Russian Time has confirmed its line-up for the 2016 season of the GP2 Series: Raffaele Marciello will join the team and contest his third season in Formula 1’s feeder series alongside Russian Time regular Artem Markelov.
After stints with Racing Engineering and Trident Racing in the past two seasons, the 21-year-old Italian joins forces with the 2013 team champions and is looking to return to the top step of the podium with the Russian squad: “I’m delighted to join Russian Time, which impressively won the championship in its inaugural season”, says Marciello in Russian Team’s press release. “I’m hoping that we can combine our experience to mount a consistent challenge for the top positions.”
Marciello, FIA Formula Three champion in 2013, has done justice to his reputation as a skilled and fast driver in his two previous GP2 seasons: The Italian claimed his maiden GP2 victory in his debut season, winning the feature race in Spa, and stood on the podium three more times in 2014 to finish the season in eighth place with 74 points. In 2015 he continued in the same vein and scored four podium finishes, and despite missing out on a race win he improved to a seventh place with a total of 118 points at the end of the season.
Marciello’s team mate Artem Markelov will be contesting his third season with the Russian Time team. After an underwhelming first season in 2014, the young Russian improved remarkably and claimed his maiden podium finish in the following season, a third place in the feature race in Belgium.
Russian Time team principal Svetlana Strelnikova counts on the experience of the two drivers to be the deciding factor in Russian Time’s return to glory: “I’m delighted to welcome Raffaele Marciello to the team. He has shown consistent speed and Artem Markelov has grown stronger as he got to grips with this category. I’m optimistic that with both drivers having two year of experience in F1’s feeder formula, we will be able to mount a challenge in what is an ever more competitive series. I’m looking forward to it!”
