Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Team Rosberg wants Formula E slot for 2014 season

Audi DTM outfit Team Rosberg is planning an assault on the inaugural Formula E championship when it begins next autumn

Arno Zensen's squad, which has centered its motorsport activities around the DTM for the past decade, has applied to enter the series for electric vehicles, but is unsure of being granted one of the coveted spots.

"It's no secret that it's something that's very interesting to us," Zensen told AUTOSPORT.

"I was at the launch event in Germany - people saw me there - and we have lodged our application to enter the series.

"To be honest, I don't know if the application will be successful. It's up to the organisers to decide if we're the kind of team they want or not. We should know whether we're in by the end of October, so fingers crossed."

The brains behind Formula E

Four teams have been announced for the series so far; IndyCar outfits Andretti Autosport and Dragon Racing, former Le Mans competitor Drayson Racing and a new organisation, China Racing.

Should Rosberg be granted an entry, it would mark a return to single-seater competition for the first time since 2006.

Zensen also denied rumours linking the Rosberg squad to a programme in Formula 4, which is likely to adopted as a successor to ADAC Formel Masters in Germany in 2015.

"We have enough on our plates right now," he said.

ROSBERG IN SINGLE-SEATERS

Although synonymous with the DTM - having been founded in late 1994 to run one of Opel's pairs of Calibras the following year for Keke Rosberg and Klaus Ludwig - Team Rosberg has a healthy single-seater pedigree.

Its first foray into single-seaters came in 1998 when, alongside its campaign with Nissans in German Super Touring, it launched a team in the BMW ADAC Junior Cup, the forerunner to Formula BMW.

Having run Pierre Kaffer, Christian Klien and Kimmo Liimatainen - now Rosberg's DTM team manager - impressively for a number of seasons in both Formula BMW and Formula 3 in Germany, the squad's finest hour came in 2002 when it won both championships with, respectively, Nico Rosberg and Gary Paffett.

Its entry in the F3 Euro Series, which merged the German and French championships in 2003, brought future Formula 1 racers Rosberg and Giedo van der Garde into the limelight; the former finishing second in the end of-season Bahrain Superprix in '04 behind now Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

Its final fling came in the inaugural A1GP season in 2005-06 as the brains behind Team Austria.

With an unspectacular driver line-up of Mathias Lauda and (occasionally) Patrick Friesacher, results were hard to come by and the team - now partnered with Audi in the DTM - refocused its efforts in the tin-top series and in GT racing with the R8 LMS.

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Formula E to race in Monte Carlo during debut season
Next article Audi backs Abt's Formula E entry

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe