USA CAN GBR GER BEL AUT ITA NED CHN JPN BRA 108 1st
1 Flag of the United Kingdom svg.png Mark Dagnall 1 Ret 1 1
3 Flag of France svg.png Phillippe Nicolas Ret Ret 2 Ret 1 Ret Ret Ret Ret 2 4 7 2
Flag of Germany svg.png David Neuberg 2 2 Ret
4 Flag of Australia svg.png Rhys Davies 1 1 10* 4 5* Ret Ret 17* 13 Ret 2 3
2016 Melrose Racing Team M7 BMW P90/16 AUS NSW GBR ITA AUT CAN SUS NUS GER NED MON BEL MEX ARG CHN JPN 23 6th
1 Flag of the United Kingdom svg.png Mark Dagnall Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret 1 Ret Ret Ret 5 Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret
2 Flag of Germany svg.png Kay Lon Ret
Flag of Australia svg.png Daniel Melrose Ret
Flag of Switzerland svg.png Jean-Luc Schiller Ret Ret 1 Ret Ret Ret Ret 12 Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret 6
2017 Melrose Racing Team M8 BMW P90/17 AUS NSW GBR ITA AUT CAN SUS NUS GER NED MON BEL MOR ARG JPN CHN 70 4th
11 Flag of Switzerland svg.png Jean-Luc Schiller 5 Ret 14† 5 Ret 9 2 8 5 1 2 8 2 2 Ret 3
12 Flag of Italy svg.png Fredo Mestolio Ret 11 6 Ret Ret 8 1 Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret 3 3 Ret 8†
2018 Melrose Racing Team M9 BMW P92 AUS NSW ITA MOR CAL USA CAN GBR AUT GER SCA BEL MON RSA BRA ARG JPN CHN 130 1st
7 Flag of France svg.png Phillippe Nicolas 1 2 4 2 4 Ret 5 3 EX 2 Ret Ret Ret Ret 1 Ret 2 Ret
Flag of Slovakia svg.png Andrej Kremnicky Ret
8 Flag of Tropico svg.png Alberto Cara Ret 1 2 Ret 2 3 Ret 1 15† Ret 2 6 2 1 Ret 11† EX Ret
Flag of the United States svg.png Dave Cassidy 3
2019 Melrose Racing Team M10 BMW P92/19 AUS NSW KIN ITA MOR CAN 500 GBR AUT GER SCA BEL MON RSA BRA ARG JPN CHN 71 3rd
3 Flag of Tropico svg.png Alberto Cara 3 4 Ret Ret Ret Ret 2 4 3 3 Ret 2 Ret Ret 2 Ret 3 Ret
4 Flag of Italy svg.png Salvatore Miccoli 5 5 Ret Ret 6 Ret Ret 5 Ret Ret Ret 4 Ret 2 3† Ret 5 Ret

Complete F2RWRS Results

Year Chassis Engine # Drivers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Points CC
2014 Lola F2-14 BMW P87 TUR MON FRA GBR AUT GER NED BEL HUN CZE ITA POR ESP CAN 100 152 1st
7 Flag of Australia svg.png Mitchell Macklin 1 1 1 2 7 3 1 Ret 13 5 2 2 Ret 1 Ret
8 Flag of France svg.png Marie Simon 2 Ret 2 6 2 Ret Ret Ret Ret 1 3 Ret 2 3 Ret
2015 Lola F2-15 BMW P87/15 TAS RSA TUR MON FRA GBR GER NED BEL POR ITA SIN JPN USA 100 36 9th
1 Flag of Italy svg.png Alessandro Marchesi 9 Ret 3 7 Ret 1 7 13 10 8 7 16 9 12* Ret
2 Flag of Australia svg.png Michael Robertson 12 15* Ret INJ 4 11 Ret 7 16 Ret 4 13 Ret Ret Ret
Flag of the United States svg.png Dan Greenlaw 12
2016 Reynard RF2-1 BMW P87/16 AUS PAC GBR ITA AUT TUR USA GER NED BEL MON MEX CHN JPN TR1 TR2 67 3rd
18 Flag of Australia svg.png Jason Hamilton Ret 13 6 17† Ret Ret 3 10 5 Ret 12† 2 EX 4 Ret 9
Flag of France svg.png Benoit Voeckler 16
19 Flag of Italy svg.png Gianluigi Pazzini 11 7 8 16 Ret 2 2 3 Ret 1 11 8† 15 Ret Ret 5
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


Formula One Constructors
2023 Season Constructors
Andretti Caterham Dawson FAST Ferrari Loonmotor McEwan
MRT Red Bull Rookie Racing Sauber Toyota Williams
All Formula One Constructors
AAC - AAR - AGS - Alfa Romeo - Alta - Ambrosiana - Arrows - Aston Martin - Apollon - Avon - BAR - BCMA - Benetton - Bentley - Berta - BMW Sauber - Boro - Brabham - Brawn - BRM - Bugatti - Calinetic - Caterham - Coloni - Commesso - Connaught - Cooper - Dallara - Dawson - DB - Delage - DGN - Dywa - EMW - ENB-Gordini - Ensign - ERA - Estonia - FAST - Ferrari - Fittipaldi - Flanders - Force India - Forti - GAZ - Gordini - Guidobaldi - Haas - Hernandez - Heros - Hesketh - Holden - Honda - Hispania - HWM - Interscope - IRC - Jaguar - JK Mono - Jordan - Kharkov - KQ - Kurtis Kraft - Lancia - Leader - LEC - Life - Ligier - Lola - Lotus - Loyer - MADI - Mahindra - Maki - Mansell - March - Martini - Marussia - Maserati - McEwan - McGuire - McLaren - Mercedes - Metcalf - Minardi - MRT - O.S.C.A. - Oreca - Osella - Pacific - Parnelli - Penske - Peugeot - Phoenix - Porsche - Precision - Prodrive - Prost - Reatherson - Red Bull - Renault - Rial - Rookie - Riess - RRA - Sauber - Shadow - Simca-Gordini - Simtek - Spyker - Stefan - Stewart - Super Aguri - Talbot-Lago - Theodore - Thistle - Toro Rosso - Toyota - Tyrrell - Ultimate - USF1 - Valerian - Van Hoff - Vanwall - Villeneuve - Volga - Wheatcroft - Williams - Zakspeed
Constuctors which only participated in the Indianapolis 500: Adams - Ball - Bardazon - Bromme - Cantarano - Deidt - Kuzma - Langley - Mauro - Miller - Moore - Nichels - Pratt - Snowberger - Stevens - Wallard - Watson - Weidel - Wetteroth