Faster Than Speed confirms that Patrick De Wit will not feature in the team's 2008 WC driver lineup.

In a fantastic season 2007, Patrick took his and the team's first race victory in Istanbul, Turkey, together with 5 podium finishes, 1 pole position, 1 fastest race-lap and 8 point-scoring finishes. He scored 45 championship points, helping FTS clinch a best ever 4th position in the Team Standings and ending in 5th place in the Drivers' Championship. Patrick drove 889 race laps in 17 WC races for the team.

Numbers and statistics aside, Faster Than Speed wants to thank Patrick for all his efforts and dedication, and of course, for the brilliant results achieved. We would also like to wish him the best for his future.

Patrick De Wit: "Although I was 6th in my first year as a rookie, no team seemed interested in me anymore. At end of 2006 I signed with FTS, the only team who wanted me. And I worked hard in the winter to get the maximum in 2007. But I had a bad start to the season and after four races I still had no points. But in Spain I led some laps after starting 5th, taking the lead after just four turns, but retired from the race. Frustrating, but the performances in some races were better then expected.

Podiums in Monte Carlo, Silverstone, Spa and Interlagos and then, finally, my first ever victory in Turkey, which was also a first ever for FTS. A fastest lap at Interlagos and a pole position at Montreal. I had a good year, I think. 5th in the championship and FTS 4th in Constructors'. In the end, the season was a mixed one but also a historic one! I felt great starting with this team, it’s a very friendly environment and I can say to all drivers out there: if you want to join a team where you are going to feel really happy you must join Faster Than Speed!

It's a shame that I’m leaving the team. Every driver must make his own choices and I believe this is the right thing for me at this stage of my career. I want to perform better in 2008.

If we don’t look only at results, my year was absolutely fantastic with this team and I always got 100% support. Maybe the team can keep improving in the future but for a small team like them, they’re already doing great. This result in the end, finishing just behind a big team like Twister-Racing who was 3rd in Constructors', shows that everything is possible!

It's sad to leave this team but I am sure they will have a great replacement for me in 2008. I wish FTS and Giuseppe Marconi all the best for next season! My special thanks go to Christian Smirnoff, Gabriel Garivaldis. Giuseppe Marconi for sometimes providing awesome setups, and thanks to the rest of the team and who knows if in the future...

I wish you all the best of luck in 2008. Thanks FTS for everything in 2007!!"

Christian Smirnoff (Team Co-Manager): "It's a shame that Patrick decided to take a new challenge next year, but for sure 2007 will be an unforgettable WC season for Faster Than Speed, the year of elusive maiden victory and the best ever season to date.

When we signed Patrick an year ago, we knew he still had a few mistakes to make due to his inexperience, but we were absolutely convinced of his potential so we didn't doubt in taking the risk. He did make those mistakes, but once well established in the team, he also exploited his potential to win races and score several podiums. I really hope he enjoyed working with the team as much as we did working with him and hope FTS could leave a mark in Patrick's development as driver.

Talking for everyone in FTS, I would like to thank Patrick for all his hard-work, dedication and results too, of course. I wish you all the best for the future, although we'll try to beat you next year!"

Faster Than Speed is not yet able to announce its WC driver lineup, but the team's objectives for an ambitious 2008 will not change. The team looks forward to another great season with a first-class lineup.

Faster Than Speed ended its most successful World Championship campaign to date securing 4th position in the Constructors' Championship, improving by two places Gabriel Garivaldis' and Alan Jensen's 2005 season. With an unforgettable maiden victory in Turkey, a first Pole Position and 5 podiums finishes scored by Patrick De Wit, the team crowned a fantastic WC season.

In the Japanese season finale, Patrick took more points for the team, while FTS enjoyed a very strong weekend in the World Series, with Mindaugas Latisenka and Drazen Cokor taking maiden podium finishes and Theo Gort also driving a very strong race.

In World Series Amateur, Drazen Cokor was 2nd in Q1 and 3rd in the Q2 session. Drazen put up a great challenge for victory and led several laps. The win was not possible, but Drazen took his first podium by finishing in 2nd place.

In World Series Pro, Mindaugas Latisenka and Faisal Niazi were 3rd and 4th quickest in Q1. Mindaugas secured the 4th grid spot in Q2, while Faisal hit problems and had to start from the back. Faisal's problems unfortunately returned during the race, putting an early end to his race. Mindaugas, however, could finish his great drive to take the first podium of his career in 2nd position.

Mindaugas Latisenka (2nd): "Great race, best ever finish for me in FSR. It's a strong finish and showing that next season I will be competitive. Qualifying was ok, P3 in Q1 and P4 in Q2. Got a bad start, had to take evasive action when Chris (Barber) was knocked out at the first corner, so I lost some places, but after some overtaking was back up in 4th. After pitstop I was 3rd, with Balanesko just in front. Fortunately for me, unfortunately for him, he hit a backmarker and lost his front wing so I was up to 2nd.
From there I drove to the flag and took my first FSR throphy!"

With this result, the team has secured the runner-up position in the Constructor's Championship, same position that Faisal Niazi took in the driver standings with another fantastic season.

In World Series Ace, Christian Smirnoff and Theo Gort were 8th and 10th fastest in Q1. Theo improved to 7th in Q2, with Christian just behind in 8th.

The season finale was a race to forget for Christian. After dropping to last position following a first-lap incident and starting with heavily worn tyres from Q2, Christian had to drive an agressive recovery race from the back. After an unplanned pitstop with two laps to go due to a fuel miscalculation, Christian finished his eventful race in 7th position. Team mate Theo, meanwhile, had better luck and drove a fantastic race to finish in 4th position.

Christian Smirnoff (7th): "Terrible way to finish a tough season. Q2 went all wrong and I had to start from 8th. I made a good start but had to brake behind some drivers that had some contact and couldn't make up any places. In turn 2, Nazario surprized me braking very early, probably due to cars he had ahead. I managed to avoid a big accident but I touched his rear left tyre and my car spun, leaving me down to 18th, dead last.

I pushed hard to climb back through the field. The first stint was difficult as my tyres were cooked and had a lot of understeer at the end. Cyril (Werdmuller) and specially Emre (Uysal), gave me quite a bit of work, but I could pass them into turn 1. Very fair battles. In the end once I had finally catched Sebastian (Schmalenbach), I had to do an unplanned pitstop as I didn't have enough fuel to finish the race.

Finished 7th. It was one of those days where everything that can go wrong, goes wrong... Glad I lost chances in Brazil. I'm obviously disappointed not to repeat last year's championship, but I was quite unlucky and also struggled to get up to pace in the first half of the season with these cars. Monza win was obviously the highlight for me.

My most sincere congratulations to Fred Gosling and Roaldo Racing, who really deserved the championships!"

Both the team and Christian Smirnoff finished the respective championships in 3rd position.

In the World Championship, Patrick De Wit and Giuseppe Marconi qualified in 10th and 15th positions respectively. An accident in the start of the race itself, meant an early retirement for Giuseppe. Patrick, meanwhile, despite not showing the impressive pace of previous races, drove an aggressive one to finish in 7th position.

Patrick De Wit (7th): "My Fuji race was really a hard one. I had no grip after 3 or 4 laps, with tyres graining. I was starting from 10th place, got up to 7th after turn 1 and passed De Angelis for 6th. A couple of laps later I passed Saxen for 5th place which unfortunately I could not keep. But a 7th place at the end is still a good result for me ,grabbing another point-scoring position."

Faster Than Speed finished the championship in a fantastic 4th position with 46 points, as best of the rest, behind the leading teams. Patrick De Wit took 5th in the Drivers' Championship.

We would like to give our congratulations to the season champions Bruno Marques, Fred Gosling, Nazario Nuti, Alessandro Marcelli and their teams Diamond Racing Team, Roaldo Racing and Bracciano Racing.

Please stay tuned to www.fts-racing.net for our season review and announcements about Faster Than Speed's 2008 campaign!

Patrick De Wit took Faster Than Speed's fifth podium finish of the season in the World Championship's race at Interlagos, Brazil. He also set the quickest lap of the race in the final tour.

In World Series Amateur, Drazen Cokor qualified in 4th position, with team mate Boy De Wit in 20th.
Unfortunately, Drazen had to retire after leading a race for the first time, as he hit the barriers while trying to defend his lead. Boy, meanwhile, completed the race without making pitstops, finishing in the points in 11th place.

In World Series Pro, Faisal Niazi and Mindaugas Latisenka were 6th and 7th respectively in both Q1 and Q2 sessions.
Mindaugas drove a strong race to finish in 4th position, his best to date. Team mate Faisal was affected by limited testing time, but also drove a solid race to finish in 5th position, despite having to make an extra stop in the penultimate lap due to a fuel miscalculation.

With this result, Faisal has secured the runner-up position in the Drivers' Championship, while both Faisal and Mindaugas will be hoping to secure the same position in the team standings in Japan.

In World Series Ace, Christian Smirnoff and Theo Gort had a difficult Qualifying, only managing positions 13th and 21st on the grid respectively.

Theo had to retire early, while Christian had an agressive start, passing six cars in the first two laps. However, his starting position and an incident with a backmarker compromised his chances against championship leader Fred Gosling, leaving Christian out of reach for a second consecutive title by just 1 point. Despite pushing hard to catch 5th placed Huis in the closing laps, which would have left Christian with small chances going into the season finale, it was not possible and he finished 6th.

Christian Smirnoff (6th): "Well, I won't win a second championship this season. I made things difficult by qualifying 13th, when I definitely had the pace to be in Q2.

I went for a longer first stint than planned and made a very agressive start, passing many cars to 11th after the first corner and 7th by lap 2. I pushed very hard throughout the race, but in the end finished 6th which left me out of reach for the championship by just 1 point.

Unfortunately an incident with a Roaldo backmarker who slowed in the middle of the racing line in the Juncao corner, cost me the chance to be 5th which would have left me with a small chance, but I still pushed very hard in the end to try to pass Bono Huis, who I had a very nice battle with, but it wasn't possible.

Congratulations to Machiel (Schönbeck), to Roaldo Racing for the championship and to Fred Gosling who will most probably take a well-deserved championship in Fuji."

In the World Championship, Patrick De Wit qualified in 5th position, while team mate Giuseppe Marconi took the 16th spot on the grid.

Right after the start, Giuseppe was an innocent victim of a collission between Kohl and Bengtsson, which left him with a puncture and front left suspension damage, which together with a first-lap pitstop to replace the damaged tyre, severely compromised Giuseppe's chances, who finished the race in 10th position.

