Nebula Grand Prix

Nebula Grand Prix

Full Name	Estrella Galicia 0,0 Nebula Grand Prix
Base	Bath, England
Founder(s)	Jacques Couteau
Team Principal(s)	Jacques Couteau
Technical Director	Unknown

Nebula Grand Prix are a company based in Bristol, United Kingdom and are the junior single-seater operation for the Astro Racing Group. They race under a French license since the team is run by flamboyant Frenchman Jacques Couteau.

As the Astro Racing Group was formed, Nebula was assimilated into the company along with Fusion Motorsports and Pulsar Racing Team, and is the team that fronts Astro's interests in the more junior formulae. As Fusion originally had places within the F3RWRS and IFRC, Nebula took these over as part of a reshuffle that saw Fusion become the higher-level racing interest.

Formation

Jacques Couteau had a vision to lead his own racing operation, and thus set up Nebula Grand Prix. The Frenchman had been a journeyman in running other peoples' F1 interests, but formed Nebula from scratch in Bristol to add to the city's burgeoning technology sector. However, due to the locality of his own operation to that of Fusion Motorsports, the two teams joined forces as Nebula were given the entries possessed by Fusion in RWRS-sanctioned competitions. Couteau and Fusion principal Jake Legge decided that, after the Fusion and Nebula tie-up, they would add an extra arm dealing more with sportscars. After Pulsar was born, it was placed in the same holding company as Fusion and Nebula.

F3RWRS

2016

Nebula were initially going to field Astro Racing Stars' Jiri Komárek and Jules Vergne in F3RWRS, with British driver Quentin Reatherson taking a single entry in IFRC. Subsequently, Nebula were granted two entries in the latter and thus Vergne moved across to partner Reatherson, whilst Argentinian Thiago Mazzacane was given the F3RWRS seat with Komárek after impressing at Fusion late in 2015. Komárek did a good job in the first round at Adelaide to pick up Nebula's first points of the year, but defaulting sponsorship payments meant that he had to leave the team. In his place came Jorge Álvarez Torrente, younger brother of then-F2RWRS driver Diego. Torrente was on the pace immediately, scoring first time out at Brands Hatch. Unfortunately, it was a lean year for Nebula compared to the heroics of 2015 under the Fusion guise; Torrente showed promise, but Mazzacane failed to deliver and ended up failing to qualify for the Norisring races. The Argentine was removed, and Daisuke Yanagawa took his place in preparation for the upcoming FRENCH season.

2017

Wishing to return to the front of the pack, Nebula signed drivers with experience for their second tilt at the F3RWRS championship; Andorran driver Herberto Dominguez joins the team for his second season in the series having raced for Aurico Autosport and Nurminen Racing Engineering in 2016, whilst David Graham moved across from AR3.5 as Linton-Solindahl Racing left the series. After three rounds, Dominguez made way for Estonia's Anu Võsu, an F1RDS champion who had recently left the dying Restov Racing team.

IFRC/AR3.5

2016

Having been impressed by Quentin Reatherson's debut season in F3RWRS, Nebula signed the Brit to lead their challenge for the IFRC title. The team were able to afford two cars for 2016, and so Jules Vergne stepped into the #40 car. Vergne started well, taking 4th place in his heat at the Penrith Speedway whilst Reatherson had his first encounters with technical issues that plagued the first half of his season. He only just managed to get through the first heat by dint of having retired later than other drivers, and came an impressive 3rd in the feature race. Vergne didn't score again in his next two rounds at Mexico and France, whilst Reatherson had issues in the next three heat races that denied him from entering the feature races. Nebula were one of many teams to complain to the IFRC commission about the inherent lack of reliability in the cars, and a B-spec version was rolled out midway through the season.

David Tenpecost replaced a departing Vergne, who elected to pursue a career in the US with the Mastercard Lola team. The American driver was not any better, and after two poor weekends was replaced again by former F1RDS driver Björn Ekdal, who had been close to early retirement from racing. The Swede showed he was much more on the ball than the two previous drivers, picking up a steady stream of points. Meanwhile, Reatherson's season had now gradually begun to gain momentum; he finished a heat for the first time at Italy, taking second, and followed this with 6th in the feature race. More points came the Brit's way, with two podiums at Zandvoort and a long-awaited win in the Finnish feature race from pole. Belgium was a nightmare; Reatherson's heat was ruined by an erratic Mika Paasonen and thus didn't qualify for the feature race. Russia wasn't much better, but Reatherson managed to end his year on a high note. Finishing 2nd in the heat at Suzuka, he took pole for the feature race and picked up his second win of the season, taking the fastest lap in the process. Reatherson earned a move to Nebula's F2RWRS team for 2017; Fusion handed over again as they began to pour their resources into their F1RWRS team.

2017

With the series renamed to AutoReject 3.5, Nebula kept some continuity by retaining Ekdal for another season. Replacing Reatherson would be Indian-American driver Victoria Desai, who finished 5th in F3RWRS in 2016. This offered a slight contractual wrangle; Nebula signed Desai citing no knowledge of any other deals, yet Falik Arrows owner Prince Falik claimed he had a multi-year option for her services. Falik later dropped the issue.

Desai would do the driving for the team at the new Middle Eastern Cup, and after a difficult opening at the Dubai Autodrome - where she came 8th, taking the fastest lap in a recovery drive - managed a strong 2nd at the Yas Marina Circuit. Multiple teams had fuel-flow sensor issues at next race at the Losail circuit; their readings in qualifying suggested fuel consumption was lower, and Nebula were one such team. Desai almost managed to hang on after Nebula's sensor suddenly started providing the correct results, causing blind panic on the pit wall as they relayed the command to slow down, but ultimately Desai had to pull off on the final lap. She still claimed a point in the process having been classified 10th. After this mishap, Desai made no mistakes at Bahrain as she dominated the race, claiming pole and fastest lap on her way to winning the Middle Eastern Cup having just edged out Kenan Ardaoglu in the standings.

