Dragon Racing

United States Dragon Racing
Founded 2007
Founder(s) Jay Penske
Stephen J. Luczo
Base Los Angeles, California and Donington Park, UK.
Team principal(s) Jay Penske
Current series FIA Formula E
Former series IndyCar Series
Current drivers Belgium Jérôme d'Ambrosio
Argentina Jose Maria Lopez
Website http://www.dragonracing.com

Dragon Racing (formerly Luczo-Dragon Racing) is an American auto racing team, involved in many areas of motorsport. Dragon Racing was founded in 2007 by Jay Penske and Stephen J. Luczo. The team competed in the IndyCar Series from 2007 until 2014, and in 2014 Dragon Racing became one of the founding FIA Formula E teams. Dragon Racing is headquartered in Los Angeles, California and has additional operations in Great Britain at the Donington Park racing circuit.

Notable Dragon Racing drivers include Jérôme d'Ambrosio, Sébastien Bourdais, Loïc Duval, Ryan Briscoe, Paul Tracy and Tomas Scheckter.

Dragon Racing is currently competing in the Formula E Championship. The Penske led team finished 2nd (runner-up) in the inaugural 2014-15 Formula E season with drivers Loïc Duval and Jérôme d'Ambrosio. Dragon Racing have won two races in Formula E. Jérôme d'Ambrosio took victory at the 2015 Berlin ePrix after Lucas di Grassi was disqualified with Loïc Duval finishing in third, and d'Ambrosio was again awarded the victory at the 2016 Mexico ePrix, again after di Grassi was disqualified after the race had finished.

History

Luczo Dragon Racing

The team debuted as Luczo Dragon Racing in 2007. The team fielded a one-off entry at the 2007 Indianapolis 500 with driver Ryan Briscoe. Jay Penske and Stephen J. Luczo were co-owners. Briscoe qualified 7th and finished 5th at Indianapolis 500. The car was notable for being painted in a "retro" paint schemes to resemble Rick Mears' 1988 Indianapolis 500 winning car, with Norton software as the lead sponsor.

Scheckter's LDR car practicing for the 2008 Indy 500

Luczo Dragon ran a six-race schedule in 2008 including the Indianapolis 500 with IndyCar veteran Tomas Scheckter,[1] this time without support or cars from Penske Racing. While qualifying well, qualifying 3rd and leading numerous laps at the Indy 500 before being knocked out by mechanical trouble.

The team expanded to a full-time entrant in 2009, fielding 2008 Indy Lights champion Raphael Matos.[2] Matos and the Dragon Racing team went on to win the Rookie of Year honors in 2009 and scored multiple top-10 finishes.

Dragon Racing

In February 2011, Jay Penske re-branded the team as Dragon Racing in April 2011 and jointly announced that Paul Tracy had signed a five-race deal to compete for the team. Additionally the team entered two cars in the Indy 500[3] for drivers Scott Speed and Ho-Pin Tung. Tung crashed his car during qualifying and suffered a concussion crashing with only two corners to go, Tung would have qualified in the top 5. Scott Speed was unable to get his car up to speed, and the team let him go during practice.[4]

In January 2012, Dragon Racing had operations in Indianapolis and Los Angeles. It entered two cars in the 2012 IndyCar Series season; one driven by Katherine Legge, and the other driven by four-time Champ Car champion Sébastien Bourdais,[5] but on June 1, 2012, it was revealed that they would reduce operations to just 1 team with Bourdais driving the street courses and Legge on the ovals. Bourdais finished 25th in points with a best finish of fourth. Legge finished 26th with a best finish of 9th.

On February 12, 2013, it was announced that Sebastián Saavedra would be joining the team for the 2013 season in the No. 6 car while Bourdais would return in the No. 7.[6] Bourdais and team continued to dominate at Road and Street courses capturing three podium finishes, including two in the double-header in Toronto. Saavedra finished 21st in points, last among full-time drivers, with two top-10 finishes. In 2014, the team left IndyCar racing to focus on the new Formula E electric powered series.[7]

Formula E (2014-present)

Dragon Racing started the inaugural 2014-15 Formula E season with drivers Jérôme d'Ambrosio and Oriol Servià. After four rounds Servià retired from racing in order to take up an executive position within the team, he was replaced by French driver Loïc Duval. The two drivers remained with the team the rest of the season as well as the two following seasons.