Patrick, meanwhile, had a much more successful race. After overtaking Rouault and Kolbe, Patrick showed he had the pace of the Diamond leaders, slowly catching Ondrej Kuncman by reducing the gap by a small margin lap after lap. Once he finally catched Kuncman after the last round of stops, Patrick made small contact with him, which unfortunately spun Patrick's car around. However, 3rd place was never in danger, with Patrick taking his fifth podium of the season, and seventh in the team's history. To round off his strong weekend, Patrick set the fastest lap of the race in the final one.

Patrick De Wit (3rd): "Finally a solid Qualifying performance but still not where I want to be. 5th was not bad at all, though.

I had a good start with Rouault behind me. I was 4th behind 3rd placed Kolbe, who had difficulties getting into rhythm and held me up, so at the end of lap 1 I had a bad exit in the last turn and Rouault passed me on the start/finish straight, but I passed him back at the Senna S. I was then hunting Kolbe, he should have been much faster on a 3 stopper but he was not. I lost time driving behind him the first 9 laps, until he finally made a small mistake and that was enough to pass him.

Then I was in pursuit of Kuncman. He was fast and I was only gaining little time per lap. Any error I made would cost me 0.5 seconds with ease. I battled hard but after the pitstop he was still ahead, I think it was due to stopping a lap later than me. I tried my best at the pit entry and I gained a lot there compared to the rest of the field but it was not enough. After the second pitstop my only chance was putting heavy pressure on Kuncman, which I did, but then in the infield I got a little too close and kissed his car which spun me around and I was relegated to 4th, after Kolbe passed me. I tried to pass Kolbe in the Senna S but it was a bit too optimistic, so I ran wide. I knew he was on 3 stops so I had to let him go.

Then it was just driving home for 3rd place ater Kolbe made his third pitstop. In the end I was actually pushing for the fastest lap of the race which could have been 0.3s faster then I did, but on lap 71 I did a 1:09.951 which was the fastest, in the final lap.

I'm very happy with another podium finish and securing 5th place in the Drivers' Championship! Now my aim is to finish 4th with Faster Than Speed in the Constructors' Championship. The aim was high after a bad start to the season. Still one race to go, but my season is already ending on a high for me!"

With his podium result, Patrick De Wit has secured 5th position in the Drivers' Championship, while the team will go to Fuji hoping to defend its best ever 4th position in the team standings. Faster Than Speed currently has an 8-points gap over fifth placed Kiwi Virtual.

Faster Than Speed now moves to Fuji, Japan, a circuit which is new for all drivers and the one that will mark the end of an exciting 2007 season.

Faster Than Speed had a mixed weekend in Shanghai, China. The team enjoyed a few solid results in the World Series but saw Faisal Niazi's podium streak come to an end and Patrick De Wit denied of a point-scoring finish after suffering a brake failure in the final lap of the World Championship race.

In World Series Amateur, Drazen Cokor was 3rd fastest in the Q1 session and 8th in Q2. Unfortunately, he had to start from 16th due to a penalty he was carrying from the previous race.
A wrong pitstop strategy meant Drazen had to do an unplanned stop for a new set of tyres despite being fueled up for the whole race distance. This compromised his chances for a better position but he still drove a solid race to 6th position.

In World Series Pro, Faisal Niazi was 2nd fastest in both Qualifying sessions, while Mindaugas Latisenka was 5th in Q1, later setting the 4th laptime in Q2.

Unfortunately, Faisal's podium streak and his mathematical championship hopes were ended after being a victim of a first lap collission with Luis Fernando Laaff, which meant an early retirement. Team mate Mindaugas had better luck, driving a strong race with several battles to finish in 5th position.

Both Faisal and the team are still in 2nd position in the respective championships.

In World Series Ace, Christian Smirnoff was the sole FTS runner, taking 8th place in Q1, improving to 5th in the Q2 session.

Despite not being comfortable with the car, Christian managed to pass several cars and obtain a better result than he expected, finishing in 4th position, with both Klaus Kaag and Joao Barbosa attacking him until the checkered flag.

Christian Smirnoff (4th): "I could do a good lap in Q2 to qualify 5th, which was a surprize honestly as I was not very comfortable with the setup and I was off pace here, although it was not as bad as I expected.

I had to climb from 9th after a small mistake in lap 1. I could pass Erme (Uysal), Klaus (Kaag) and Hans-Bodo (Kohl) and also had some nice battles with Bono (Huis) and Joao (Barbosa). I got up to 4th, though the last laps were difficult as I had both Klaus and Joao attacking me from behind, but I managed to keep 4th. The race gave me quite a bit of work but I'm happy because it was the best possible result with the pace and setup I had.

The gap in the championship is now 22 points. Sorry for Fred (Gosling) who had problems. I also had mines in Turkey when I couldn't race due to Internet failure though. He's still the favourite anyway as he has a very good gap, but I will try to be strong in Brazil where I won last year. Grats to "Machi" (Schönbeck) for his first win."

The gap to Fred Gosling in the Drivers Championship was reduced to 22 points and Christian will aim to force a definition in the last race at Fuji, Japan.

In the World Championship, Patrick De Wit and Giuseppe Marconi set the 9th and 13th fastest times in the Qualifying session.

The start was disappointing for Patrick, as after being hit by Sergio Casalins, he would need to climb from the back. Patrick drove a strong race, overtaking a few cars including his team mate Giuseppe, and looked set for a 7th place finish. It wasn't to be though, as a catastrophic brake failure in the first turn of the final lap of the race sent Patrick into the barriers and out of the points. He was eventually classified 9th. Giuseppe's race was compromised after a colission with Blair Disley, and finished in 10th position.

Patrick De Wit (9th): "My Qualifying performances are going from bad to worse. I don't know what the problem is, but my races seem to go better.

But today was not my day. I started 9th on the grid and was 7th after turn 1. I was on the outside in turn 3, trying to pass Malezic, he defended and I had no option than to steer to the middle of the corner, almost outside and I just got a hard knock on my rear the moment I accelerated. It was Casalins. These things can happen but nevertheless not a great way to start a race. Coming from the back of the field just like in Indianapolis and Nurbrugring, this time it was really hard to pass. I had great fights with Disley and my team mate. For sure he was not going to make me any favours! Was a very nice fight, he did make it harder for me than I had expected but that's racing.
Then in pitstop I passed Rouault and then due to Malezic's retirement I was promoted to 7th, not bad due to circumstances!

In the last 14 laps I was cathing Greco all the time, and I pushed hard. Then at the beginning of my final lap, lap 56, my left front brake decided to quit on me in turn 1. I had no chance to save it and had a high speed crash. If it happened in a slow turn nothing would have happened, I would have just overshot my braking point.

It's a shame, 9th place, 1 lap down, still classified but a very disappointing weekend, not what I expected. The field was very competitive."

Giuseppe Marconi (10th): "Congratulations to Bruno (Marques) for his surely second title."

Faster Than Speed remains in a best ever 4th position in the Constructors Championship, with Patrick De Wit 5th in the Driver Standings.

Faster Than Speed and Patrick De Wit enjoyed their fourth WC podium finish of the season in Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium, with another strong performance!

In World Series Amateur, Drazen Cokor and Boy De Wit qualified in 15th and 19th positions, with Boy dropping to 21st on the grid due to a penalty.
In the race, Drazen enjoyed a strong race to finish just seconds away from the podium in 4th position. Boy, meanwhile, had to retire due to car damage.

In World Series Pro, Faisal Niazi was 2nd fastest in Q1. Making his debut for Faster Than Speed, from Lithuania, Mindaugas Latisenka was 5th quickest. In Q2, Faisal repeated 2nd position while Mindaugas took 4th on the grid.

Faisal, who after the Monza exclussion of both Briacciano Racing drivers was classified 2nd in Italy, finished for the sixth consecutive time in 2nd position, clinching his tenth podium of the season. Mindaugas had an eventful race after contact from champion Marcelli and an extra pitstop for a new front wing, but he still managed to finish in 5th position, in a very positive debut for the team.
With this result, FTS climbed to 2nd in the Constructors' Championship.

In World Series Ace, Christian Smirnoff and Theo Gort were 7th and 8th fastest in the Q1 session. In Q2, Christian qualified in a best ever 3rd despite heavy fuel, while Theo was 10th, dropping to 16th due to a penalty he was carrying from Italy.

Christian had a good race, even leading for a couple of corners before his first stop. After some difficult moments with backmarkers and a rough battle with Joao Barbosa, Christian finished in 4th position. Theo had a tough race, after a first lap collission made an early pitstop necessary, but he recoeved well to finish in 10th position.
After this race, Faster Than Speed got up to 2nd in the team standings, while Christian reduced the gap to Fred Gosling by 2 points, with now 37 points between them.

Christian Smirnoff (4th): "I was 7th in Q1, then I managed my best Q2 with 3rd place. Was an almost perfect lap to be honest.

Kept 3rd after the start. I did 2 stops, took the lead for a very short while before my first one, but lost out to Kaag who pitted later. Backmarkers were a real problem, lost a lot of time behind them and had some risky moments when they made mistakes in front of me several times, but in the end it didn't make a difference.

I had a rough batlte with Barbosa, after we went side by side through Eau Rouge, he squeezed me to the wall and I had to back off. Then when I was in his slipstream before Les Combes, he switched line at the last moment before braking and I almost ran into him, but managed to avoid him and pass through the outside.

In the end, I finished in 4th place. Lacked a little bit of pace to beat the podium finishers but I'm satisfied with my race, as I could fight again at the front. I reduced the gap in the championship but only by 2 points which aren't too useful."

In the World Championship, Patrick De Wit and Giuseppe Marconi had a slightly disappointing Qualifying sesion, taking 7th and 14th places on the grid.

However, Patrick made a great start, climbing 3 places in the first corner and later overtaking David Greco with an inspired move into the La Source harpin. From there, Patrick drove a consistant and lonely race to 3rd position, claiming his fourth podium finish of the season.
Giuseppe's race unfortunately lasted only a few seconds, as he suffered an engine problem at the end of the Formation Lap and was unable to start the race.

Patrick De Wit (3rd): "I had a terrible Qualifying, I could have been 3rd with ease, but I made big mistakes in both laps and only had an 1:45.2. Still it was good enough for P8, P7 after Ernesto (De Angelis) was starting from the back.

I had a pretty good start and could overtake Saxen, Lapchin and Kuncman, all in Turn 1. And then I was hunting Greco and I could overtake him in the La Source harpin. Then was just pushing a bit to maintain 3rd place, the guys in front were too fast today. In lap 28 I had a big scare after Rivage, nearly slammed into the wall but I could hold it together. I just nudged the wall but things could have been a lot worse if I would have damaged the car. But the race was rather boring for me, not what I expected, although the fight with Greco was cool.