Although Desai scored solid results in the main season, she couldn't maintain a strong championship push; she managed just one win all season which came in her heat at the Red Bull Ring. She managed a number of podiums which allowed Nebula to sustain a strong finish to the season, but this ultimately did not stop Desai and the team reaching a mutual agreement to part ways. Ekdal also left team after a season and a half; the Swede failing to make any noticeable improvement in his performances.

2018

For 2018, Astro decided to freshen up their lineups across the board in order to add a greater focus on promoting its own young drivers. Nathanael Cameron shifted across from F2RWRS to head Nebula's challenge for honours, and Nino Barlini was selected to partner him after being released by DScity Voeckler.

Cameron was immediately a front-runner in the series, and was joined in a close championship battle with Kenan Ardaoglu and Gary Pacer. The title-battle ebbed and flowed, but Cameron emerged victorious, beating Ardaoglu and Pacer by just two points. Barlini finished a respectable 12th in his second year of AR3.5. Cameron joined the Jones Unipart TAG team in ARWS, partnering Pacer at the British outfit, whilst Barlini joined them in the series after signing a deal with Team Mecha Racing.

2019

Former F3RWRS driver Jorge Álvarez Torrente joined Nebula for his sophomore year in AR3.5, and will be partnered by rookie Marjolein Postma, who finished 3rd in AR2.0 in the previous season.

F2RWRS

2017

Having impressed for the team in AR3.5, Quentin Reatherson stepped across to the Airwaves-backed Nebula F2RWRS team. Joining him was the returning Thomas Yorke; the Yorkshireman was formerly a Fusion-backed driver before having his management contract picked up by Niko Nurminen. Yorke had impressed in F3RWRS, and Nebula signed the contract with him early to ward off any detractors.

Complete Results

F3RWRS/F3 Results

Year	Chassis	Engine	#	Drivers	1		2		3		4	5		6		7	8		9		10		11	Pos	Points
2016	Nebula JC-01	Mugen Honda MF316			AUS		GBR		ITA		PAU	CAN		GER		ZAN	BEL		SMR		JPN		SUR	=19th	19
			19	Jiri Komárek	11	Ret
				Jorge Álvarez Torrente			10	Ret	30	Ret	38	17	C	9	32	Ret	15	31	17	20	16	C	16
			20	Thiago Mazzacane	Ret	18	20	16	37	18	Ret	36	C	DNQ	DNQ
				Daisuke Yanagawa												Ret	22	27	21	Ret	Ret	C	Ret
2017	Nebula JC-02	Cosworth CA-F317			HMP	AUS		GBR		AUT		USA		APS	NED		GER		BEL		MAR		SUR	10th	36
			77	Herberto Dominguez	Ret	Ret	7	Ret	15	7	C
				Anu Võsu								2
			78	David Graham	Ret	5	16	22	11	22	C	Ret
2018	Jones 115	Holden LSF3-18			JPN		TUR		GER		TPE		RUS		FIN		GBR		FRA		ABU		KOR	2nd	179
			19	Ricardo Velázquez	2	17	14	2	1	10	Ret	3	5	5	2	10	4	8	4	20	1	9	1
			20	Sandy Grey	15	13	5	15	7	3	2	16	14	12	17	14	6	15	20	19	15	19	4

IFRC/AR3.5

Year	Chassis	#	Drivers	1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		12		Points	CC
2016	Lola B06/51			AUS		MEX		FRA		GBR		ITA		USA		GER		NED		FIN		BEL		RUS		JPN		118	6th
		15	Quentin Reatherson	Ret	3	Ret	DNQ	Ret	DNQ	Ret	DNQ	2	6	5	5	7	Ret	2	3	7	1	17	DNQ	11	Ret	2	1
		40	Jules Vergne	4	13	Ret	DNQ	10	11
			David Tenpecost							9	17	Ret	DNQ
			Björn Ekdal											6	11	10	Ret	11	11	7	16	9	Ret	6	5	5	12
2017	Lola B06/51			AUS		FRA		AUT		ITA		GBR		USA		NED		GER		BEL		JPN						97	8th
		11	Victoria Desai	8	13	9	12	1	6	4	5	5	10	3	Ret	3	Ret	4	9	2	5	9	2
		12	Björn Ekdal	10	20	9	8	14	18	15	DNQ	15	DNQ	12	Ret	13	18	11	Ret	13	16	4	4
2018	Lola B06/51			AUS		FRA		AUT		ITA		GBR		USA		NED		GER		BEL		JPN						205	3rd
		15	Nathanael Cameron	3	3	1	3	11	4	1	C	5	Ret	2	3	3	Ret	1	1	1	1	7	3
		16	Nino Barlini	3	17	8	8	5	7	5	C	13	Ret	7	11	8	9	6	16	2	18	5	Ret
2019	Lola B06/51			AUS		ESP		ITA		FRA		GBR		AUT		GER		BEL		USA		JPN						N/A*	N/A*
		5	Jorge Álvarez Torrente
		6	Marjolein Postma

F2RWRS

Year	Chassis	Engine	#	Driver	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	CC	Pts
2017	Lola B17/50	Mazda SKYACTIV-F2			AUS	MAL	GBR	ITA	AUT	CAN	QUE	USA	NED	GER	NTS	RSA	BEL	MON	MAR	JAP	MAC	4th	76
			19	Quentin Reatherson	3	4	Ret	8	6	1	26	12	2	1	3	3	3	20	22	3	Ret
			20	Thomas Yorke	Ret	13	7	22	18	11	8	11	Ret	15	13	22	Ret	4	9	19	21