Difference between revisions of "Cosmo Autosport"

Revision as of 21:46, 25 July 2016

Cosmo

Full name	Cosmo Autosport
Base	Simonside, England
Team principal/s	Joshua Anderson
Race drivers	39. Tomeu Cabrer 53. Roy Verzijl
Test drivers	TBA
Chassis	FC-016
Engine	Valiant
Tyres	GPVWC
GPVWC Formula Challenge Career
Début	2014 Canadian Grand Prix
Latest race	2016 Hungarian Grand Prix
Races competed	78
Constructors' Championships	0
Drivers' Championships	0
Race victories	1
Podiums	1
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
2015 position	10th

Cosmo Autosport are a British sim-racing team, led by Joshua Anderson. They are competing in the 2016 Formula Challenge season in GPVWC, with numbers #39 and #53 - their designated numbers for all future Career Ladder competition. They have also competed in the 2016 Masters Series season as well as the 2016 World Sport Series season and the 2016 World GT Series season

The team are possibly famous for their rather garish car liveries, but more likely well known for their laid-back atmosphere, and for bringing new or unknown promising talent in GPVWC a chance to shine whilst also giving existing talent a new background to enjoy themselves within.

Origins

Cosmo Autosport was founded in September 2013 by Joshua Anderson, mainly as a vehicle for entering himself into the Gentleman's Racing Club (GRC) Season 15 Trophy event. The team later developed into a more long-term project, to give new sim-racing talent a chance to shine - encouraged by Anderson's own frustrations at and experiences of the difficulties of finding drives in series.

In their initial, early months, Cosmo secured entries into the latter rounds of two series at XtremeRPM: their 2013 World Endurance Championship and 2013 Xtreme Touring Car Championship. He and Matthew Allington were set to partner up in the WEC in the LMPC class, driving a Creation CA06H - but Anderson later pulled the team from the series after a disagreement as to the running of that particular series. Anderson and Allington did team up in the final round of the XTCC series, in a Lada Priora and Seat Ibiza respectively. Anderson would take his first simracing pole position through a reverse grid in race 2.

It was around this time, after securing entries into the WSVR 2014A BTCC championship as well as several other series, that Joshua chose to formally attempt to bring the team to the GPVWC. He had applied previously to enter the 2013 World GT series season with the team, fielding a Ferrari F430, but the application was unsuccessful.

2014

WSS 2014: The new boys

Cosmo Autosport's GPVWC debut would come in the 2014 WSS season, where they would take car numbers 38 and 39. They would field GPVWC newcomer Rob Mason and TheSixthAxis Racing stalwart Cameron Brewster, the latter driving for a team other than a TSA-associated one for only the second time in his GPVWC career (after his 2013 Formula Challenge stint with United Racers Motosport). The team's debut at Bahrain went exceedingly well, with Mason having finished 20th and 14th - scoring points in his debut round - and Brewster finishing 13th and 4th. In doing so, the team gained their first points, and first top-5 in their history - and Brewster also gave the team their first laps in the lead, having taken the lead on lap 1 of race 2 and holding it until lap 3 before being overtaken by David Jundt.

Strong, surprising finishes would be the theme of the team's WSS season - Brewster went on to score points in all but two of the races he participated in, including the team's first podium in Spain (Brewster finished 2nd in race 2) and Mason continued to perform well and score occasional points, both drivers having never experienced WSS before. Brewster eventually finished 10th in the Drivers' Championship, and Mason's points would aid Cosmo to 9th in the Teams' championship. The team boss himself, Joshua Anderson, alongside Alexander van der Woude, would both step in for Mason and Brewster at the Austrian round. van der Woude would not finish race 1 but scored 28th in race 2; Anderson managed 29th and 25th. This would be the only 2-race weekend of the season where the team did not score points.

ITC 2014: "Is that a new record?"

Cosmo also made the grid for the 2014 ITC season, where they would field the BMW 1-series. Their drivers were David Nannen and Superleague veteran Tom van der Voort. The season was to be a disaster for the team, with Nannen having consistent issues with the car in Bahrain to begin with. Nannen left the team, still on good terms with the team however, after the first round. He would soon be replaced by newcomer Max Spooner, the team returning to their idea of new talent. However, after taking part in the round at Pukekohe, Spooner would fail to show for any further rounds, and was eventualy replaced by another new driver, Thomas Hinss. Hinss would drive for the team until Laguna Seca, where he would leave the team of his own accord to pursue a FWD seat at Nijo Racing.

