WHO
LAZARUS IS THE NEW CHALLENGE: FROM 1997 TO THE FUTURE.
Our history begins in 1997, February 4th, when GP Racing was founded by Tancredi Pagiaro and Mauro Loro. Their objective was clear: combine the passion of racing cars and create a real company to become leaders. For this reason, they built a young but skilled team determined to stand out and to rise above the others. They debuted in Formula 3B in 1997 (second place in team standing) and in the International FIA F3000 championship in 1997 buying Team HMS Hofman.
The F3000 adventure lasted 2 years with Cyrille Sauvage, Fabrizio Gollin, Laurent Delahaye and Gaston Mazzacane at the wheel in 1998-99. Two years that allowed the team to gain significant experience and enviable technical knowledge. Race after race the team became more united and motivated: GP Racing considers its engineers, technicians and mechanics as very important assets that need to be safeguarded. For this reason, the team who has a low turnover, guarantees stability and specific technical competence to the drivers. In 1998 GP Racing also finished second overall in the Sport Prototype Italian Championship with Massimo Saccomanno.
In 2000 the team participated in the Italy F3000 with Thomas Biagi and Gabriele Gardel (several times on the podium).
2001 is the year that GP Racing participated in the newly founded Euro 3000 Series Championship with Gabriele Gardel and Thomas Biagi. Right from the start, GP Racing was one of the leaders and finished the season in second place with Thomas Biagi, behind Felipe Massa.
2002 is once again a peak season: GP Racing is 4th out of the 14 teams that participated on the Team’s classification. The pole positions and podiums of Alessandro Piccolo, Martin Basso and Cristian Montanari were numerous but the number of accidents affected the final standing. In the same year GP Racing won the 6 hours of Vallelunga with Massimo and Ernesto Saccomanno.
In 2003, for the third consecutive year, GP Racing is competing in Euro 3000 Series Championship with promising young talents behind the wheel: the Italian Fabrizio Del Monte,the Russian Roman Rusinov and the young Belgian Maxime Hodencq who will replace Rusinov for the last two races.
Once again, it was a positive season for the team: Del Monte is second in the driver’s classification behind Agusto Farfus and GP Racing is in third place in the team’s title.
In 2004, GP Racing confirmed its position at the top in Superfund Euro 3000 as well. The title slipped out of Del Monte’s hands during the last race by one point only. The driver from Lazio, Italy conquered three wins, various podiums and was in the lead for 9 out of 10 races. A crash at the start of the last round took the joy of winning the much deserved title away from Fabrizio and GP Racing, which arrived second in the championship.
In 2005, with the new factory in Veggiano, GP Racing participated in the Italian F3000 Championship with the Lola BO2 driven by Fabrizio Del Monte and Juan Caceres. In mid-season when Del Monte is first in the Championship, decided to go to Champ Car and is replaced by Tony Vilander and Alex Lloyd. The team also participated in the LMES Championship with the Promec (only one race in Monza).
The Minardi Team by GP Racing, born from the new partnership between Gian Carlo Minardi and GP Racing, in 2006 competed with good results in the new Euroseries 3000, giving to Gian Carlo the first victory at Silverstone (after 25 years of racing) with Tuka Rocha, then Barcelona with Roldan Rodriguez and Vallelunga with Fausto Ippoliti. In November GP Racing purchases the Piquet Sports team in GP2 Series.
In 2007 a new challenge: GP Racing has entered also in GP2 Series with the name Piquet Sports (a brand imposed by GP2 Series) having created a new structure. It is a fantastic year: in Euroseries 3000 GP Racing wins the championship (both teams and drivers with Davide Rigon and Diego Nunes), while in GP2 reaches two podiums with Rodriguez, Negrao e Marco Bonanomi who won the last race of the new GP2 Asia Series, the team’s first victory after the change of ownership.
In 2008 GP Racing finished second in the Euroseries 3000 with Fabrizio Crestani and Fabio Onidi, while coming third in the GP2 Series. Unfortunately too many accidents involving Zuber and Maldonado affected too much the score of the team championship.
In 2009 Tancredi Pagiaro decides to sell all his shares of GP Racing to start a new adventure creating a new company, named Lazarus.
In 2010 Lazarus competed in Auto GP with one car whith Fabio Onidi at the wheel. Fabio scored 24 points (4 podiums) and was 7° in the final drivers’ classification.
In 2011 season Lazarus competes in Auto GP with two italian drivers: Fabio Onidi and Fabrizio Crestani.
In 2012 Lazarus reaches a deal with Venezuela GP and joined the GP2 Series. The new team, called Venezuela GP Lazarus and running with Venezuela’s license, was created thanks to the support of a group of Venezuelans investor.
