February 16, 2016

 

Formula Challenge news continues to come through in recent days, as Scuderia Basilea announce their 2016 FC driver line-up.

After a rather bleak 2015 season without any real highlights, Scuderia Basilea presents the new driver line-up for the upcoming Formula Challenge season at Silverstone Circuit in Horthamptonshire and Buckinghamshire, England.

Why Silverstone? Team Owner David Jundt explains:
"Due to the ban on circuit racing in Switzerland, we have no comparable testing venue in the country. The Lignieres circuit in the municipality of Lignieres, above Lake Biel in the canton of Neuchatel, is too small and short (1.350m) to give useful feedback on areas like tyre wear."

He further explained why he didn't fall back on any venues close to the Swiss border. "We could have gone to the circuit of L'Anneau du Rhin near Biltzheim in the region of Alsace in France or to Hockenheim(Baden-Wurttemberg) in Germany. But due to neither showing on the official calendar, we decided to conduct our private test in Silverstone instead.

It's also a shot across the bows towards the Swiss government, because if Swiss teams can't test in Switzerland, they just travel to somewhere else and cause more CO2 emissions. It just doesn't make sense to me, unless they gradually want to kill Swiss motorsport (or what's left of it).

Another valid reason was our partnership with VBM for Formula Challenge, so announcing it in England made sense."

The new season also sees the Swiss team with a new number switch from #79 to #66.

Jundt laughs: "It's simple. That's my birth date. #66 became available after the exit of Target Racing in Superleague, so I decided to trade numbers. I hope it brings us luck.

Finally, we're glad to have Marius Nicolae and Max Melamed on board for this year's championship and we're looking forward to the season start."

Michael Pitman, head of VBM, had this to say:
"It's a pleasure to be able to work with such a prestigious team as this. It wasn't long ago that they won the driver's title in Supercup. I'm glad David trusted in VBM and myself to get the team moving forward again. Max and Marius are top guys and I know they will show their amazing skill in these fun cars, in what is looking like a highly competitive field."

Marius Nicolae, driver of car #66:
"First of all I want to say a big thanks to the team for giving me the chance to be back on single seaters. I will do my best (as always) to be on top, although I still need to learn the car (it's been a long time since I've raced a single seater car) but like I said I will do my best."

Max Melamed, driver of car #89:
"I am really looking forward to my first full season in GPVWC together with the partnership of Basilea and VBM. The Formula Challenge car is a lot of fun and I am sure there will be a lot of action packed racing coming towards me. Sadly my preparation for the season wasn't optimal due to moving to a new flat and being on holidays as well. So I hope that I can make a decent start in Melbourne and hopefully can claim some podiums over the season."

Follow the team on Facebook for more updates during the season: https://www.facebook.com/ScuderiaBasilea