Jérôme d'Ambrosio winning for Dragon Racing at the 2015 Berlin ePrix

2014-15

Dragon Racing was off the pace of the top teams in the opening 2/3 of the season, but showed great reliability and consistency which kept them within striking distance of the top teams. Despite sitting in 6th in the Teams Championships for the majority of the season Dragon Racing achieved 4 podiums and a win at the 2015 Berlin ePrix in the final four rounds of the championship. Due to their late season form Dragon Racing finished 2nd in the championship having surpassed ABT in the final round with an impressive double podium finish.

2015-16

Dragon started the 2015-16 campaign in similar fashion to their impressive season ending form from the prior season with a 4th and 5th-place finish in the opening round. Both drivers failed to finish in Putragya having both been in contention of a podium finish due to reliability on d'Ambrosio car and a driver error by Loïc Duval. At the Punta del Este ePrix Dragon Racing achieved their first front row lockout with d'Ambrosio on pole and Duval in second having capitalized on Buemi and Di Grassi mistakes in qualifying. In the race the Dragon cars could only manage 3rd and 4th having lacked the pass of the ABT and Renault cars of Lucus Di Grassi and race winner Sebastien Buemi. At the inaugural Mexican ePrix d'Ambrosio finished 2nd but was later promoted to the win as a result of di Grassi being disqualified.

2016-17

Duval and d'Ambrosio were retained for the 2016-17 championship with the team manufacturing its own drivetrain (after sharing with Venturi) and forming a partnership with Faraday Future. In contrast to their previous two seasons, the team struggled throughout, finishing eighth in the constructors' championship on thirty three points with Duval and d'Ambrosio finishing fifteenth and nineteenth in the drivers' standings.

2017-18

In 2017, d'Ambrosio was signed for a fourth season, while Duval left the team and was replaced by WEC racer Neel Jani.[8] After the first race weekend of the season, Jani left the team having finished 18th in both races.[9] Jose Maria Lopez replaced Jani for the rest of the season.[10] Dragon Racing finished 9th in the teams' championship, with d'Ambrosio finishing 14th and Lopez 17th in the drivers' championship.

Drivers

Racing results

Complete Formula E Results

Year Chassis Tyres No. Drivers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Points T.C.
2014–15 Spark-Renault SRT 01E M BEI PUT PDE BUE MIA LBH MON BER MSC LON 171 2nd
6 Spain Oriol Servià 7 7 9 9
France Loïc Duval 7 9 Ret 3 15 8 3
7 Belgium Jérôme d'Ambrosio 6 5 8 14 4 6 5 1 11 2 2
2015–16 Spark-Venturi VM200-FE-01 M BEI PUT PDE BUE MEX LBH PAR BER LON 143 4th
6 France Loïc Duval 4 16† 4 6 4 8 Ret Ret Ret 4
7 Belgium Jérôme d'Ambrosio 5 14† 3 16 1 7 11 16 9 3
2016–17 Spark-Penske 701-EV M HKG MAR BUE MEX MON PAR BER NYC MTL 33 8th
6 France Loïc Duval 14 18 6 Ret Ret 15 Ret 5 13 Ret 19
United Kingdom Mike Conway 14
7 Belgium Jérôme d'Ambrosio 7 13 8 14 Ret NC 13 13 Ret 10 11 9
2017–18 Spark-Penske EV-2 M HKG MAR SAN MEX PDE ROM PAR BER ZÜR NYC 41 9th
6 Switzerland Neel Jani 18 18
Argentina José María López 6 Ret 12 8 17† 10 18 12 Ret Ret
7 Belgium Jérôme d'Ambrosio NC 15 15 8 11 9 7 12 19 3 13 Ret

* Season still in progress.

