Faster Than Speed scored strong points all across the World Series in the Interlagos season finale. In the World Championship, very promising performances ended with disappointing retirements. Making his FTS debut, David Dominguez, together with Martin Andrasi (WC Ace), Sven Hesse (WS Pro), Alberto De Juan (WS Advanced), Juan Nicola and Tomas Marino (WS Amateur), all scored good points in Brazil.

World Championship

Twister Racing's Mikko Puumalainen, on loan to FTS for the Brazilian round, inmediately showed his speed over the FTS-P9 as he set the 3rd fastest time in Q1. Meanwhile, Patrick De Wit set the 15th quickest time, while Giuseppe Marconi and Roy Wachtmeester, making his WC debut as a recognition for his 2009 performances, just missed the cut with the 19th and 20th laptimes respectively.
In Q2, Mikko was fastest, after driving a fantastic lap. It was also the first time this year that an FTS car topped a WC Qualifying session. Patrick qualified in a disappointing 17th.
During the race-fuel Q3, Mikko secured a very strong 5th on the grid.

The race start was, however, extremely frustrating. After a bad start, it quickly became evident that it wasn't going to be Mikko's day. Suffering from a timing glitch, Mikko's laps went unnoticed by the official timing, leaving him with no chance but to retire from the race. Both Mikko and the team were really disappointed, as we firmly believed he had the pace to battle for victory. Despite the issue, FTS thanks the recently crowned WS Ace champion for his fantastic performance and Twister Racing for allowing him to drive the FTS-P9!

Patrick made a good start as he climbed several positions in the opening laps with an agressive fuel load. However, his race went downhill after a spin dropped him back to the rear end of the field. A few laps later, he retired after suffering a big shunt in Mergulho corner. For the FTS NetRex guys, it was unfortunately also a double retirement. Giuseppe suffered an engine failure once again after running strongly, while Roy drove solidly on his WC debut, coping with the pressure without problems. Unfortunately, his race was ruined after colliding with Bekker's stricken car in the middle of the racing line.

A disappointing way to close an up-and-down WC season, with a very strong first half followed by a very unlucky final part of the year. FTS finished the championship in 7th position.

World Series Ace

Spaniard David Dominguez made his FTS and WS Ace debut in Interlagos. The WS Advanced race winner coped very well with the jump and just missed out on Q2, setting the 11th fastest time during Q1. Team-mate Martin Andrasi, meanwhile, qualified 14th.

In the race, David drove a very strong race, driving very consistantly despite the little preparation without driving aids. While initial traffic cost him some time, he finished his first WS Ace race in a solid 8th position. We thank Rice Racing for allowing David to drive the FTS-P9 in this race.

Martin, meanwhile, was recovering very well after having to pit for a new wing on the opening lap. Unfortunately, an engine failure ended his race early, but he was lucky to just complete 90% of the winner's laps. He was classified in 10th place, scoring points in the process.

World Series Pro

Sven Hesse qualified 8th after setting the 6th fastest time in Q1. He drove a solid race, defending himself very well in a multiple-car battle. Unfortunately, a long first pitstop put him at the back of the battling group, undoing all the good work he had done before. He still finished in the points in 11th position.

World Series Advanced

Roy Wachtmeester, making his comeback after a few absences, was 4th fastest in Q1, while team-mate Alberto De Juan made it through this time, with the 8th quickest laptime.
In Q2, with heavy fuel loads, Roy and Alberto secured 7th and 10th on the grid respectively.

While a couple of errors left Alberto disappointed with his result, as he believed he could have battled for a top-5 spot, he still scored valuable points for 8th place, his fourth point-scoring race in a row. Roy ran a strong race, which unfortunately ended as his car got stuck over one of the circuit's high curbs.

World Series Amateur

Tomas Marino, Juan Nicola, Michael Pieneman, Mindaugas Giedra and Tom Aalders set the 10th, 14th, 18th, 25th and 27th fastest times respectively during the Q1 session. While Tom unfortunately just missed out on the top-26 cut, Mindaugas was unable to take part in the start. Tomas, despite reaching a top-ten spot, did not lap during Q2, as a penalty he had to comply with meant he was starting from the pitlane anyway.

Despite the giant setback of starting from the pitlane, many seconds back on the rest of the field, Tomas drove a fantastic race, overtaking several cars and showing very strong pace on his way to 12th position. His outstanding pace was specially shown on lap 25, when he set a lap which would remain as the fastest one of the race, a maiden achievement for Tomas in FSR.

Juan, despite damaging his car against one of the leaders who was turned around in the first corner, made very good progress throughout the race, inmediately reaching the top-ten before climbing further positions. He finished the race in 7th place. Michael had a great start, climbing up to 5th place, but had his race compromised after being hit. He eventually finished outside the points in 17th position.

