Difference between revisions of "Constant Racing SL"

Latest revision as of 10:27, 28 November 2012

Constant Racing

Full name	Constant Racing
Base	St Helens, UK
Team principal/s	Mark Stanton Joe Consiglio
Race drivers	18. Mark Stanton 19. David Stanton
Test drivers	Dale Stones
Chassis	CR-SL13
Engine	N/A
Tyres	Pirelli
GPVWC Superleague Career
Début	2009 French Grand Prix
Latest race	2015 Brazilian Grand Prix
Races competed	44
Constructors' Championships	0
Drivers' Championships	0
Race victories	0
Podiums	1
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	1
2012 position	11th

Constant Racing is a Superleague team co-owned by Mark Stanton and Joe Consiglio. The St. Helens-based squad was founded in 2009 and have been competing in the GPVWC ever since.

2009 Superleague Season

It all started in early 2009. Good friends Joe Consiglio and Mark Stanton were driving in the GPVWC Superleague (rFactor). Joe was signed as lead driver to Nordsjoen Racing whilst Mark was driving whatever he could get his hands on, spending a short stint at Evans Blue Racing before guest driving for R4 Engineering at Round 3 in Japan.

Coincidently only weeks before the season start, Joe and Mark had joked about forming their own team, Constant Racing, at the time it seemed like a distant dream. However after the Japanese Grand Prix, R4 went bust and Stanton quickly approached the GPVWC about filling the spot. The position was granted and Constant Racing was born.

Consiglio and Stanton both held a 50% stake in the team, with Mark deciding to take on managerial responsibilities as well as becoming the teams lead driver. Consiglio stayed on at Nordsjoen but was also in charge of driver recruitment and PR at Constant.

In order to be ready for Round 4 at Charade, the two owners had to work round the clock at the team's headquarters in St Helens. In this time Stanton managed to come up with the team's livery as well as securing Renault engines for the rest of the season. So in record time the team unveiled the beautiful CR-SL09 to world's media on April 24th at a sunny Silverstone. Meanwhile Consiglio secured the services of Ryan McConkey. The American signed to drive the 2nd car on a race by race basis.

The team had a fairly-tale début qualifying session in France. Amazingly Stanton and McConkey managed to lock out the 3rd row, qualifying 5th and 6th respectively. The race went less well with McConkey crashing out before half distance and Stanton suffering a number of issues on his way to 7th.

McConkey went on to score points in Ireland and Monaco but unfortunately was unable to continue driving for the rest of the season. Australian Richard Bayes was drafted in at Silverstone and fared well on his début. The highlight of the year came at Bahrain, where Stanton finished 4th and Bayes came home in 6th.

During the long mid season break Stanton decided to step down as the team's lead driver. William Ponissi was recruited from Allen GP as his replacement. So as the cars lined up in Canada, it was Ponissi and Bayes representing Constant Racing.

Both drivers went on to score valuable points for the remainder of the season. Ponissi's improvement under the hand of "driver coach" Joe Consiglio was one of the stories of the season. Bayes even managed to qualify 3rd at Mexico before crossing the finish line in 6th. However Rich was unable to drive the last two races and so Stanton deputised for the Australian. Zandvoort was a difficult race for the team, however it wasn't all bad news as co-owner Joe Consiglio realised a seven year ambition to become GPVWC World Champion 2009! With the field in relaxed mood at the final round, Stanton finished a fine 5th in the league's first night race on the streets of Singapore.

Reflecting on their first year in the series, Constant Racing had a lot to be proud of. As well as producing one of the leagues’ most striking liveries, the team managed to finish a credible 8th in the Constructors Championship and emerged from the year as regular point scorers.

2010 Superleague Season

Both Stanton and Ponissi were re-signed for 2010 with rookie Ben Warren joining the team as test driver. However, Constant Racing’s 2nd year in the Superleague didn’t start quite as well as the team might have hoped. Pre-season engine negotiations hit problems when Renault decided not to continue their partnership with the team for a 2nd season. This decision came quite late in the day and with little other options available it looked like Constant would be forced to run with the less powerful Toyota engine. However, in a dramatic turn of events, Renault powered Red 5 Racing dropped out of the league and in doing so handed Constant a lifeline. Stanton was quick to re-enter talks with the French manufacturer and the outcome resulted in the team once again being powered by Renault for the 2010 Superleague season. Crisis averted!