But I am happy that we are now 4th in the Constructors' with Faster Than Speed. I hope to give them their best result ever! To achieve this with them is absolutely fantastic! They were the only team that had faith in me at the end of 2006 and I hope I showed in 2007 that they did not make the wrong decision."

Giuseppe Marconi (DNF): "Another weekend to forget. Bad Qualifying, over 0.6 sec from my testing time, and I lost the engine at the start. My apologies to Steve (Kasimatis) who was behind me."

With this result, Faster Than Speed is now in a best ever 4th position in the Constructors' Championship, a place that the team will be hoping to retain in the last three races, starting in the next one at Shanghai, China.

Only a week after Patrick's Turkish WC victory, Faster Than Speed has again climbed to the top step of the podium after Christian Smirnoff took his first win of the season and fifth of his WS Ace career with a thrilling final lap in Monza, repeating last year's success!

In World Series Amateur, Drazen Cokor was 10th quickest in the Q1 session, as team mate Boy De Wit was 18th fastest on his second race weekend. In Q2, Drazen was sent to 21st on the grid despite being 9th fastest, due to incredibly harsh penalties given at the previous race.
In the race, Drazen recovered brilliantly with a 0-stop strategy and looked set for his first podium until a colission with Jesper Ohrman punctured one of his tyres and the pitstop dropped him back to 13th. However, Drazen made up some places to finish 9th. Boy, meanwhile, finished just outside the points in 15th.

In World Series Pro, Faisal Niazi was 3rd in the Q1 session, later taking 4th on the grid during Q2. Unfortunately, he lost his chances for another podium after contact from Nicholas Morse on lap 2. However, despite driving a damaged car, Faisal made it to checkered flag, in a strong 4th position.

In World Series Ace, Christian Smirnoff was 2nd fastest in Q1 after topping the Free Practice session, missing pole by 0.039s. Team mate Gabriel Garivaldis was 4th with Theo Gort in 9th position. In Q2, Gabriel was a strong 3rd but started 7th due to a penalty, while Christian, in a different race strategy, was 6th, benefiting from penalties to start 4th. Theo was also penalized and started 13th after being 8th quickest.

In the race, Gabriel suffered a very early retirement. In the Formation Lap, Gabriel had to brake very hard to avoid Steve Kasimatis and lost the back of his car, ending up in the barriers. The team tried to get Gabriel back on track but he was disqualified after leaving the pitlane under red light.

Christian had a much better start and climbed to 2nd after the first corner. After being blocked by a backmarker, Christian just lost out to Gosling after the first round of pitstops, and to Kaag after the second. Christian went twice side by side with Klaus Kaag into turn 1 but the Danish driver defended his line well. After Gosling crashed out, Christian went to battle it out with Kaag for victory.

In the final lap, Kaag made a small mistake in the second Lesmo and Christian decided to go for it, knowing it was his last chance. With both drivers side by side into Ascari, Christian overtook Kaag through the outside to take the lead with just Parabolica remaining. After leading his only half lap of the day, Christian took his second consecutive win in Italy by 0.349s!!

Theo Gort also had a very strong race, showing highly competitive pace before a brake failure ended his chances of a top-4 position. However, Theo still managed to end the race, in 6th position.

Christian Smirnoff (1st): "Yes! I won!! I really can't believe it, as I only led one lap, the last one, the one that matters!

I did P1 in Free Practice, then had my best ever Q1 with P2, just 0.039 off Gosling's pace. It was a 1:22.6 and I lost over two tenths in sector 1 of my best lap. Would have been 1st with my time from minutes earlier. Q2 was also very good, I was 6th as I was very heavy, 30 laps of fuel for a 1 stopper.

I had a good start and I climbed to 2nd but then Kaag and Kasimatis passed as I was much heavier. I thought my strategy wouldn't work as Gosling went out of his first stop just ahead of me, after a backmarker cost me a few seconds. When Kaag did his second stop, he also exited just ahead of me so I was a bit disappointed. I twice tried to pass him side by side into T1, but he defended very well, so I thought it would be 3rd for me, which wasn't bad. But with 4 laps to go, Fred went off and then I knew that I had to put pressure to Kaag.

In the last lap, Klaus made a very small mistake in the second Lesmo and I knew it was the last chance and went for it. He took the inside, so I slipstreamed into Ascari and passed round the outside! Just Parabolica left and I won by 0.349!!

This win feels very special. I know the situation in the championship is still not great after my Internet problems in Turkey, but this season was difficult for me, started way off the pace, so I really thought I wouldn't win any races this year!"

In the World Championship, Patrick De Wit qualified in 7th place with team mate Giuseppe Marconi in a strong 10th.

The race would end up in disappointment though, scoring no points. Patrick was unable to show the great pace he had in testing. The Istanbul winner, climbed to 4th in the first corner but missed his braking point while trying to pass Roy Kolbe at Parabolica and smahed his FTS-P7 against the barriers. The team tried to keep him out on track but the car was too damaged to continue.

Giuseppe also had a difficult start, having to cut through the grass after contact with another car in turn 1, he recieved a 10-second stop-and-go penalty, which cost him the chance to score points at his home race. Giuseppe arrived in 10th position.

Giuseppe Marconi (10th): "First of all I need to say sorry to Ernesto (De Angelis) for Qualifying. It's never in my mind to damage a friend, I thought I was quite far from you.
Had a better Qualifying this time, only 0.6 seconds over my best, so great improvement (laughs). Talking about the race, my 1-stop strategy was ruined at the start by a stop-and-go for cutting the first corner. I gave back all positions but still got the penalty..."

Patrick De Wit (DNF): "Well, what can I say. A bad Qualifying, P7 while speed for pole was there for sure. I was in P4 after turn 1. Then trying to overtake Kolbe going into Parabolica, I braked too late and hit the wall, ending my race. I feel very sorry for my team because today it would have been a podium for sure, which place I don't know."

After celebrating another victory, Faster Than Speed will be racing the fantastic Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium, which makes its awaited comeback to the FSR championships this year!

With a brilliant performance, Patrick De Wit wrote an important piece of Faster Than Speed's history by taking the team's first ever race win in the FSR World Championship! It was also Patrick's maiden WC triumph and his third podium finish of the season. Patrick and FTS are now one of only 5 drivers and 4 teams to reach the top step of the podium in 2007.

In World Series Amateur, Boy De Wit, Patrick's twin brother (although an hour younger!), made his absolute simracing debut, after progressing at an impressive rate in the testing sessions.
Drazen Cokor and Boy De Wit took the 12th and 19th places respectively in the Q1 session, failling to advance to Q2 in a highly competitive grid.
In the race, both drivers had good races, with Drazen climbing several positions to end the race in 7th place. Boy, achieved a deserved race finish for his hard work, even managing to score points in his first ever simrace, finishing in 12th position.

In World Series Pro, Faisal Niazi was 5th quickest in Q1, improving one position to 4th in the Q2 session.
Faisal had a strong race with a one-stop strategy. Challeging Jorge Maenen for the win seemed a possibility until he was caught in traffic and lost precious seconds which allowed the leader to have enough gap to emerge ahead after his second stop. However, Faisal took a well-deserved 2nd place, taking his eight podium position of the season, his fourth in a row.

The World Series Ace event started in a dissastrous way for the team. Christian Smirnoff suffered from connection problems just minutes before the start and had to miss the race, after showing greatly improved pace in the testing sessions.
Gabriel Garivaldis set the 5th fastest laptime in Q1, later securing 8th on the grid during Q2. Theo Gort, who replaced Christian as Gabriel's team mate, qualified 15th.

In the race, after an exciting battle with Alvaro Parente, Gabriel's engine started loosing power after 25 laps. The team inmediately tried to tune the engine down to reach the checkered flag, but only 5 laps later, the engine blew up and ended his race prematurely. It was obviously not the best weekend in the Ace division, where the chances in both championships were severely compromised.
Theo Gort saved some points by finishing in 8th position.

In the World Championship race, Patrick De Wit and Giuseppe Marconi took the 4th and 11th spots in the Qualifying session, climbing a couple of positions each due to some penalties to other drivers.

Patrick surprized everyone with a very strong two-stopper strategy, climbing to 2nd in the first lap with two inspired overtaking moves. Once the leader David Greco pitted, Patrick kept going for several laps and managed to emerge out of the pits ahead of him. Despite being passed by some lighter three-stoppers, Patrick managed to keep their pace and take the lead after all stops were done. World Champion Bruno Marques hunted Patrick down in the last laps, but Patrick kept his cool and administered the race to take a fantastic maiden victory both for him as a driver and for Faster Than Speed.

Team mate Giuseppe also drove a strong race, although his chances to score points were compromised when he was hit from behind by John-Eric Saxen, having to rejoin from the very back of the field. However, Giuseppe showed a very competitive pace to finish 11th, despite finishing just 38 seconds behind Patrick.

With this result, Faster Than Speed climbed to 5th position in the Constructors' Championship, while Patrick is also classified 5th in the Drivers' Championship.

Patrick De Wit (1st): "Wow! This is an historic day! Not just for me but also for the team. We got our very first victory in the World Championship which is so hard to compete in.

I had a bad Qualifying for my standards, I was all weekend below 26 times on low fuel and when it mattered I could not get it together, very strange. But still P6 and promoted to P4 as Marques and Kolbe had penalties from the last race.

Then at the start from P4, Kuncman and Lapchin were battling for 2nd place but I got a very good exit out of turn 1 and I could pass Kuncman, and going into t2/3 I passed Lapchin. Just managed to do it, he had just enough space to be on track
so no harm done there. After that I was 2nd in race and tried to catch Greco but after a few laps I realised he was on a different strategy because he was faster, not much, but faster. I just had to make sure the gap didn't increase more than 5 seconds or so, and it did not. In lap 21 I pitted and managed to stay just ahead of Greco, was leading a race again after Montreal, but Greco was hunting me but I knew the guys behind me were on 3 stops and I was on 2 stops so I was not worried at all. Greco passed me in lap 27 and a few corners later Kuncman passed too, and again, a few corners later, Lapchin passed me. There was nothing I could do as I had a heavier car and they had to pit anyway in few laps. Then after my 2nd pitstop I was 2nd behind Kuncman and he had to pit one more time but Marques passed me and I was worried he would hold me up for Kuncman, but was luckily not the case.
Then when Kuncman pitted I knew I had great chances to get my 1st victory of my career! I was worried Marques would not pit anymore, but he did in the end and after that I was just cruising around, making sure engine and brakes woudl last. On the last lap I was partying already!