Bring on 2010!

With the season over, we want to take this opportunity to send our congratulations to this year's champions: Roy Kolbe, Mikko Puumalainen, Dimitri De Matos, Borna Spoljaric, Muhammed Patel and the winning teams, Twister Racing, Ash Racing and Torrent Motorsports.

Faster Than Speed is now already at work thinking in the next challenge, the 2010 season! The team will be busy preparing itself for a successful season, as Faster Than Speed celebrates its 10 years of FSR racing! Don't miss the celebrations!
Stay tuned for news and announcements about our preparations, our driver lineups for the new year, and of course, our FTS-P10 challenger!

Despite showing very quick pace in the World Championship and the World Series Ace and Amateur divisions, Faster Than Speed had a disappointing weekend in Canada, as the solid Qualifying performances did not materialise into strong results. Alberto De Juan took 9th in WS Advanced after starting from the pitlane, while Michael Pieneman scored in WS Amateur.

World Championship

Agustin Canapino made his WC comeback, replacing Patrick De Wit, and delivered a fantastic Qualifying. In Q1, he was comfortably in with the 9th fastest time, while he repeated the same position to advance to the final session during Q2. With race fuel, he led the Q3 session for the initial minutes before securing a strong 7th on the grid.
Making his WC debut, as a reward for his solid performance in Suzuka, Sven Hesse advanced to Q2 on his maiden attempt, as he was 18th quickest. During Q2, he repeated the same position. Giuseppe Marconi, meanwhile, was unable to pass the first cut, and qualified 21st.

Agustin made a good start, inmediately showing his pace, as he quickly started putting pressure on former champion Hirrle and Keersmaekers. While he had a very good car to challenge for important points, it all ended sooner than expected, as he was unable to engage the clutch after running wide in the harpin and stalled his engine. Unfortunately, he won't have another chance until next year as he is unable to take part in the season finale due to his real racing commitments.

Sven, meanwhile, drove a very solid race, successfully coping with the pressure of the big jump to WC, and despite brake issues which compromised the final part of his race, he reached the checkered flag on his WC debut, finishing in 12th position. Unfortunately, the team still couldn't get a hold of Giuseppe's engine struggle, as he suffered yet another powerplant failure which caused him to retire.

World Series Ace

Agustin Canapino drove a great Q1 lap to set the 3rd fastest time and earn a place in the top-ten Pole shootout, where he confirmed his pace by securing 5th on the grid. Team-mate Martin Andrasi qualified 13th.

Agustin drove a strong race, returning to the top-5 after losing a couple of places at the start and showing quick pace throughout the first stint. Unfortunately, he was also too quick in the pitlane, which earned him a drive-through penalty. The setback did not stop Agustin, who pushed very hard and was recovering solidly, until an unfortunate error left him out of the race.
Martin, meanwhile, drove a good race until he was hit by brake failure, which left him with no chance to continue.

World Series Pro

After his great Suzuka performance, Sven Hesse was disappointed that an error on his fastest lap left him only 16th in Q1. The team was however, still very confident with his race pace, which unfortunately couldn't be shown, as an accident ended his race as early as lap 6.

World Series Advanced

Alberto De Juan keeps knocking on Q2's door, but unfortunately, he again missed out by the smallest of margins, as he was 11th fastest, less than half a tenth from entering the top-ten session. Qualifying wasn't of great importance for Alberto, however, as a penalty he was carrying over from Suzuka meant he had to start from the pitlane.

With the inmense handicap of starting half a minute after the rest of the field, Alberto had a tough race ahead. It didn't let him down, though, as he slowly and quietly made progress through the field with a heavy one-stop strategy, and climbed to the top-ten, where he finished in 9th position.

World Series Amateur

Juan Nicola was again very quick in Qualifying, as he secured 3rd on the grid during the race-fuel Q2 after being 8th fastest in Q1. Michael Pieneman and Mindaugas Giedra qualified in 19th and 21st positions respectively.

Despite losing a position at the start, Juan drove a very solid first part of the race, running in 4th place and within 2 seconds of the lead. On lap 9, he had to take a different line as a competitor went off-track, and clipped a high kerb, which spun him around, dropping him to 11th. He quickly started recovering from that position and climbed back to 7th, before he had to retire after being hit by Jamie Rush.

While Mindaugas retired after hitting the barriers, Michael endured a difficult race, as he had to drive a full lap without his front wing before pitting early for repairs, after Cooper incredibly left his car rolling on the racing line while facing the opposite direction, following an incident with another car. Despite dropping to 22nd, Michael persevered, and got his prize, as he took the last point in 14th place.