Pre-season testing showed that the competition in 2010 would be fierce and it’s fair to say both race drivers struggled in the early stages of the championship. Accidents and reliability problems plagued the team in Australia and China, leading to zero points after two rounds. The breakthrough came in Japan with Stanton finishing in a solid 7th and Ponissi just outside the points in 11th.

Ponissi picked up his first point of the season a round later in Adu Dhabi. After this came a solid run of points for the team, the highlight of which was Stanton’s 6th place at Silverstone and Ponissi’s 7th in Bahrain. Another 7th from Stanton in Turkey was a prelude to the Englishman’s best race of the year in Canada.

Stanton qualified a season best 6th in Montreal and clearly had the pace to mix it with the big boys in the race. With Kieran Ryan and Agustin Canapino succumbing to accidents around midway through, Stanton found himself in 4th as the race entered its final stages. In a bizarre turn of events, race leader Consiglio suffered brake failure with only 2 laps to go. Consiglio’s late retirement saw Stanton power home to a well deserved podium finish at a track he loves. This 3rd place equalled Stanton’s best ever Superleague result and gave Constant Racing their first ever Superleague podium. Meanwhile Ponissi added to Constant's delight by finishing the race in a fine 6th.

Unfortunately Stanton’s season tailed off a bit after the joy of Canada and apart from an 8th in Brazil the rest of Englishman’s season was littered with accidents and misfortunes. Conversely Ponissi finished his season strongly with a 7th at Monza and a superb 5th at Zandvoort. Mark’s brother David Stanton drove a one off race for the team at Barcelona and scored a useful 6th despite having little time to get accustomed to the car.

The team looked good for a double points finish at the last race of the season in Singapore before bad luck intervened. At mid distance Ponissi was defending hard from the attacks of team-mate Stanton. As the Italian hit the brakes to enter the pits, the following Stanton was caught completely by surprise and slammed straight into the back of his team-mate. Both drivers were instant retirements but neither blamed one another for what Stanton later described as an “unfortunate racing incident.”

Despite an unlucky final race Constant Racing finished the season 5th in the Constructors Championship and achieved their first ever Superleague podium courtesy of Stanton’s excellent 3rd place in Canada. After a slightly shaky start the team once again emerged as regular points scorers and met all their 2010 goals and objectives.

2011 Superleague Season

Coming off the back of a strong 2010 season Constant Racing had every reason to be confident going in 2011. The team opted for stability over revolution in their engine, chassis and driver line-up. The main difference for 2011 saw the team move away from their traditional red and white colour scheme in order to incorporate the orange based brandings of new title sponsor Darkstar Design.

Joining race drivers Stanton and Ponissi was the highly rated Fernando Laaff from Germany. Laaff would start the season in a test drive position, acting as substitute whenever needed. In pre-season testing the car, the Renault engine and Laaff in particular were looking very strong. Indeed Fernando finished the final two pre-season tests an impressive 3rd on the timesheets at Sepang and Monza. Stanton was also looking pretty good, managing a top 5 laptime at the Italian circuit. Ponissi on the other hand was a little bit off the pace and yet to fully acclimatise to the new 2011 mod.

Despite a promising pre-season showing, Constant came down to earth with a bang at the first race of the season in Melbourne. Whilst fighting in the points Stanton crashed out and Ponissi only finished a distant 14th. The next two races saw Stanton scoring some solid points but once again Ponissi found himself fighting at the back.