Complete IndyCar Series Results

(key)

Year Chassis Engine Drivers No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Luczo Dragon Racing
2007 HMS STP MOT KAN INDY MIL TXS IOW RIR WGL NSH MDO MCH KTY SNM DET CHI
Dallara IR-05 Honda HI7R V8 Australia Ryan Briscoe 12 51
2008 HMS STP MOT LBH KAN INDY MIL TXS IOW RIR WGL NSH MDO EDM KTY SNM DET CHI SRF2
Dallara IR-05 Honda HI7R V8 South Africa Tomas Scheckter 12 23 24 25 27 21 26
2009 STP LBH KAN INDY MIL TXS IOW RIR WGL TOR EDM KTY MDO SNM CHI MOT HMS
Dallara IR-05 Honda HI7R V8 Brazil Raphael Matos 2 20 8 20 22 6 12 16 8 12 10 18 16 9 9 9 9 14
de Ferran Dragon Racing
2010 SAO STP ALA LBH KAN INDY TXS IOW WGL TOR EDM MDO SNM CHI KTY MOT HMS
Dallara IR-05 Honda HI7R V8 Brazil Raphael Matos 2 4 8 14 20 16 29 16 14 4 21 13 7 21 29 16 18 17
United States Davey Hamilton 21 33 18
Dragon Racing
2011 STP ALA LBH SAO INDY TXS MIL IOW TOR EDM MDO NHM SNM BAL MOT KTY LSV
Dallara IR-05 Honda HI7R V8 Canada Paul Tracy 8 16 12 13 16 26 C3
China Ho-Pin Tung Wth
88 27
United States Scott Speed 20 DNQ
Canada Patrick Carpentier DNQ
2012 STP ALA LBH SAO INDY DET TEX MIL IOW TOR EDM MDO SNM BAL FON
Dallara DW12 Lotus DC00 V6t United Kingdom Katherine Legge 6 23 23 19 26 22
Chevrolet IndyCar V6t 15 18 15 24 9
Lotus DC00 V6t France Sébastien Bourdais 7 21 9 17 18 20
Chevrolet IndyCar V6t 24 14 15 4 22 23
2013 STP ALA LBH SAO INDY DET TXS MIL IOW POC TOR MDO SNM BAL HOU FON
Dallara DW12 Chevrolet IndyCar V6t Colombia Sebastián Saavedra 6 20 20 27 19 32 22 10 14 13 19 23 16 15 19 21 8 14 12 24
France Sébastien Bourdais 7 11 16 15 14 29 24 11 20 22 14 16 2 3 12 10 3 8 5 12

  1. ^ With support from Team Penske.
  2. ^ Non-points-paying, exhibition race.
  3. ^ The 2011 Las Vegas race was abandoned following a Lap 11 fatal crash that damaged the circuit. Under INDYCAR rules, 101 of 200 laps had to be completed for a legal race.

References

  1. ↑ Cavin, Curt; Ballard, Steve (February 1, 2008). "Scheckter likely back at Indy 500". The Indianapolis Star. Gannett Company. Retrieved July 19, 2015.
  2. ↑ DiZinno, Tony (October 7, 2008). "Matos, Luczo Dragon latest to confirm 2009 plans". Motorsport.com. Motorsport.com, Inc. Retrieved July 19, 2015.
  3. ↑ Miller, Robin. Tracy To Lead Restructured Dragon Racing Archived 10 April 2011 at the Wayback Machine., Speed TV, April 2, 2011, Retrieved 2012-01-14
  4. ↑ "Tung joins Schmidt Dragon for Sonoma". GPUpdate.net. JHED Media BV. August 24, 2011. Retrieved July 19, 2015.
  5. ↑ Glendenning, Mark (January 12, 2012). "Sebastien Bourdais secures full-time IndyCar return with Dragon Racing". Autosport. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved July 19, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Saavedra in at Dragon, to pair with Bourdais". IndyCar Series. IndyCar. February 12, 2013. Retrieved July 19, 2015.
  7. ↑ Formula E, Electric Racing: Part 3, Editorial Triple League Racing, March 3, 2014. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
  8. ↑ Mitchell, Scott (August 24, 2017). "Porsche LMP1 ace Neel Jani to Faraday Dragon for 2017/18 Formula E". Autosport. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
  9. ↑ Scott Mitchell. "Jani leaves Dragon after single Formula E race weekend". Motorsport. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
  10. ↑ "Lopez replaces Jani at Dragon Racing". Motorsport. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
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