Faster Than Speed will be now looking forward to the season finale in Interlagos. Last year, it was an incredible weekend for the team as Florian Pechon won while securing the double WS Advanced title for FTS. Other successful FTS memories at the Brazilian venue include Patrick De Wit's 2007 WC podium and Christian Smirnoff's WS Ace victory to close his 2006 championship-winning campaign. An exciting track, where Faster Than Speed will be hoping to finish the season on a high!

Making his debut in the WS Pro division, Sven Hesse drove a great race to 5th place at Suzuka. Faster Than Speed newcomer Martin Andrasi scored points on his maiden WS Ace race for the team, despite an engine failure ending his Japanese GP a couple of laps early. Alberto De Juan also scored in WS Advanced.

World Championship

Patrick De Wit and Giuseppe Marconi set the 11th and 17th fastest times respectively during the Q1 session, enough to make it to the following round. In Q2, Patrick earned a place in the top-ten Pole shootout with the 9th quickest time, while Giuseppe secured his 17th spot. With a heavy fuel load, Patrick was the slowest of the 10 Q3 runners.

Both drivers had a clean start, despite Patrick being pushed off-track and losing some momentum. After a tough battle with his fellow countryman Bolier, Patrick started to struggle with his tyres on his heavy fuel load, taking him into a series of errors he never recovered from. Setting the fastest lap of the race after his first stop was little consolation for a disappointing performance, which ended with an incident a few laps later. Giuseppe had a better race, until he lost grip entering turn 1 and ended his race in the barriers.

World Series Ace

Martin Andrasi, from the Czech Republic, made his FTS debut at Suzuka. In Qualifying, he set the 13th fastest time.
In the race, despite not being entirely comfortable with the car in his first race outing with the FTS-P9, Martin drove a solid race, and in the closing laps looked set to gain a place from Yakimenko's smoking engine, but it was his powerplant that failed first, ending his maiden FTS race 2 laps from home. He was lucky to have completed over 90% of the laps and be classified in 10th position, 3 laps down on winner Malezic, but taking valuable points in the process.

World Series Pro

Sven Hesse made his WS Pro debut this weekend, after racing in WS Advanced earlier in the season. In Qualifying, he quickly showed his intentions as he was 8th fastest in Q1 before securing a solid 5th in the Q2 session.

In the race, Sven showed strong pace and executed his three-stopper strategy perfectly, driving in the top-5 for most of the race. In the closing laps, he lost the position to the quick championship leader De Matos, who overtook Sven with a rough, controversial move into Suzuka's final chicane, while pushing him off-track. However, Sven stayed focused until the checkered flag, and was rewarded with a great 5th place as a result.

World Series Advanced

After making his WS Advanced debut last week, Alberto De Juan was again in action this weekend, qualifying 12th, again missing out on Q2 by a small margin. He endured a difficult start to the race, dropping to the rear end of the field. From there, he recovered well, making up several positions and returning to the points, before eventually crossing the line in 11th place to take a few valuable points.

World Series Amateur

Juan Nicola had a strong Qualifying session, as he set the 10th quickest time in Q1, before clocking the 4th fastest laptime with race fuel during Q2. Michael Pieneman and Tom Aalders, meanwhile, qualified in 21st and 22nd places respectively.

Juan drove an excellent race, being in contention for a podium spot. He was battling for 3rd place when, with 10 laps to go, a misunderstanding with backmarker Knight ended in a race-ending colission. No reward for a great performance from Juan.

As Michael unfortunately suffered an early retirement, Tom's race was compromised when he was hit during the Formation Lap. The colission unbalanced his car, making him struggle under braking and being unable to lap at his pace. However, while he was unable to reach the points, he gained valuable experience as he completed the race in 18th position.

Faster Than Speed now moves to North America, for the Canadian GP at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Florian Pechon took the winning honours at Montreal last year, while past FTS success at the track include 1-2 finishes in both WS Ace and Amateur in 2005 and the team's maiden WC Pole Position in 2007. In 2009, Canada hosts the penultimate race of the calendar, before the FSR season finale at Interlagos!

Despite unfortunately taking no points in the World Championship race, Faster Than Speed had better news in the World Series, as the Pacific GP at Fuji Speedway marked Juan Nicola's return to the points in WS Amateur. Alberto De Juan also scored in his WS Advanced debut, after recovering from the back following a start incident.

World Championship

Both Patrick De Wit and Giuseppe Marconi advanced to the second session after setting the 14th and 18th fastest times respectively during Q1. They were, however, unable to reach the top-ten session as they secured 13th and 18th on the grid during an incredibly closely-matched Q2. Patrick started from the back of the grid, however, as the team opted to cancel an earlier penalty which was suspended under appeal.