When I crossed the finish line I went a little emotional, this is what we work so hard for, and finally my 1st victory! I want to thank my teammate for a delivering a great basic setup which we improved together.

And a big thanks to Faster Than Speed for giving me the chance in 2007 in the first place. I mean, I am so happy now that I gave something back to them! Sure, we had a Pole Position and 2 podiums but now we have a victory! I'm going to enjoy this for a long long time. On to Monza!"

Giuseppe Marconi (11th): "Bad Qualifying for me, 0.7 seconds over my personal best. For the race I had a good pace, only 0.2-0.3 seconds per lap over my testing pace. I could fight for the last points but at the 2nd lap John-Eric (Saxen) braked late at the first corner and hit me and I spun, so I was last then and I was only able to reach 11th place. No points at all but very funny race. Patrick, great mate, you catched your opportunity, great win, great job! "

Christian Smirnoff (Team Co-Manager): "I always knew this would happen sooner or later. Patrick needed to drive a faultless race with a great setup and strategy and we had all that here. It's a very special moment for the team and for Patrick, I'm very happy for him. I'm sure this is only the beginning of much more sucess for Faster Than Speed in WC! I want to thank Patrick for his superb drive last Sunday and Giuseppe who is also very important due to his dedication and understanding about the car setup."

Faster Than Speed now moves to Monza, Italy, where Christian Smirnoff won last year in the WS Ace division, with very high motivation after this historic win!

Faster Than Speed again achieved strong results in Hungary's Hungaroring, with a 5th place by Patrick De Wit in WC and a seventh podium finish for Faisal Niazi in WS Pro.

The weekend had started in a disappointing way, with the Court of Appeal disqualifying Patrick from the WC European race and handing him a suspended race ban for an incident with Ernesto De Angelis. Patrick and the team lost the 2 points scored for 7th place as a consequence. Not all was bad news for the team though, as team mate Giuseppe Marconi heredited the last point.

In World Series Pro, Faisal Niazi took P4 in the Q1 session, then securing 6th on the grid in Q2. In the race, Faisal did a solid job once again to take his seventh podium of the season in 2nd place, despite recieving a 30 second penalty for cutting. The race had a dramatic end for Faisal though, with his left front brake failing with 6 laps to go. Faisal did a great job to nurse the car to the finish, while defending from Wayne White simultaneously.

In World Series Ace, Gabriel Garivaldis unfortunately wasn't able to take part in the race as he became sick just a couple of days before the event. Christian Smirnoff and Hungary team mate Theo Gort were 8th and 9th fastest respectively in the Q1 session. Christian repeated 8th position in Q2 while Theo dropped to 10th.

The first stint of the race was tough for Christian, as he had to start with used tyres from Q2, effectively doing 31 laps on a set of soft tyres, struggling with undesteer. Both drivers made good progress during the race, with Christian catching Felipe Santos. However, Theo suffered a brake failure which unfortunately ended his race 11 laps early. Christian went on to finish in 6th place.

Christian Smirnoff (6th): "In both Qualifying sessions I was 8th. In Q1 I was far from my testing times but still it was enough to get into Q2. In Q2 I had a good lap with a very heavy car.

The first stint was really difficult though, because even if I had done a lap on new tyres I got the old ones for the start of the race, which already had 5 laps of use, so I ended up doing 31 laps on the same set and I was struggling with undesteer. In the other two stints I picked up the pace and had a good race, catching Santos, who retired from brake failure once I finally catched him. Had two big moments with backmarkers but fortunately I managed to avoid them without incidents. Towards the end I just saved engine and brakes as more wasn't possible.

6th place in the end, I didn't have the pace for a better result. Hopefully Turkey will be better, were last year we won with a 1-2 finish together with Gabriel, who was ill today and couldn't race, hope he gets well soon!"

In the World Championship, Giuseppe Marconi had to skip the race and was replaced by Christian Smirnoff, who contested his second race within a few hours. In the Qualifying session, Patrick De Wit and Christian Smirnoff took 4th and 17th spots respectively.

The race had a difficult start from Christian, as a clutch problem in the Formation Lap stalled his car and meant he would start from the pitlane, around half a minute behind the rest of the field. Christian would then have to drive a very agressive catch-up race.

Patrick, meanwhile, drove a solid race, despite failing to match the leaders' pace and having to defend from drivers attacking him from behind throughout the race. In a bittersweet end, Patrick was lapped by Roy Kolbe in the last lap, Andreas Spengler saw a small gap and took 4th from Patrick with a brave move. However, 5th place brings FTS important points for both championships. Christian fought hard, passing Barbosa in the first pitstop and then battling with Lovchy. In the end, starting from the pitlane plus a long second pitstop cost Christian a couple of positions, leaving him outside the points in 12th.

Patrick De Wit (5th): "I had a great Qualfying session. With just seconds left, me and Christian drove under start-finish to do our last attempts. I had a 1:18.4, could not believe that I started 4th after Lapchin's penalty. Was very happy with that as I was struggling all weekend with the car.

I had a slow start and Lapchin could pass me but in the 3rd corner he run a little wide and I could take it back. I was very close to his rear wing. Anyway I had a 2 stopper and everything was running fine until last lap. Kolbe lapped me and I decided to let him pass. In the final corners Spengler saw a gap and went for it. He did great move, I could not defend anymore otherwise we would have crashed. I'd rather have 4 points than nothing! That was my race and I am so glad this race is past us now.."

Christian Smirnoff (12th): "Well, it wasn't planned that I raced here, but we didn't find another replacement for Giuseppe. Obviously, I didn't have enough preparation for a WC race and was not happy with my setup and my pace. But I tried to give my best for the team.

Unfortunately, for some reason, the clutch wasn't mapped correclty as we don't use it in WS Ace and the engine stalled at the start of the formation lap. Had to start from the pitlane, some 25 seconds behind the rest of the field. From there, I just pushed as crazy for the whole race. Had a nice battle with Barbosa who also had to start from the pits and finally passed him in the first pitstop. He then passed me again as I was struggling with understeer following Lovchy. Then Barbosa and Lovchy had a small colission and I could get in front.

I knew points were going to be almost impossible, but I still think I did a good job under the circumnstances, as my fastest lap was just 2 tenths slower than Patrick's. Finished 12th and I could have been 10th starting normally. "

Faster Than Speed now moves to the Istanbul Park in Turkey, where last year the team had a dreamt weekend in WS, with Christian Smirnoff and Gabriel Garivaldis taking a 1-2 finish in WS Ace and Faisal Niazi also taking victory in the WS Pro division.

Faster Than Speed left the Nürburgring with succesful results in all Formula SimRacing divisions.

In World Series Amateur, Drazen Cokor set the 9th fastest time in both Q1 and Q2 qualifying sessions.
Drazen did a solid job in the race, climbing positions since the start and enjoying a nice battle with Borna Spoljaric, taking a well-deserved 4th place finish.

In World Series Pro, Faisal Niazi clocked the 7th quickest laptime in the Q1 session, improving to 6th on the grid in Q2. Canadian Colin Penney made his comeback for the team after also driving in WS Pro in 2006. Colin secured the 11th spot on the grid.
Faisal drove a very strong race once again, benefiting from penalties to Morse and Nuti to take 2nd place and his sixth podium finish of the season. Team mate Colin also drove a good race and reached the finish, but was unfortunately disqualified due to an incorrect setting.

In World Series Ace, Christian Smirnoff and Gabriel Garivaldis were 6th and 9th fastest respectively in Q1. In Q2, they repeated 6th and 9th positions, securing those spots on the grid.
Both drivers had a difficult start, with Gabriel earning a drive-through penalty for a jump start, and Christian being trapped in traffic throughout all his first stint. Later in the race, both drivers could show an improved pace compared to previous races. Christian was part of an exciting battle for the last podium position with Joao Barbosa and Machiel Schönbeck in the last laps, including some overtaking manouvers and a small incident with the latter.
Unfortunately, Christian recieved a controversial penalty of 30 seconds for an unexistant incident earlier in the race with Mauricio Gomez, which cost him the podium and left him demoted to 5th. Gabriel, meanwhile, took 4th place, due to the penalties to his team mate and Joao Barbosa, after initially finishing 6th.

Christian Smirnoff (5th): "Q1 was very good, was 6th with a 1:30.706 which was a personal best for me. Q2 was also pretty good considering I was very heavy and repeated 6th.

In the race I had a bad start as I had to lockup to avoid hitting my team mate and a few cars passed. I tried to pass Fernandez but I put a wheel on the grass, went wide and lost a position to Gomez. He was really a nightmare to pass, was loosing a lot of time as I had a lot of understeer behind him and that caused me to lose positions to Montanes and Barbosa. After 15 laps I finally got in front and then I could get in front of Montanes in the 2nd stop.
Schonbeck then came out of the pits just in between Barbosa and me and we were 3rd, 4th and 5th. As he made a small mistake, I took the chance to overtake and was ahead of him for a few laps with him putting pressure. I catched up with Barbosa and again suffered understeer behind him into the Schumacher-S and Machiel got in front again, but I had a better exit and tried to overtake in the chicane.
Unfortunately we had a colission there. Machiel did not see me and he steered normally and closed the door once I was just ahead of him. Once I realised he hadn't seen me I took all the kerb to leave space but we still touched. I think it was a race incident but a shame cause it ruined a nice battle.

It's very disappointing to lose a podium, specially with a penalty which was not deserved, but I still think it was my best performance this season."

In the World Championship, Patrick De Wit and Giuseppe Marconi took the 7th and 15th grid positions in the Qualifying session.
In the first corner of the race, Patrick had a colission with Darius Trinka. Though it did not cause serious damage to the cars, Patrick recieved a penalty of 30 seconds added to his race time and had to recover from last position. Patrick drove a solid race after that, showing good pace and despite being hit by Casalins, he made to the points in 7th position. Team mate Giuseppe Marconi drove a good race after a difficult qualifying and just missed out on points, finishing in 9th place.

Faster Than Speed climbed to the WC podium for the second time this season and the fourth time in the team's history last weekend in Silverstone, Great Britain as Patrick De Wit delivered another storming drive!

In World Series Amateur, Drazen Cokor set the 7th fastest time in Q1, repeating the same position in the Q2 session. The race was short and disappointing for the Croatian though, as due to overheating, the car's engine blew up after just 6 laps, ending his race prematurely.

