Russian Time has announced its drivers in GP2 Series for the 2016 campaign: Raffaele Marciello and Artem Markelov.
Both drivers are 21 year old and have spent two years in GP2 already. But they have very different paths.
European Formula 3 champion in 2013, Raffaele Marciello was a part of the Ferrari Driver Academy until this year. It is the third GP2 team he gets to drive for, the first one being Racing Engineering which he won with at Spa-Francorchamps. In 2015 he raced for Italian squad Trident and has been through a very difficult season when he was said to be the main rival for Stoffel Vandoorne.
Without the double Italian backing he had last year, Marciello is aware of the pressure on his shoulders:
“I’m delighted to join Russian Time, which impressively won the championship in its inaugural season; I’m hoping that we can combine our experience to mount a consistent challenge for the top positions.”
Russian Artem Markelov is a part of Russian Time since his rookie year in GP2 in 2014 alongside Mitch Evans. After a sole podium last year, again at Spa-Francorchamps, Markelov continues his collaboration with Russian Time and started his racing year early by taking part of the Toyota Racing Series.
Team manager, Svetlana Strelnikova, comments:
“I’m delighted to welcome Raffaele to the team. I’m optimistic that with both drivers having two years’ experience in F1’s feeder formula, we will be able to mount a challenge in what is an ever more competitive series.”