From the back of the grid, Patrick made up many places but had a low-key race, being unable to find the pace to get back in contention for points, finishing in an unusual 10th place. Giuseppe, meanwhile, had a solid steady race, which unfortunately ended with a bang as his engine failed dramatically on lap 44.

World Series Advanced

Alberto De Juan switched to the WS Advanced division starting at the Fuji round. In Q1, he set the 12th quickest time, just missing out on a spot in Q2 by only 0.015s.

After a strong start in which he climbed up to 9th place, Alberto's race went downhill on lap 2, as he had to pit following an incident, dropping him to 21st position and ruining his planned one-stop strategy. From there, Alberto started a solid recovery drive, showing promising pace for the future. He made it back to the points, finishing in 12th place, taking his first WS Advanced points in his debut race in the division.

World Series Amateur

Juan Nicola, his new team-mate Tomas Marino, Mindaugas Giedra and Tom Aalders, qualified in 14th, 18th, 20th and 24th positions respectively during Qualifying.

Juan and Tomas drove strong races, including an Argentinian team-mates battle in which both FTS-P9s touched each other more than once. With a long first stint, Juan even led a lap before his first and only pitstop of the race. With 6 laps to go, Tomas' race unfortunately ended in dramatic fashion with a brake failure which sent him spinning off the track. While he didn't hit anything, he had to retire as it was unsafe to continue. Juan, meanwhile, returned to the points as he finished in 7th place.

Mindaugas had a difficult race, and was unable to make much ground, finishing outside the points in 19th position. Tom, meanwhile, was making progress when a software failure suddenly left him out of the race.

Faster Than Speed remains in Japan, as this weekend the team is taking part in the Japanese GP at Suzuka, where Florian Pechon won in WS Advanced last year. In 2009, FTS will be looking to desperately return to the points in WC, while taking solid WS finishes.

In a weekend with low participation from the Faster Than Speed drivers, the team unfortunately failed to repeat the race-winning performances from the last four years at Monza. Patrick De Wit returned to the cockpit after his suspension, but was unable to score despite a solid drive. Michael Pieneman took his first FTS points in the WS Amateur division.

World Championship

After having to sit out the last three races to comply with the very harsh penalty imposed for the Nurburgring incident, Patrick De Wit returned to the FTS-P9 cockpit. In Q1, he set the 7th fastest time, followed by team-mate Sergio Casalins in 12th and Giuseppe Marconi in 16th.
In Q2, both Patrick and Sergio just missed out on advancing to the top-ten shootout as they clocked the 11th and 12th quickest times respectively. Giuseppe, meanwhile, secured 16th on the grid.

All FTS drivers had a clean start, despite Patrick having to lose positions over the grass and the runoff area to avoid a colission with another car. Both Patrick and Sergio showed strong pace, with the former getting involved in many exciting battles throughout the race. However, despite making the best of his overtaking opportunities, Patrick struggled with an ill-handling car, fighting against both under and oversteer throughout the race. In a very closely matched field, this resulted in Patrick finishing just outside the points in 9th position. Until the last lap it looked like Patrick could clinch the last point from Disley's failling car, however the Australian's brakes lasted just enough to finish right ahead of Patrick.

Sergio, meanwhile, also drove a solid race. However, his long two-stopper strategy didn't work as expected, not allowing him to make much of an impression, finishing in 11th place. Outside the points, but with the positive outcome of seeing the checkered flag after a long time. Giuseppe had to retire early after suffering an engine failure following a long pistop.

World Series Amateur

New team-mates Juan Nicola and Alberto De Juan qualified in 12th and 14th places respectively. Mindaugas Giedra and Tomas Marino set the 20th and 22nd times during Q1, while Michael Pieneman was 23rd. Tom Aalders, suffering from a software problem which ended his session with six minutes left on the clock, was unable to pass the cut, qualifying 27th. Unfortunately, due to penalties carried over from earlier races, Mindaugas and Tomas had to start from the pitlane, while Juan had to do it from the back of the grid.

Unluckily, Tomas had an early exit from the race, with Juan and Mindaugas following soon after. Alberto, made a good start and was battling at the front when he suffered an issue which sent him off the track and into the barriers. That left the FTS challenge reduced from 5 drivers to just Michael, with the task of coming up with the goods. Fortunately, Michael drove a very solid race, to take his best result to date, 12th, scoring his first FTS points and his second ones of the year overall.

Faster Than Speed now travels to Asian territory, as FSR moves to the Fuji Speedway circuit in Japan. In the Pacific GP, Faster Than Speed will be hoping to return to the podium and take many more point-scoring finishes in both WC and WS. For sure, it will be very interesting as the FSR season enters its climax!