Barwa Addax Team - Photo Credit: Alastair Staley/GP2 Series Media Service
Barwa Addax Team head into the new GP2 Series season that gets underway in Malaysia this weekend with the aim of retaining the teams' title they won in 2011.
They start the year with two new drivers in Johnny Cecotto Jr and Josef Kral, both of whom are chasing their first race wins in the series. Owner and team principal Alejandro Agag is looking forward to the season ahead.
“As well as our drivers, we are all looking forward to the start of the season, which looks as though it's going to be very interesting,” he said. “There are new regulations which have been introduced to guarantee a greater spectacle on the circuits and ensure that the drivers and teams have a better preparation when it comes to promoting themselves to the F1 teams.
“The choice of the different tyre compounds as well as the aerodynamics in qualifications will make for a tough challenge for technicians and drivers, who will have to work hard to get their strategies right if they are to get the desired results. Furthermore it will be interesting to see how the new points system has an influence on this season's championship because it favours victories rather than being simply consistent over the course of this year.
“As always, our main objective is to regain the team championship of which we are proud holders. To do this we have to maintain our policy of offering both our drivers everything they need to take on the championship with certain guarantees and that despite of their tender age, Cecotto and Kral are both prepared to fight it out for the title.”
Cecotto has only scored points in one of his 38 GP2 races to date, but is confident that he can fight for a podium finish in Sepang.
“After the pre-season test we worked very hard to prepare everything, we spent a lot of time at the workshop to go through all of the data and work on the setup,” said Cecotto.
“I will be in Kuala Lumpur for the first time so we spent a lot of hours in the simulator. I can’t wait to race again and I think that with the high temperatures in Sepang our car should work very well and we can aim for podium positions. I want to take home as many points as possible to start the championship well.”
Kral feels prepared and is looking forward to spending the season with the Spanish outfit.
“It is very nice to be part of the team Barwa Addax because as I could see in the tests all the team is very professional and all people are very motivated to score good results but we still have time to have good laugh which is also important,” he said.
“I am sure that all the program which we followed through the test will help us to be on top. The qualifying in Sepang will give us some first taste of real results and I hope that it all will be fine for us. I am looking forward a lot to this race but I have never raced there before. We did quite a lot simulations and simulator session so I think that I am quite familiar with this very difficult circuit. I am already in Malaysia since Friday doing all training here.”
