Jota Sport, Arden Form Partnership

Two of Britain’s leading teams are to form a partnership designed to help continue to develop the careers of young talented drivers move forward in the sport.

Jota Sport, and Arden International Motorsport will work closely together to help tailor the specific requirements open to drivers in terms of opportunities in both sports car and open-wheel racing.

“The association is beneficial to both companies as we both have similar ambitions and business principles,” said Jota Sport partner David Clark. “It’s another piece in the jigsaw of Jota’s desire to see our continued evolution in the industry.”

Drivers historically move from one category to another during their careers and sometimes back full circle – as Jota Sport has experienced with Mitch Evans, Harry Tincknell and Oliver Turvey who are all sports car race winners.

Evans remains in singles-seaters (GP2) after a two-race sportscar foray this year while Turvey has recently switched back to “open-wheel” racing with Formula E. Tincknell, a 2014 Le Mans 24 Hour race winner with Jota, moved from Formula 3 to sports cars last year and is now a Nissan NISMO factory driver.

Earlier this month, Jota Sport announced that it will contest the FIA World Endurance Championship with an Oreca 05-Nissan while continuing to compete in the European Le Mans Series with its Gibson-Nissan next year.

Banbury-based Arden International Motorsport was founded by Christian Horner, team principal of the Infiniti Red Bull Racing Formula One team, and his father, Garry, in 1997.

The team has contested the FIA Formula 3000 Championship – winning the 2002, ‘03 & ‘04 Team titles – and since then have won the GP3 championship twice in 2012 and 2013 with Evans and Daniel Kvyat respectively, ending up as Vice Champions in GP2 in 2012.

Arden has also competed in FR3.5 since 2012 and finished as vice champions in both the teams and drivers championships .Arden continued its growth this year by entering the new MSA Formula Championship in which it is currently lying 2nd in the drivers championship in its first year.

“This is a new chapter for Arden and something that has not been done before,” said Adren team manager Julian Rouse.

“Working together on projects in both single seaters and sports cars will be a real benefit for everyone involved and creates an exciting future for Arden and JOTA as a whole.”

Former Arden drivers Sébastien Buemi, Robert Doornbos, Heikki Kovalainen, Daniil Kvyat, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Sergio Pérez, Charles Pic, Carlos Sainz, Jr. and Bruno Senna all graduated to Formula One while Neel Jani, Darren Manning and Björn Wirdheim went on to contest IndyCar/ChampCar. The majority of these drivers have also raced in sports cars.