Fabio Leimer has signed to race for champion team Rapax for the 2011 GP2 main and Asia series. The Swiss driver impressed the team when driving for them at the post-season tests at Abu Dhabi.
The Italian team won the 2010 drivers' title with Pastor Maldonado as well as the teams' championship.
Leimer, 21, graduated to GP2 in 2010 after dominating the Formula Master series the year before. Racing for Ocean Racing Technology, he won the sprint race on the opening weekend in Barcelona. However, he struggled from that point onwards, failing to score any more points on his way to 19th in the final standings.
He drove for Rapax at the shakedown test for the new GP2/11 car at Paul Ricard last month, before also appearing for the team during the four days of running at Abu Dhabi, topping the timesheets on both the second and third days.
Leimer is pleased to have signed for Rapax, and is looking forward to trying to continue the team's success in 2011. “I am proud and happy that I have signed with Rapax for my second year in GP2 and am excited that they have placed their trust in me,” he said. “I know the team are fully committed to winning the Championship again in 2011 and I will do all I can from my side to help them achieve this.”
Rapax Managing Director Andrea Bergamini believes that Leimer has great potential and will help them to remain at the front in 2011. “We're really happy to welcome Fabio in our team,” he said. “We've been following him for a while, and he dominated the 2009 Formula Master championship.
“In the recent test at Abu Dhabi he gave proof of talent by clocking some extremely fast laptimes, and he had truly professional approach in dealing with the team's technical staff. This deal represents an huge step for Rapax in an attempt to try and be back at the top next season”.