In World Series Pro, Faisal Niazi was 3rd in the Q1 session, later securing 4th on the grid during Q2. In the race, Faisal did a great drive on a one-stopper strategy to take his FTS-P7 to 2nd position, scoring his fifth podium of the season!

In World Series Ace, Christian Smirnoff set the 6th quickest laptime in Q1, later securing 9th on the grid in Q2. Team mate Gabriel Garivaldis just failed to pass to Q2, setting the 11th fastest time. He eventually started from 10th.

In the race, Gabriel climbed many positions with a great start. Christian lost time and positions behind a competitor who had a terrible start. Both drivers fought hard with other drivers in the first stint, with Christian catching up with his team mate after the first round of pitstops. From there and until the end of the race, both Gabriel and Christian battled each other once again. Christian was a little bit quicker but was unable to overtake, as he fought with understeer behind his team mate's car. The pair eventually finished in 7th and 8th positions, in a disappointing result, lacking the pace of the leaders.

Christian Smirnoff (8th): "Q1 was good, managed to do a 1:21.7 which was enough for 6th, although I had split times to improve 2 tenths more during the session. Q2 was not as good, as I spun in Copse after setting my quickest lap and damaged the car, qualifying 9th.

I made a fairly good start, but Klaus Kaag made a very slow one ahead of me and lost a few positions as I had nowhere to go but back off behind him. During the first stint I had some battles with other cars. Kaag almost takes me off as I passed him before Copse and he turned as if I wasn't there. Had to go wide to avoid a colission. After the first stop, I catched up with my team mate Gabriel and we were together from there. I could have maybe passed in the second stop but after stopping I went back behind Montanes who let Gosling lap him just ahead of me and lost a little bit of time and Gabriel emerged just a couple of tenths ahead. We had another nice battle in the last stint but I couldn't overtake him.

7th and 8th is disappointing, as we didn't have the pace of the cars ahead, but we will try again in Nurburgring."

In the World Championship event, Patrick De Wit qualified in 4th position, despite being only a quarter of a second slower than poleman Kolbe. Team mate Giuseppe Marconi qualified 16th.

A first lap spin for Patrick after passing World Champion Bruno Marques, and a drive-through penalty for jumping the start for Giuseppe was not exactly the best start for the team. But Patrick, just as in France, recovered with a very agressive drive in a three-stopper strategy, including two fantastic overtaking moves over Bruno Marques into Copse and round the outside into Stowe over Danny Davison. With Davison eventually disqualified from 3rd and benefiting from a mistake from Roy Kolbe, Patrick finished the race in 3rd position, taking the FTS-P7 to the podium for the second time in 2007. Giuseppe drove well after his penalty but was unable to get into the points, finishing in 11th position.

Patrick De Wit (3rd): "I started 4th. Not bad, again close to pole. I had an ok start and tried to pass Marques into Stowe. It worked out and was running in P3 at that point. At end of lap 1 I ran wide in sector 3 and my car just spun. Again after that, it was making up the lost ground, some nice battles and overtakings! Passed Marques again
in turn 1, was close and tidy but great fighting! In the end P3, not a bad weekend!"

Giuseppe Marconi (11th): "Bad qualifying, I did about 0.6sec over my personal best. At the start I couldn't see lights turn off and I had a false start that cost me a drive through. However, it was impossible to overtake here, I was behind Denis (Kiriakopoulos) all the race and when I tried to force to overtake him, the car was undriveble. However, I saw the checkered flag after some DNFs, so first little positive step."

With this result, Patrick moves to 5th position in the Drivers' Championship as Faster Than Speed moves to a shared 6th in the team standings.

The team now moves to the Nürburgring circuit in Germany for the tenth round of the Formula SimRacing championships.

We would also like to deny rummours published by the press linking Patrick De Wit to another World Championship team.

Faster Than Speed enjoyed strong results in Magny Cours, but leaves France with the bitter taste of the disqualifications of WS Amateur driver Marko Pielic.

In World Series Amateur, Marko Pielic and Drazen Cokor clocked the 5th and 8th best times respectively in Q1, securing 3rd and 6th on the grid in Q2. Unfortunately though, due to an incredible mistake from the race marshal, Drazen had to start from 17th place, and the race was not restarted.

Drazen could recover and drive a good race, to finish in 6th place. Unfortunately, a post-race penalty for re-entering the track dangerously after a spin resulted in Drazen being demoted to 8th position.
Team mate Marko, however, drove a fantastic race, taking the lead with a great start, putting pressure and recovering the lead after he lost it by going wide in Adelaide. Though followed closely by Alessandro Marcelli, Marko dominated the race to take Faster Than Speed's first race win of the season.

In the post-race verification, everything would turn into a big disappointment. Due to a software problem, which didn't allow Marko's files to be fully verified, the WS Director decided to disqualify Marko from all races of the 2007 season, even though he had no technical irregularities. If only the team would have been alerted about this earlier, it could have been rectified before it costed Marko and the team two race wins and 76 championship points. We obviously cannot hide the disappointment, as Faster Than Speed was a victim of the slow verification process.

In World Series Pro, Faisal Niazi set the 4th fastest time in Q1 despite suffering problems. In Q2, Faisal repeated his 4th place, securing that position on the grid.

Despite several problems including being hit from behind, fuel shortage at the end of his first stint and a stop-and-go penalty for speeding in the pits, Faisal kept trying as hard as possible to score points, until a connection failure left him out of the race, scoring no points for the second consecutive race, unfortunately loosing two positions in the championship.

In World Series Ace, Gabriel Garivaldis and Christian Smirnoff were 7th and 10th fastest respectively in Q1, while Theo Gort secured the 14th spot on the grid. In Q2, Christian was 8th fastest, with team mate Gabriel just behind in 9th.

In the race, the three FTS drivers drove strong races, with Gabriel and Christian running together throughout the race as in the US. With Gabriel loosing some time with backmarkers while Christian had a series of quick laps, the team mate order was reverted in the second round of pitstops. In the last 10 laps, the team mates had a fantastic battle, with Gabriel pushing Christian hard although not managing to overtake him. Christian and Gabriel finished in 4th and 5th positions respectively, with Theo in 6th place.

Christian Smirnoff (4th): "I'm satisfied with 4th, specially as I could only start testing the night before the race, due to the university, which left me with a setup in which I wasn't fully comfortable, something that gave me some difficulties, specially in the first stint.

Just made it to Q2 with a 1:14.1, although I had two more tenths in the car. In Q2 I started with a first good lap which left me at the lead for a couple of minutes but then couldn't improve it with less fuel and started 8th.

The race was pretty good for me, I almost jump start as the neutral button didn't work for some reason, but I managed to stop and put the car back at the grid box just in time to avoid a penalty. Didn't have major problems except for some handling difficulties, and I managed to pass my team mate Gabriel with a fast lap at the second pitstop as he also ran into backmarkers. We had an intense battle in the last 10 laps, where he pushed me really hard but I managed to stay ahead. Was a fair and enjoyable battle."

In the World Championship, Patrick De Wit managed 8th position on the grid, despite being within 3 tenths of the pole time, in an incredibly tight field. Team mate Giuseppe Marconi had a disappointing session, qualifying in 19th place.

The race started in a difficult way for the team, as Patrick had a spin in the first lap, loosing five positions while regaining control of his car. Giuseppe, meanwhile, went off in the Aidelaide harpin in the second lap of the race, ending his race prematurely. Patrick would soon start a spectacular recovery, with an agressive 3-stopper strategy, overtaking several cars and showing very strong pace. Patrick ended the race in a great 4th position, despite taking the battle to Ernesto De Angelis in the end, but ran out of laps to try to overtake the Italian for the last podium spot.

Faster Than Speed had a fairly successful weekend in Indianapolis despite not reaching the podium this time.

In World Series Amateur, Marko Pielic and Drazen Cokor clocked the 7th and 10th fastest times in Q1 respectively, while in Q2, they were 6th and 8th fastest. Drazen had to start from 16th on the grid though, due to a grid position penalty he was carrying from the previous race.

In the race, both drivers progressed well, with Marko finishing in 6th position and Drazen 7th. Marko was unfortunately disqualified for the reasons that will be explained in the following press release from the team, while Drazen was eventually classified 5th after the race verification.

In World Series Pro, Faisal Niazi was the only FTS runner, posting the 3rd quickest time in Q1 and later securing 4th on the grid in the Q2 session. Unfortunately, an error from Faisal in the first lap of the race meant an early retirement.

In World Series Ace, Theo Gort was 7th fastest in Q1, later securing 9th on the grid in Q2. Team mates Christian Smirnoff and Gabriel Garivaldis were 11th and 13th respectively, with Christian's time matching exactly the time of the 10th placed driver but still missing Q2.

Theo unfortunately suffered an early exit, as he just managed to avoid spinning Steve Kasimatis at the start of the race but a competitor ran into him, producing terminal damage on his car. Gabriel and Christian had a trouble-free day, with the pair staying close to each other throughout the whole race, after Christian could overtake Schönbeck and Gooden. After a small mistake from Gabriel, Christian emerged ahead after the second round of pitstops. Christian finished the race 5th with team mate Gabriel 6th less than a second behind.

Christian Smirnoff (5th): "Qualifying was not so good, had 3 laps lost by traffic and I made a mistake in my quickest one which cost me 2 tenths. I tied the laptime of the 10th driver but was placed 11th, so everything was against me entering Q2.

The race was good, I had no problems or mistakes and the pace was quite good. Managed to avoid other cars in the start and then passed Schönbeck starting lap 2. Then had a nice battle with Wyatt Gooden, who I managed to overtake twice into turn 1. Was together with my team mate Gabriel throughout the race. I was a little bit quicker but not enough to pass him. He made a little mistake in the second stop and he came out just behind me. So we finished 5th and 6th, which doesn't seem a great result, but more wasn't possible, as the guys ahead were quicker and there were no retirements ahead of us."

In the World Championship, Patrick De Wit and Giuseppe Marconi set the 5th and 12th quickest laptimes in the Qualifying session, securing those spots on the grid.

The race, however, would soon turn into a disappointment for the team. Patrick lost control of the car over the famous brick line of Indianapolis at the start, loosing the front wing against the barriers. After the first-lap pitstop, Patrick would drive a strong race but with the field so tight together, it would be not enough to score points, finishing the race in 11th place.
A drive-through penalty for speeding in the pitlane turned Giuseppe's race into a nightmare, as a missunderstanding made the Italian take a stop-and-go instead, having to visit the pits again the following lap to take the correct penalty. Giuseppe eventually finished the race in a disappointing 17th position.