This led to the signing of Todor Pangev, who would drive at the USA round (missing the first race), but would not show up for the Japanese round. For the final round at Interlagos, Pangev was replaced with Spaniard Tomeu Cabrer, again new to GPVWC. The team finished almost last in the Teams' championship, having scored only 4 points, all by van der Voort. The team had a total of 8 drivers during the season (Matthew Allington stood in for van der Voort at the Czech round of the championship and team boss Anderson had a stint at Adelaide, where neither car showed up after van der Voort reported his absence in advance, but Anderson was unable to find a reserve in time).

FC 2014: Turning up fashionably late

Cosmo would apply for the 2014 FC season, but ultimately be unsuccessful. However, they would get their chance, taking the vacancy left when Airastream Motorsport withdrew from the series. Inheriting the #7 and #8 cars (their lowest regular numbers in any GPVWC series to date), the team quickly snapped up ex-Airastream recruit Scott Sovik as a reserve driver, and Superleague reserve Ben Horrill and newcomer Richard Coxon in the race seats, Coxon making his GPVWC debut after much success in historics. The team would score some solid points in what was to be a learning season for them, with Coxon learing to drive the modern open-wheelers and Horrill experiencing an extended FC seat for the first time, having completed a brief stint for nFinity eSports Racing in 2013.

The team saw considerable success, with four 6th places - two by Horrill and one by Coxon. The other 6th was taken by TouringProSeries legend Tim Heinemann, making a one-off appearance for the team on his GPWVC debut. Ironically, Anderson was completely unaware of the German's previous success when he hired Heinemann and was rather shocked to find out how well he'd done in TPS. Heinemann would later see drives for Aurora Motorsports and Supercup outfit Edonis Engineering. The team finished 18th in the Teams' championship. Having only done 3/4 of the season however, it remained to be seen how they would fare in a full season.

2015

FC 2015: Back for a second course

Cosmo were granted entry into the 2015 Formula Challenge season, and signed the returning Coxon alongside ex-EGP driver Hansko Mebius. They were initially to take car numbers #18 and #19, before the introduction of a Ladder-wide numbering system. The team eventually chose car numbers #39 and #53 as their numbers, the #39 returning to the team after Cameron Brewster's success with it in the team's WSS 2014 campaign - and the #53 being one of team owner Anderson's several lucky numbers.

The first three rounds were somewhat of a disappointment for the team, scoring only 18 points from the first 3 rounds. The team's misfortune continued when then-primary driver Coxon would step down to a reserve role in the team. Anderson soon snapped up Open Series talent Patrick Wannemuller as the new driver of the #53 from Portugal onwards.

Wannemuller would impress upon his signing, and throughout his season - gaining the team's first FC podium in Hungary and two 4th place finishes in Belgium. He followed this up by taking the fastest lap and 2 points in Italy's first race, and yet another 4th place in race 2. It was Singapore, however, where Wannemuller would show just what he was capable of - taking a thrilling lights-to-flag victory (Wannemuller and the team's first in FC) from reverse grid pole position, brilliantly holding off Ice Cold's Eric Stranne and MadCape's Lars Brugman to do so. Mebius would start alongside him this race, and ultimately drop to 3rd at the start before spinning twice and retiring.

The team's season continued well and they finished 10th in the Teams' championship - now truly establishing themselves as a top 10 team.

WSS 2015: The crusade begins and ends

After their strong 2014 season, Cosmo were granted the sixth space in the roster, with car numbers #11 and #12 - being the sixth highest out of thirteen returning entries from 2014. They announced Matt Richards and Matthew Chirgwin as their drivers. The team would score well, however Chrigwin stepped down after the Canadian round, leaving a vacancy in the team.

Richards would later depart the team also, leaving the team in a bind and missing races. The hiring of Pedro Oliveira aided affairs but the team still ended 12th in the standings come the end of the season, and initially opted not to return for 2016 after their many missed races.

ITC 2015: New drivetrain, new hope, new found success!

