FEBRUARY 17, 2006

Anderson joins Racing Engineering

Gary Anderson has been taken on by the Racing Engineering GP2 team to work with Adam Carroll. The two Ulstermen will be mounting a challenge for the GP2 title with backing from Repsol and Telefonica. Anderson is a famously good race engineer and Carroll has shown considerable skill as a driver in his debut year in the series with Super Nova Racing. The team will also feature 18-year-old Spanish driver Javier Villa in the second car.

Signing up Anderson is an interesting move for Racing Engineering, run by the well-connected Spanish nobleman Alfonso de Orleans-Borbon. he is a man who has long harboured the desire to enter Formula 1 and, unlike some of the other GP2 teams, he might be in a position to raise the kind of money that is needed because of his contacts in Spain, a world where interest in F1 is booming.

Racing Engineering is headquartered near Jerez and has state-of-the-art workshops including design and research and development facilities. It has an impressive staff list including technical director John Gentry, who spent many years in F1 before moving on to bike racing.

The team currently runs a two-car team in GP2 but also a three-car team in the Spanish Formula 3 series, entering three Dallara-Toyotas this year for Marcos Martinez Ucha, Miguel Molina and a Frenchman called Nicolas Prost. His father Alain is wellknown in F1 circles and well-connected with Toyota.