Patrick De Wit (11th): "To be honest I was struggling for pace all weekend so to find myself 5th in Qualifying was not bad at all. But I made a stupid error when I was accelerating from the line, the bump made me spin the car into the wall and lost my front wing, so I had to make a pitstop on the first lap. Overtaking was fun until I came behind Petter Kaasa who was tough to overtake. But I managed to do it but then again I made a mistake after passing him and went on to finish 11th.
I still had a good race I think after all my misfortunes and not being lapped by Marques shows I still had a good race. Could have been 6th or 5th today maximum, without the troubles."

Faster Than Speed driver Patrick De Wit took his personal and the team's first ever Pole Position in the FSR World Championship in Montreal, improving on Monte Carlo's front row position. In the World Series, the team had strong results with Faisal Niazi's 2nd in Pro as the highlight.

The Canada race was the first one of the season where FTS-P7's were driven in the World Series Amateur division, as the Formula Croatia team has now become part of the Faster Than Speed family. Croatians Drazen Cokor and Marko Pielic, winner in Monte Carlo, are the team's drivers in this division.

Unfortunately, Marko couldn't take part in the race due to software mismatches. The team will work to get everything working correctly in his car for the US weekend. Drazen took the 11th spot on the grid in Qualifying.
Drazen's race was unfortunately heavily compromissed by a start colission and a new controller he wasn't familiar with, but he could still take his first race finish of the season in 7th place.

In World Series Pro, Faisal Niazi was the only Faster Than Speed driver on track. In the Q1 session, Faisal set the 4th quickest time, improving to 3rd on the grid in Q2 despite connection problems which prevented him from doing quick laps with less fuel.
Despite taking some damage to the front bodywork in an incident in the Formation Lap, Faisal was clearly in contention for the win, just failing to make his 2 stopper strategy work, finishing just 2 seconds behind winner Nazario Nuti who was on a 1-stop strategy. Both Faisal Niazi and the team are 2nd in the WS Pro standings.

In World Series Ace, Christian Smirnoff and Gabriel Garivaldis once again passed both to Q2, setting the 7th and 8th fastest times in Q1, with 0.012s between them. In the Q2 session, Christian took 6th in the grid, while Gabriel qualified 9th, compromised by a refuelling problem which gave him more fuel than necessary. Theo Gort qualified in 12th position, with team mate Dani Falco 22nd on the grid.

In the race, Gabriel, Christian and Theo ran strong races, while Dani unfortunately retired early as he crashed off while avoiding another car. Both Gabriel and Christian hit problems in the second round of pitstops, as Gabriel had a long one due to damage repair. Christian had to drive two slow laps short-shifting to save fuel as Gabriel pitted one lap too late due to a missunderstanding and Christian had to pit a lap later than planned to avoid waiting in queue behind his team mate in the pits. Christian actually ran out of fuel while entering the pits, but fortunately reached his pitbox and could continue without major problems.
These problems placed Theo ahead of them, but unfortunately a brake failure put at end to his race with 6 laps to go, although he still managed to score a few points in 10th position due to completing over 90% of the race distance.
Christian and Gabriel finished in 4th and 5th places in a team photo-finish, with the team mates switching positions near the end as the team was worried that Gabriel's brakes could fail.

Christian Smirnoff (4th): "Qualifying was good. In Q1 I was 7th with an 1:14.3. Lap wasn't great, was loosing two tenths after sector 2, but was enough for both me and Gabriel to get into Q2. In Q2 I qualified 6th with a heavy car.

The race was good, car balance was pretty good and had no big problems. As I was heavy, I had cars attacking me from behind throughout the whole first two stints. Had to defend against Kaag, Tulio Jr, Koek, Gabriel, Theo and Izotov. Unfortunately in the second pitstops, my team mate Gabriel went in a lap too late and I had to do two slow laps short-shifting as I didn't have enough fuel, actually ran out of it entering the pits, to avoid waiting behind him in the pitbox. In the last stint had a nice battle with my team mate for 4th place and at the end he let me through easily as he didn't have much brakes left.
I'm happy with 4th, my best result so far this season. I think we've been a bit closer here, hopefully we can keep moving forward and get another strong result in USA."

In the World Championship race, Patrick De Wit took Faster Than Speed's maiden Pole Position with a fantastic Qualifying lap, almost two tenths of a second faster than 2nd placed Kuncman. Team mate Giuseppe Marconi had a disappointing session, taking 14th on the grid.

Patrick made a great start, keeping the lead with the heaviest car in the field and showing a blistering pace. Unfortunately, he picked up damage in the front of his car in a collission with a backmarker, Andrey Lovchy, who had spun in the last corner. This caused Patrick to have a long first pitstop as the crew repaired the damage. Despite loosing the lead to eventual winner David Greco, Patrick definitely showed he could have won, leading 36 race laps. Pushing hard to try to recover the lead, Patrick lost a few seconds after he overshot his pitbox, but was still in 3rd position and set for a second straight podium. It wasn't Patrick's day though, as with only 9 laps to go, a hardware failure left him empty-handed.
Giuseppe was also very unlucky, as he was involved in a colission with Darius Trinka, who spun in front of him, when he was clearly in contention for 6th place. His strong race was unfortunately over as he stalled the engine after a spin, caused by suspension damage.

Giuseppe Marconi (DNF): "Terrible Qualifying for me. In race I had a good pace and I think I did a good race, even if it was an error to do 3 stops. I was 7th and I had some good battles with Darius (Trinka) and other guys. In the end when Darius spun at the last chicane I couldn't avoid him and lost a suspension. I was able to continue but it was a nightmare and after a spin my engine shut down. It was an unlucky day for FTS but today we are both able to score some good points. Hopefully in the next race."

This result was extremely disappointing for the team, as a Pole Position, two strong point-scoring positions and a potential podium became a double retirement with few laps to go, but the team will keep working hard to fight for the top positions once again in Indianapolis.

Faster Than Speed leaves Monaco delighted with three podium finishes, including one by Patrick De Wit in the FSR World Championship, the first one for the team since Gabriel Garivaldis' in Germany 2003 and the third in the team's history!

In World Series Pro, Faisal Niazi and Darren Fisher set the 4th and 10th fastest laptimes respectively in the Q1 session. In the final Q2 session, Darren secured 7th on the grid, with team mate Faisal just behind in 8th.
In the race, Faisal drove a strong and clean race around the tight streets of Monte Carlo to take his third podium of the season with a 3rd place finish. Darren was unfortunately less lucky, as he had to retire after loosing control of the car in the last sector of the track.

The team maintains its 2nd position in the Team Standings, as Faisal Niazi is currently 3rd on the Drivers' Championship.

In World Series Ace, both Gabriel Garivaldis and Christian Smirnoff passed to the second Qualifying session after setting the 9th and 10th best times in Q1, with 0.005s between the team mates. In Q2, Gabriel and Christian secured positions 6th and 7th on the grid respectively. Theo Gort, meanwhile, qualified in P12.
Gabriel Garivaldis drove a very strong race to take his first 2007 podium after finishing in 3rd position. Team mate Christian looked set for a 4th place finish, enjoying a comfortable gap to the 5th placed driver when he lost control of the FTS-P7 in Saint Devote, damaging the car considerably. Christian eventually finished in a disappointing 7th. Theo Gort unfortunately had an early retirement, as he suffered a shunt into the barriers in the second lap of the race, after failing to notice that his car was damaged following contact with another car.

Gabriel Garivaldis (3rd): "Happy to finish 3rd, I made no errors all race and still got lapped twice though. But then again, it's to be expected when we have a driver who is capable of winning WC races performing in WS."

Christian Smirnoff (7th): "Qualifying was very good. Both Gabriel and myself got into Q2 with 1:13.2, with only 0.005s between us. Q2 was also good, with Gabriel 6th and myself in 7th, which was good considering I had the heaviest car.
I was having a good and clean race. The pace was a bit slower than expected in the first two stints but was back on rythm in the third. 4th place was secured as I had over half a minute to the 5th placed driver, but in lap 47 I went slower than usual into Saint Devote as a backmarker had made a mistake ahead and lost control of the car on the exit under acceleration, loosing front wing and damaging suspension. Tried to keep fighting but it was impossible with the wheel bent 45 degrees. Ended up visiting the pits 6 times.
I take very little consolation of the points I picked up for 7th place, as I know that a very good result was possible here, so I'm completely disappointed. Will work hard to fight back in Canada. Congratulations to Gabriel for a great podium!"

Despite Christian's disappointment, FTS was the team who took more points away from this race, helping us to jump from 5th to 3rd in the Team Standings.

In the World Championship, Patrick De Wit managed a fantastic Qualifying lap to take Faster Than Speed's first ever WC front row, missing out on Pole Position by only a tenth of a second. Team mate Giuseppe Marconi took the 14th spot on the grid.
In the race, Patrick delivered a great drive, battling hard for a podium position throughout the race. Despite a spin while trying to overtake Fausto Pappalardo, Patrick surprized the Italian with a shameless overtaking manouver into the tight Rascasse corner a couple of laps later. After Ondrej Kuncman's front wing loss, Patrick drove the FTS-P7 safely to a 3rd place finish, taking Faster Than Speed's first WC podium of the season. It was Patrick's third WC career podium, the first one with the team.
Team mate Giuseppe Marconi didn't share the same luck and had to retire after a spin in the Casino corner which caused the engine to stall. Previously Giuseppe needed to stop for a new wing after an overtaking attempt over Petter Kaasa didn't go as expected.

Giuseppe Marconi (DNF): "Lost my front wing and damaged my suspension trying to overtake Petter (Kaasa) and my race was over."

With Patrick's podium, Faster Than Speed jumps to 6th position in the Constructors' Championship.

The team now flights to Canada, where all drivers will have new engine and tyres compounds at their disposal. The team has enjoyed good success in Montreal, with Gabriel Garivaldis taking Pole Position and a podium in WS Ace last year, and with 1-2 finishes from Christian Smirnoff and Wolfgang Weber in WS Ace and Swaraj Shergill and David Gonzalez in WS Amateur in 2005.

Despite some strong finishes, Faster Than Speed left Catalunya knowing that more could have been achieved.

In World Series Pro, Faisal Niazi and Darren Fisher were 4th and 10th respectively in Q1, then taking the 8th and 7th spots on the grid after the Q2 session.
Unfortunately, things started to go wrong for the team from the first laps. Faisal was crashed by Alexander Balanesko. Although Faisal managed to continue, his race was over soon afterwards after a hardware failure. Darren wasn't much luckier either, as he collided with a car that had spun in front of him, costing him an extra pitstop for a new front wing. Darren had a strong recovery to finish the race in 6th position.