Cosmo would return for the 2015 ITC season. After their disastrous 2014 season in the BMW however, they would run a FWD car for 2015 - the Chevrolet Cruze - as used by last year's Teams' champions THR. The team would compete with numbers #28 and #29, fielding Sam Jones and Alexander van der Woude respectively.

van der Woude would only compete in one round however, after being replaced by Scott Sovik for round 1 and stepping down after round 2. Matt Richards, the team's driver of the #11 WSS car, would fill in for round 3 at Snetterton and vastly helped the team's initially poor run of form by winning 2 of the 3 races of the night, albeit with a slight incident in Race 3 which later led to a demotion due to a penalty, handing the win to Sven de Vries. His win in race 1 marked the team's first ever win in GPVWC, the closest until then having been Cameron Brewster's 2nd place in the 2014 Spanish Sport Series.

Richards would continue to win races, and Jones would find form near the end of the season. The temporary signing of Andrew Waring for the Canadian round in Richards' stead lead to two second places and a fifth in one race weekend, and the team ended the season 7th - a new best finish for the team. Richards would finish 5th in the Drivers' Championship.

2016

Masters 2016: Be afraid, be very afraid... then don't

Cosmo were selected as one of 15 teams to enter the newly-refreshed Masters Series. The team, pre-season, boasted about their "best lineup ever" - and backed this up when announcing their drivers as Andrew Waring and Matt Richards - Richards returning after his ITC success and Waring making his full-time debut at Cosmo, having completed the Canadian round for the team in 2015.

While the first two rounds went fairly well for the team, issues arose at the third round at Laguna Seca. Waring opted to step down from his drive in the team, and was replaced for the American round by Norwegian Scott Sovik. Richards would not be able to make the races at Laguna Seca, or the next round at Adelaide. Sovik did not score points in either of the two races at Laguna Seca.

Neither car would run at Adelaide, but for the Brno round, Cosmo drafted in reigning champion David Jundt to partner the returning Richards. This marked the very first time Cosmo ran the number 1 in a GPVWC series, and the first time they fielded a reigning champion in their lineup.

The team would end the season 9th out of 15 teams, a disappointing start to their 2016 campaign given their initial high hopes.

FC 2016: Is third time the charm?

Cosmo would return for the 2016 season, again with the numbers 39 and 53. The team targeted a top 7 finish after their successes in 2015 and aimed to possibly promote into the Supercup for 2017. Their drivers were announced as Patrick Wannemuller and Philipp Konig.

The season started well despite some bad luck for Konig in round 1 as Wannemuller would take a 4th place finish in the second race at Melbourne. A steady stream of points finishes would follow, including a 5th place for Konig and a further 2 5th places for his teammate. However, disaster struck when Wannemuller opted to leave the team following the Canadian round.

No replacement was found for the following 2 races however Tomeu Cabrer was selected as the German's replacement going forwards. Just 5 rounds after Wannemuller's departure, Konig too would leave the team following Hungary - leaving the team with none of their original lineup. The new-to-rF2 Roy Verzijl was drafted in to drive the #53 for the remainder of the season.

World GT 2016: Finally...

The team were also accepted into the 2016 WGT season, after trying to enter in every year since 2013. They were given the numbers #11 and #12, and announced their drivers as Thomas Hinss and Bart de Vos. This would be Hinss' second drive at Cosmo and de Vos' first.

While de Vos would being in a steady stream of points, the real star of the season was Hinss - showing top-5 form in most races, but being hindered by bad luck throughout the season. de Vos would leave the team after Belgium and would be replaced by Tobias Gruber who would only compete at Brno. The team finished the season 9th out of 15 in the Teams' standings, matching their Masters performance.

World Sport Series 2016: History repeats itself

To the surprise of the team, their application to the 2016 World Sport Series season was also approved, despite the interests levels in both WSS and WGT being very high. Only Ice Cold Racing would also appear in both WSS and WGT. The team were allocated the numbers #16 and #17. Initially drafting in Alexander van der Woude and Luke Walsh, the team's campaign would last just two rounds as van der Woude would leave after the season-opener in Russia. David Jundt was brought in for Spain but Walsh left the team after the round and Jundt headed to Hinss Motorsport; leading a frustrated Anderson to withdraw the team from the season with the view to coming back stronger in 2017.