At last China gave the team something to smile about. Mark Stanton was in superb form and nearly grabbed the first pole of his career only to be denied at the very last second by a stunning lap from Jason Muscat. In the race Stanton’s three stop strategy saw him dropping just outside the podium battle and defending 4th from a recovering Joe Consiglio. Despite Consiglio having a massive stake in Constant Racing, the Maltese championship contender was in no mood to let 4th position slip away. Indeed with only three laps to go Consiglio got by at the hairpin and held Stanton at bay all the way to the finish line. It was a great display of close, clean racing from the two friends and Stanton could draw many positives from his performance. As well as claiming his best finish of the season with 5th, the Englishman also managed to capture the fastest lap of the race.

Kyalami saw Stanton finish 11th and Ponissi retire with electrical problems. At this stage of the season Ponissi elected to start rotating his race seat with the eager Fernando Laaff in order to help the team move forward in the Constructors championship.

At Austria both Stanton and Laaff qualified well up the grid with Stanton finishing the race in 9th. Laaff looked good for a points finish but with his race-craft still not quite up to scratch, the German crashed out of the event after coming under pressure from Morris.

At France Stanton suffered a disconnection when in the points and despite showing some great speed Laaff again retired from the action due to an accident mid way through. Ponissi returned to drive the 2nd car at Monaco but ultimately retired after making a record amount of pitstops. By this stage of the season Stanton was not showing the same pace as he did in China but at least the Englishman finished the gruelling street event in a solid 9th. By now the development race was in full swing and although Constant were continually updating their package, it didn’t seem to be bringing the same amount of performance as other rival teams were enjoying.

In Great Britain Stanton brought home two points but team-mate Laaff crashed out for the 3rd time in succession. There was nothing wrong with the German drivers pace but his race craft was certainly an area in need of improvement. Demoralised Laaff stepped down from his position in the team and with Ponissi unable to substitute for a while Constant found themselves in a difficult situation.

Stanton finished way down the order at the next race in Bahrain then came four straight retirements for the Englishman, many of these due to disconnection. Stanton was Constant’s sole representative up until the team managed to find another driver to pilot the 2nd car in Mexico. Teemu Toikka was signed on a race by race basis but unfortunately the Finnish driver retired from both grand prix he attended.

By now the team was in nothing short of disarray. With this in mind Joe Consiglio and Mark Stanton made the tough decision to stop any more development work on the CR-SL11 chassis in order to save money and resources for 2012. Ironically this decision marked an upturn in the team’s fortunes. Stanton brought the car home in a fantastic 6th in Brazil and a round earlier in Canada Ponissi only just missed out on his first points of the season.

At Monza Stanton qualified an amazing 4th but a crash on the formation lap ruined any chance of a good race. With Stanton ultimately crashing out, Ponissi scored his first and only point of the season with 10th place at his home track. At the next three races Stanton scored a fine 6th in Spain, 9th in Belgium and a useful 7th in Holland. Ponissi meanwhile just missed out on a 2nd points finish with 11th at Barcelona, a DNF at Spa and 14th at Zandvoort. A scrappy 14th from Stanton and another Ponissi retirement ended Constant’s season in Singapore.

In a very tough year for the team Constant Racing finished 9th in the Constructors championship. Stanton provided the majority of Constant’s 33 points and showed flashes of great speed particularly at China, Brazil and Italy. It’s fair to say Ponissi struggled in 2011 and was never really quite at one with the car throughout. Unfortunately Laaff’s pre-season form never materialised and the German’s retirement at mid-season was a massive blow to the team. In fact the 2nd car only scored 1 point in 20 races, when analysed in the cold light of day this was probably the biggest reason Constant slipped down the order in the 2011 Constructors standings.

Superleague Contenders

• 

  Chassis - CR-SL09
  Engine - Renault
  Tyres - Bridgestone
  Best Qual - 3rd in Mexico
  Best Result - 4th in Bahrain
  Constructors Pos - 8th

• 

  Chassis - CR-SL10
  Engine - Renault
  Tyres - Bridgestone
  Best Qual - 5th in Singapore
  Best Result - 3rd in Canada
  Constructors Pos - 5th

• 

  Chassis - CR-SL11
  Engine - Renault
  Tyres - Pirelli
  Best Qual - 2nd in China
  Best Result - 5th in China
  Constructors Pos - 9th

Complete Superleague Results