With Darren's result, the team managed to keep its 2nd place on the Constructors' standings.

In World Series Ace, Gabriel Garivaldis, Christian Smirnoff and Theo Gort set the 11th, 12th and 14th laptimes respectively in the Q1 session, securing those places in the starting grid. Dani Falco unfortunately couldn't participate in his home race due to connection issues.
In the race, Christian took the only FTS points of the race with a 5th place finish in a clean race for him. Christian went into the final lap in 4th position but was unable to defend against a speedy Blair Disley, who made his fourth and last pitstop with three laps to go, setting the fastest lap of the race with brand new tires while hunting Christian down, who had his set completely worn out.
Gabriel suffered his first retirement of the season, as Michael Theis crashed into him and ended the strong race he was driving. Theo unfortunately couldn't reach the checkered flag either, as the pitcrew was unable to repair the damage from a shunt against the barriers following a spin.


Christian Smirnoff (5th): "Qualifying was ok, had splits times during the session that would have been enough for 11th, but Q2 was not possible today.
The race was good, I didn't have any major problems and finally a race without incidents. My biggest problem was the tyres which were overheating and didn't let me run at my real pace, but the car balance was still good. I also probably ran too safe engine settings too, after the failure in Australia which affected the pace a little bit.
In the end, it was a nice battle with Blair Disley for 4th. I realised he was probably in a 4 stopper, while I did 3 stops. He pitted with only 3 laps to go, and came out behind me with brand new tyres and almost no fuel, while my tyres were completely worn out, and he reduced the gap inmediately. Unfortunately, I was blocked by two backmarkers from Torrent, Jimmy Jones before Blair's stop and then Michael Theis just before the last lap and lost a couple of seconds that could have been very important.
I tried very hard to keep him behind but unfortunately he passed me on the last lap into turn 4, after I had to go slightly wide in turn 3 to avoid contact. It's really disappointing to lose a position in the last lap but there's nothing else I could do, the tyre difference was just too big. 5th isn't a bad position though and hopefully I can get a good result in Monaco. A big shame that Gabriel was taken out as he was doing a good race."

In the World Championship event, Patrick De Wit and Giuseppe Marconi took 5th and 14th positions in Qualifying.
Patrick made a fantastic start, going from 5th to 2nd in the first two corners, later pulling out a courageous overtaking move over Roy Kolbe into the fourth corner to take the lead of the race. Leading 12 race laps, Patrick defended well against the main championship contenders. Looking set for a podium finish, everything went wrong for Patrick in his third pitstop. Due to going over the legal speed in the pitlane, Patrick earned a 10 second stop-and-go penalty. He missunderstood the order and only took a drive-through, having to enter the pitlane again the following lap for the third time in as many laps to take his penalty correctly. Going through the pitlane a total of six times during the race, Patrick recovered from 8th to 5th by overtaking several cars. It wasn't Patrick's day though, as with only a few laps left, he suffered a front left brake failure, leaving him out of the points in 9th position, two laps down.
Giuseppe, also looking set for a point-scoring finishing position, had to retire early due to connection issues, in what ended up being a very disappointing race for Faster Than Speed.

Patrick De Wit (9th): "Fantastic feeling to lead a WC race again. I started 5th and going into Turn 1 I could pass Kuncman and Greco, then somehow Marques went a bit wide and passed him into Turn 2. I then had a go at Kolbe, it was very risky but I decided to go for it and I was then leading the race!
Everything went ok doing my laps holding off Marques and Kolbe, it was wheel to wheel but fair fights. There was even a moment where Roy (Kolbe) had the position going into Turn 1 but I braked extremely late to hold position. I wanted that lead so badly! But then I made a small mistake and was demoted to 2nd.
I was doing fine until my 3rd pitstop. Limiter did not go on and I had a stop-and-go but I did a drive through instead so I still had to do that stop-and-go (the following lap).
I then passed some cars, Schmalenbach, Spengler, and was on my way to 5th
when my brakes failed again. It's pretty frustrating now but I had the speed for 2nd today, Roy was too fast. Congratulations to him!"

Unfortunately, the Court of Appeal decided to disqualify Giuseppe Marconi from the Australia race due to the Formation Lap incident in what was a highly controversial, and in our opinion, completely unfair decision as it goes against what is clearly stated in the WC Rules. Giuseppe unfortunately loses the 2 points scored for his 7th place finish.

Stay tuned for the results of next race, in the glamorous streets of Monte Carlo, Monaco, a circuit where Christian Smirnoff and Gabriel Garivaldis took a double podium, finishing 2nd and 3rd last year.

Faster Than Speed left the streets of Melbourne with encouraging results in all divisions.

In WS Pro, on Sunday morning, Faisal Niazi and Darren Fisher took 5th and 10th positions respetively in both Qualifying sessions. Faisal suffered from wheel problems in the Q2 session, but they could be fixed for the race. Darren's Q2 laptime was meanwhile affected by his race strategy choice, as cars are in Parc Fermé conditions in that session.
Both Faisal and Darren ran strong and clean races, and despite Darren being collided by another driver after he had made a nice overtaking move and having to change his strategy to a 2 stopper, both made it to the checkered flag to score very important points. Faisal finished in 2nd position, repeating his podium from Malaysia, while Darren finished 5th. The result leaves the team 2nd in the standings.

In WS Ace, Gabriel Garivaldis made it to Q2 with the 6th fastest Qualifying time. He secured 8th on the grid in Q2 while Christian Smirnoff and Theo Gort started from 14th and 15th respectively.
Race started badly for Christian though. A first lap colission with Steve Kasimatis, who was sideaways across the racing line after Turn 3 meant Christian had to pit for a new front wing. Despite the unplanned pitstop and a damaged front suspension, Christian was running a recovery-race, climbing from the back up to 11th by the time he suffered an engine failure on lap 19. The first lap colission unfortunately damaged the engine, causing an early failure, despite running conservative cooling settings and having no signs of overheating.
Theo and Gabriel ran strong races, benefiting from a high number of retirements. Showing very good race pace, and despite a brake failure with 4 laps to go, Theo Gort managed to take his first podium in FSR with a 3rd place finish. Gabriel completed the good points haul with 4th position.

Gabriel Garivaldis (4th): "It's my season's best result, and the first time I finished the race at Albert Park without problems, and it is also my home race, so, I am happy. I want to thank the entire team for this too, especially Christian, Giuseppe and Patrick. These guys worked hard to create a good setup, and it helped me so much. The only thing I am unhappy with is the loss of pace again in my race due to the FPS dropping, but that is normal for me now. I also feel sad for Christian who had an engine problem. But apart from that I'm pleased with the whole team for their efforts, and I'm confident I will score another good result at Barcelona. I will work hard."

Christian Smirnoff (DNF): "The race was a big joke, 10 drivers DNF after the first lap incidents, others continue with damage, and the race is not restarted. The start was a big chaos, I managed to stay undamaged in the first incidents but then was impossible to avoid a car sideaways across the racing line after turn 3, and lost my front wing. Pitted and was doing a good recovery race, pace wasn't so bad despite having front damage, but unfortunately the first lap incident damaged the engine and it blew up on lap 19, despite the safe settings I was running. Same thing I had in China last year. We will see if I can bounce back in the next race."

In the World Championship event, Patrick De Wit took the FTS-P7 to 4th position in the starting grid, just 3 tenths off the Pole Position pace. Despite his great starting position and leading the session until the last minutes, Patrick had mixed feelings as he believed that Pole Position was a realistic target. Team mate Giuseppe Marconi couldn't have such a good Qualifying and started from 16th.

An incident in the Formation Lap meant Giuseppe had to go back to the pits for repairs and start the race from the pitlane, loosing very precious seconds to the rest of the field. Patrick, meanwhile, made a great start and managed to pass Kuncman and Malezic to take 2nd after the third corner. Patrick continued battling hard up front, with his usual aggressive style, but unfortunately clipped a kerb wrongly in lap 12, loosing control of his car and leaving all his chances against the barriers. A big lost opportunity for Patrick, as he clearly showed he had the pace to finish on the podium.
Giuseppe managed to take the car to the end, to score his and FTS's first WC point of the season with an 8th place finish.

Faster Than Speed now moves to Catalunya, Spain, for the fourth race of the FSR season. The team will aim to capitalize on the encouraging pace shown and hopefully achieve good final results to improve its positions on the championships.

Faster Than Speed didn't have its best race weekend in the desert of Bahrain.

In World Series Pro, the FTS guys were looking forward to a strong result after good Qualifying positions. Darren Fisher was 4th in Q1, with Faisal Niazi 5th. In Q2, with the race fuel, the order was reversed, with Faisal and Darren getting the 6th and 7th spots on the grid respectively.

The race result ended up being very disappointing for the team though. Faisal was clearly in contention for a podium finish with a one-stopper strategy, but unfortunately he lost connection with 15 laps to go. Darren kept going, climbing up through the field after some tyre problems at the start, but suffered his second brake failure in as many races. The team will deeply investigate the cause of Darren's brake issues.

Faisal Niazi (DNF): "I was unable to finish the race because I lost connection. A bit disappointed with missing out on some valuable points, before my exit I was in a good position for a podium finish with my one stop strategy. Congratulations to Sam and Torrent Motorsports for their first win in WS Pro."

This double-DNF left the team empty handed this weekend in WS Pro, dropping from the lead to 6th in the Team Standings. Back home, things were much better though, as Darren's new baby girl, Sydney Fisher, was born this morning. Congratulations Darren!

In World Series Ace, Christian Smirnoff set the 9th quickest time in Q1, passing to Q2, where he clocked the 10th time. Gabriel Garivaldis, Theo Gort and Dani Falco couldn't get into Q2 and started 15th, 16th and 23rd respectively.

The race was far from perfect for the team. Christian's car was damaged in the first corner after an unavoidable colission with a car that was sideaways across the track. Gabriel Garivladis later suffered a colission with Mauricio Gomez, who re-entered the track after a spin in front of Gabriel. Christian looked with good chances for a top-5 finish, before Fred Gosling ran into him, spinning the FTS-P7 around and costing him valuable time. Dani Falco had a low-key race, but made it to the finish in 13th position. Christian finished 6th, with team mate Gabriel in 7th. Theo Gort unfortunately had to retire after a strange lockup resulted in a spin and colission with another car.

