Hitech Racing (2002–2014) Hitech Racing started out in the
British Formula 3 Championship in 2003. The team also competed in the South American Formula Three Series, namely the
Formula 3 Sudamericana. In its first season, Hitech scored five
pole positions and six podium finishes, with drivers
Danny Watts and
Eric Salignon. For 2012, Brazilian
Felipe Guimarães took 4 wins and two poles to end fourth with Hitech Racing Brazil in the
Formula Three Sudamericana series. In 2013, Hitech's Brazilian ace
Felipe Guimarães took both the
Formula 3 Brazil Open and the
Formula Three Sudamericana series titles, winning 13 races and obtaining 7 poles and 12 fastest laps in the process. In 2014, Brazilian
Felipe Guimarães defended his
Formula 3 Brazil Open title with Hitech Racing Brazil in January 2014 at the
2014 Formula 3 Brazil Open with his teammate
Victor Franzoni finishing second.
GP2 Series In 2005, Hitech partnered with Piquet Sports to enter the
GP2 Series, running
Nelson Piquet Jr. and
Alexandre Negrao. However, prior to the
Istanbul round, it was announced that this partnership had ended and that Piquet Sports would run the team for the remainder of the season. Despite this, team would continue carrying the Hitech name until the end of the season In 2016, Hitech joined forces with
ART Grand Prix, to make a full season in the
FIA F3 European Championship.
George Russell and rookies
Ben Barnicoat and
Nikita Mazepin will race for the team. 2015's guest driver Sims again appeared in the 2016 season's final round at
Hockenheim. The following season, only Mazepin remained with the team, he was joined by 2016
Prema driver
Ralf Aron,
Jake Hughes and Honda Junior
Tadasuke Makino. For 2018 the team signed
Enaam Ahmed, Ben Hingeley,
Álex Palou In 2019 the team was represented by
Jüri Vips in the new
FIA Formula 3 Championship. He was joined by
Leonardo Pulcini, who raced in the
GP3 Series, and
2016 French F4 champion
Yifei Ye. The team saw four wins coming from Vips and Pulcini that ultimately resulted in the outfit finishing second behind
Prema Racing in the teams' standings. In 2019, Hitech GP provided a full race operation package to
W Series, including preparation, shipping and all trackside requirements. Hitech GP also supplied race engineers and pit crew for each of the cars. This partnership was discontinued for the
2021 season following the
2020 season's cancellation due to the
COVID-19 pandemic and Hitech GP's subsequent expansion into other series. For the inaugural
2019 FIA Motorsport Games Formula 4 Cup all drivers utilized
KCMG KC MG-01 cars, which were operated by Hitech GP. This was the first Formula 4 car to feature
Halo safety device.
FIA Formula 2 Championship In January 2020, Hitech announced it would expand into the championship for the
2020 season. In their first season, they finished fourth in the Teams' Championship, with drivers
Nikita Mazepin and
Luca Ghiotto earning three wins between them. Ahead of the
2021 season, Ghiotto left the team and Mazepin moved to Formula One with
Haas. In their place, the team signed
Jüri Vips and promoted
Liam Lawson from their Formula 3 operation. Lawson won the first race of the season and went on to finish ninth overall, with teammate Vips in sixth. Vips stayed on with the team for
2022, and
Marcus Armstrong was signed to race alongside him. The team finished fifth in the championship. Hitech signed a title sponsorship deal with
Pulse-Eight but slumped to eighth place in the championship in
2023, with both
Jak Crawford and
Isack Hadjar finishing outside the top ten in the championship. The team renewed its lineup with
Paul Aron and
Amaury Cordeel ahead of the
Dallara F2 2024's introduction in
2024, and recovered to fourth in the teams' standings. Hitech inked a partnership with
Toyota Gazoo Racing (TGR) for
2025 and, despite hiring a pair of rookie drivers, enjoyed its best season to-date, finishing runner-up with Williams'
Luke Browning and Ferrari's
Dino Beganovic. For
2026, nine-time
IndyCar race winner
Colton Herta made the move to the FIA's
'Road to F1' pathway with support from
Cadillac, and joined Toyota junior
Ritomo Miyata.
Formula One It was reported in February 2023 that Hitech registered an interest in joining the Formula 1 at a date to be determined. In June 2023, Hitech announced that it has lodged an entry to join the 2026 season. Following announcements by the FIA on accepted submissions, Hitech was not one of the accepted applications, and speculation is that their application was rejected. There are some who believe that they are being funded secretly by Dmitry Mazepin, who is banned from competing in F1 due to European Union sanctions following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The allegation is that Vladimir Kim who has purchased a 25% stake in the Team is the face of the funding with the actual funding coming from Mazepin. == Ownership ==