Christian Smirnoff (6th): "Well, I kind have some mixed feelings about this race. I'm happy I made it, as I had no Internet until 10 mins before the time Q1 was scheduled to start on. In Q1 I managed to do a 1:28.528 which was my PB by 0.004, and was enough to get into Q2, which I was very happy about. In Q2, I dropped from 9th to 10th. Could have been a bit quicker I think, but I lost my last attempt when the car got a bit sideaways braking into Turn 1, so had more fuel in my best lap.
I had an ok start, but I ran into Fred Gosling in turn 1, who was struck sideaways across the track, impossible to avoid him, as I had Kasimatis on one side and another driver in the other, so I was trapped there. The colission damaged the car, the handling was still fine, but it cost me a few tenths a lap during the whole race.
Except for a mistake in lap 7 when I went to the sand, I drove a good race, pushed as hard as I could, and the pace was definitely much better than in Malaysia. Tyre wear was bad again, but it didn't affect my pace much this time. Had some nice battles, could overtake Sicuro.. but then unfortunately Fred Gosling tried two very agressive moves on me. First time he braked so late he went wide off, and second time, he hit me on the side and spun me around, costing me around 12 seconds. Strange for a driver of his experience.
A pity as I could have been 5th, and without the first lap damage, maybe even better, but well, at least both Gab and me finished again, but even if it was better for me, we still need to find more pace."

Gabriel Garivaldis (7th): "It was an incredible awful race, I made a couple of mistakes but was also victim of another driver who re-entered the track right in front of me and I had nowhere to go but crash into him. This inevitebly destroyed my motivation, as well as causing damage to the car and costing me valuable time. Christian did much better than me here, so I commend him on that, I am only sorry that he couldn't take a higher position which he greatly deserved. I know he was affected by his unfortunate incident with another driver, which was totally not his fault. But that is racing and he will only get stronger from it. We still finished in the midfield, so we collect some points and can go to Albert Park with higher hopes."

In the World Championship event, Patrick De Wit and Giuseppe Marconi qualified 13th and 16th respectively. In the race, Patrick drove aggresively, showing an amazing top speed with a low-downforce setup, but unfortunately had to retire with a brake failure when points were definitely within reach. Giuseppe couldn't get into the top 8, but took the checkered flag, in 10th position.

Giuseppe Marconi (10th): "Another disaster. Again was about 0.8 seconds over my personal best in Qualifying and about 1.1 seconds over my race pace. Was later hit from behind and I lost 3 positions."

Patrick De Wit (DNF): "I think I had great battles again, passing drivers. Stephane (Rouault) made a good move over me in turn 1. I was going for points and then my brakes failed. Stupid mistake but I was very slow all weekend, too far off pace
so I had to set an aggressive approach for the race. Looking forward to Melbourne."

With Christian's 6th as the highlight of the weekend and no points scored in WS Pro and the World Championship, FTS did not achieve the expected results in Sakhir. It wasn't a perfect start to the season, but all the team is determined to take a step forward and fight for the big points in the next event in the streets of Melbourne.

Faster Than Speed collected its first podium finish of the season in the season opener race at Sepang, Malaysia. It was a weekend of mixed results for the FTS team.

Early on Sunday morning, Faisal Niazi and new team mate Darren Fisher were the first ones to take on the FTS-P7 in the World Series Pro division. Faisal had a strong Qualifying session, getting P3 on the grid with the new Parc Fermé system, while Darren took 9th position.

Unfortunately, a mistake was made with Faisal's car after the Q2 session, leaving him on worn tyres for the race start. Faisal had to pit a bit earlier than planned, but kept his one-stopper strategy to drive a very strong race to 2nd position. Darren was unfortunately out of luck. A car rejoining the track from the grass hit the back of his car in the first turn of the race. Later on the race, a recovering Darren had an incident with two cars that spun in front of him, leaving him without the front wing and with a heavily damaged car. Despite this, Darren did a great job to get back to 8th place, before his brakes failed with 3 laps to go. Darren still managed to score important points with 10th place.

With this result, Faster Than Speed shares 1st position in the Team Standings with Brazilian Racers Copersucar.

In World Series Ace, Theo Gort, Christian Smirnoff and Gabriel Garivaldis qualified in places 11th, 13th and 14th respectively. Dani Falco was an unfortunate victim of the cancelled Q1 session, which left him out of the top-24 drivers allowed to race, after he had a valid laptime to enter the event.

In the race, Theo had a quick exit, after car problems led him into a spin and retirement from the race. Gabriel and Christian could finish the race, in 8th and 9th positions respectively. After the race, they were both unhappy with the results, complaining of massive understeer and tyre wear. Both drivers had several time constraints during the race, but the team will need to improve the car and show better pace in Bahrain.

Christian Smirnoff (9th): "Well, glad to finish in the first race and score some points, but I'm not very happy with the performance.
The car was good, but after 4 or 5 laps of each stint, the front tyres started to wear badly, giving increasing understeer each lap, making it impossible to keep a good pace. I always had traffic when I had new tyres on so could never show the real pace, but anyway we need to work on the setup to find out why it's wearing the tyres so badly.
Had some fun with a few battles, could do some overtaking over Gomez and Pakhodnia and I did have some situations with other cars where I lost time, but all I could do at most is to be right there with my team mate Gabriel, who finished 6 seconds ahead.
We have work to do, but I'm sure Bahrain will be better."

In the World Championship race, Patrick De Wit made his race debut for Faster Than Speed. The Dutchman had a strong Qualifying performance with 7th position on the grid, while Giuseppe Marconi qualified 15th.

Patrick fought hard during the race, but unfortunately after a spin and an incident with Danny Davison, he just missed out on points, as he finished in 9th position, just a few seconds away from the 7th and 8th placed drivers Andreas Spengler and Danny Davison. Giuseppe had a more difficult race, also with setup problems and understeer, the Italian was not in contention for points, and finished 13th.

Patrick De Wit (9th): "I started 7th, was very pleased with that. After the start I was 5th and for a while even 4th. Had great battles with many drivers and in my last fight with Danny Davison I passed him, with all 4 wheels locked and understeering into the corner but he just gave no room and knocked me off. Not hard but resulting in my spin. I pushed hard to the end but finished 9th."

Giuseppe Marconi (13th): "It was a nightmare for me. In Qualifying I was only 15th, 0.8 seconds over my personal best. I had a good start in race, was 9th in the first lap, but I had a lot of warping and it was very hard because I didn't know where the drivers were. My pace in race was about a second slower than in Practice, as I had massive understeer after 2 laps because of front tyre wear. We need to work on the setup."

The team now moves to Sakhir, Bahrain, for the second race of the 2007 season. FTS has good memories of this track, as in 2005, the team achieved the WS Ace Constructors' Championship at this venue. This year, FTS will look forward to get more strong results in Pro, while improving the performance in Ace and opening our points tally in the WC.

Faster Than Speed proudly launches its 2007 campaign. With the start of the 2007 Formula SimRacing season approaching, the team takes the opportunity to present the new car, driver lineups and website for this season.

After fantastic 2005 and 2006 seasons in the World Series, with a Constructors Championship (WS Ace, 2005) and two Drivers Championships (Faisal Niazi, WS Pro, 2006 & Christian Smirnoff, WS Ace, 2006), FTS will work hard to be once again fighting for the titles in 2007, as well as hoping to be battling for a strong position and why not to be back to the podium in the World Championship.

The FTS-P7

Faster Than Speed is really proud to present our new challenger for 2007. The fantastic car livery, designed by Ernesto De Angelis, sets the standard once again! This year's panther beauty, features more red and yellow than ever before and a very agressive looking style! You can find exclusive shots of the car here.

Driver Lineups

As announced last year, Giuseppe Marconi and Patrick De Wit will be the team's race drivers in the FSR World Championship.

Giuseppe Marconi: "I want to wish all FTS guys a great new season in all categories. I hope that Patrick and me will score a lot of points for FTS in the World Championship. Best luck mates!"

Patrick De Wit: "I am so excited about the upcoming season! My expectations are high. To be honest, I hope I can fight for some podiums this year, although it will be very hard. I hope to learn from my new teammate Marconi, as I learned last year with my previous teams. I hope to score as many points as I can and I want to better the team's last year's results. I am sure we can improve on last year's position."

In the World Series Ace division, 2006 champion Christian Smirnoff will lineup together with Gabriel Garivaldis once again. The team also chose to use a new naming convention for the other FTS teams. They will be known as FTS Ace Panthers and FTS Ace Cheetahs, where Theo Gort will be driving, together with ex-test driver Dani Falco and newcommer Jay Boving, from Australia.

Christian Smirnoff: "In the last couple of years we showed that we are a very strong team, so we will be aiming to battle for the championships once again. Defending the Drivers title will be an extremely difficult task, due to the incredible level of competitiveness of the field, but I'll take my usual approach, trying to do my best race by race and then we'll see what happens."

Gabriel Garivaldis: "I expect that we will have a great season this year, in both WC and WS. The team is working hard to prepare for the first race so there's no reason why we shouldn't start 2007 up the very top!"

Theo Gort: "I'm looking forward to the new season! The team has improved a lot during the winter and I feel confident of getting many good results in 2007!"

Dani Falco: "When I decided for this team my life changed in the online leagues. I'm very proud to defend FTS on track. Really, I hope to learn more each year and help the team this season. It seems like a big family!"

Jay Boving: "I'm looking forward to my first season in the FSR league. I know it will be a learning experience for me and I am confident I will represent FTS to the best of my ability."

2006 champion Faisal Niazi will be also trying to defend his title in the World Series Pro division. This year his team mate will be newcommer Darren Fisher, from Canada.

Faisal Niazi: “I hope we can continue working well together and achieve good results this year.”

Darren Fisher: "I hope to live up to the expectations of the team and not dissapoint them aswell as myself. I feel I can contribute to the team, and hope I can be competitive in the series aswell."

Adam Huculak and Swaraj "Sunny" Shergill will also join WS Ace and WS Pro respectively later in the season. FTS has not announced a team in the Amateur division at the moment.

Swaraj Shergill: "I am very disappointed that I cannot start racing until May, but I will try to test during my time off and come back stronger this year after a disapponting WS Ace campaign last year."

The Website

New year, new look. For 2007, the www.fts-racing.net website features a fresh new look, and improvements in the design of tables for Firefox and others browsers. Together with an updated team history (The Team) and the new pictures and information about the FTS-P7 (The Car), the website now also features a new Garage section, where you will find new shots from all FTS challengers since 2000. Please also notice we have a new contact e-mail.

The Sponsors

DestroY Software (http://www.destroysoftware.com.ar) remains as official team sponsor and supplier this year.

Ready... set... GO!

Nothing else to say.. now.. Sepang comes, and there we go, trying to start the 2007 season with strong results. See you on track!