Renault Sport Series
Vorlage:Infobox motorsport championship
The World Series by Renault, formerly the World Series by Nissan, is a motorsport single-seater series.
It was founded as Open Fortuna by Nissan in 1998, and was mostly based in Spain, but visited other countries throughout its history, including France, Italy, Portugal and Brazil. The organization was handled by RPM Comunicacion. The series changed name a number of times, usually adopting the name of its main sponsor, but was also known by other common names such as the unofficial "Formula Nissan". In 2005, the series was integrated with Formula Renault V6 Eurocup, and became World Series by Renault.
In its early years, the series used chassis built by Coloni, with a 2.0 L Nissan SR20 engine. The series slotted in between Formula 3 and Formula 3000. In 2002, it adopted a new format, with chassis supplied by Dallara and the engine upgraded to the VQ30. The series also became more international, with more than half of the race calendar held outside Spain.
Renault started the Formula Renault V6 Eurocup in 2003, as a support series in Eurosport's Super Racing Weekends (ETCC and FIA GT Championship). The series ran with Tatuus chassis and a Nissan-sourced 3.5 L V6 engine.
In 2005, Renault left the Super Racing Weekend and started the World Series by Renault, organized by Renault Sport and RPM with Formula Renault 3.5, merging both the World Series by Nissan (whose engine contract had finished) and Renault V6 Eurocup. The Dallara chassis was retained, while the Renault V6 was improved to 425 PS. Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup and the Eurocup Mégane Trophy functioned as support races to the main series.
Series Name & Champions
- Formula Nissan & World Series
| Year | Series name | Driver's Champion | Team's Champion |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Open Fortuna by Nissan | Vorlage:Flagicon Marc Gené | |
| 1999 | Euro Open MoviStar by Nissan | Vorlage:Flagicon Fernando Alonso | |
| 2000 | Open Telefónica by Nissan | Vorlage:Flagicon Antonio García | |
| 2001 | Open Telefónica by Nissan | Vorlage:Flagicon Franck Montagny | |
| 2002 | Telefónica World Series | Vorlage:Flagicon Ricardo Zonta | Vorlage:Flagicon Racing Engineering |
| 2003 | Superfund World Series | Vorlage:Flagicon Franck Montagny | Vorlage:Flagicon Gabord Competition |
| 2004 | World Series by Nissan | Vorlage:Flagicon Heikki Kovalainen | Vorlage:Flagicon Pons Racing |
| 2005 | World Series by Renault | Vorlage:Flagicon Robert Kubica | Vorlage:Flagicon Epsilon Euskadi |
| 2006 | World Series by Renault | Vorlage:Flagicon Alx Danielsson | Vorlage:Flagicon Interwetten.com |
| 2007 | World Series by Renault | Vorlage:Flagicon Álvaro Parente | Vorlage:Flagicon Tech 1 Racing |
Note: In dark-pink background, mainly Spanish-based series (also known as Formula Nissan) with 2.0 L engine. In light-pink background, international series with V6 engine.
| Year | Champion | Team's Champion |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Vorlage:Flagicon José María López | Vorlage:Flagicon Signature |
| 2004 | Vorlage:Flagicon Giorgio Mondini | Vorlage:Flagicon Eurointernational |
Notable Drivers
- Formula One drivers in the future and/or past
- Marc Gené (1998: Champion, 2003: 12th), competed in Formula One for Minardi and Williams.
- Fernando Alonso (1999: Champion), competed in Formula One for Minardi, Renault and McLaren. He was the 2005 and 2006 Formula One World Champion.*
- Giorgio Pantano (1999: 21st), competed in Formula One for Jordan.
- Franck Montagny (2001: Champion, 2002: 2nd, 2003: Champion}, competed in Formula One for Super-Aguri.
- Ricardo Zonta (2002: Champion) - 1997 FIA GT Champion, competed in Formula One for BAR, Jordan and BAR.
- Justin Wilson (2002: 4th), competed in Formula One for Minardi and Jaguar. Went onto Champ Car with RuSPORT and Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing
- Narain Karthikeyan (2002: 9th, 2003: 4th, 2004: 6th), competed in Formula One for Jordan.
- Heikki Kovalainen (2003: 2nd, 2004: Champion), competed in Formula One for Renault and McLaren.*
- Enrique Bernoldi (2003: 6th, 2004: 3rd), competed in Formula One for Arrows. Went onto Champ Car with Rocketsports.
- Stéphane Sarrazin (2003: 7th), competed in Formula One for Minardi.
- Tiago Monteiro (2004: 2nd), competed in Formula One for Jordan and Midland/Spyker.
- Robert Kubica (2005: Champion), competed in Formula One for BMW.*
- Sebastian Vettel (2006: 15th, 2007: 5th -1st after seven races, when withdrew to compete in F1-), competed in Formula One for BMW and Toro-Rosso.*
The * denotes drivers still active in Formula One as of September 3rd 2007.
- Formula One test drivers
- Tomas Scheckter (2001: 2nd) - Jaguar Racing (2001)
- Bas Leinders (2002: 3rd, 2003: 3rd) - Minardi (2004)
- Giorgio Mondini (2007: no points) - Midland F1 (2006)
- James Rossiter (2006: 13th) - Super Aguri (2007)
- Adrián Vallés (2004: 10th, 2005: 2nd)) - Spyker F1 (2007)
- Giedo van der Garde (2007: 6th tied) - Spyker F1 (2007)
- Fairuz Fauzy (2007: 10th) - Spyker F1 (2007)
- Roldán Rodríguez (2004: 21th) - Spyker F1 (2007)
- Formula Three Champions
- Jonathan Cochet (2001: 9th, 2002: 13th) - French Championship (2000)
- Ander Vilariño (2002: 8th, 2003: 8th, 2004: 12th) - Spanish Championship (2000 and 2001)
- Ryo Fukuda (2004: 15th, 2006: 16th) - French Championship (2001)
- Tristan Gommendy (2004: 5th, 2005: 4th, 2006: 19th) - French Championship (2002)
- Álvaro Parente (2007: Champion) - English Championship (2005)
- Ricardo Risatti (2007: no points) - Spanish Championship (2006)
- Salvador Durán (2007: 8th) - 2005 British F3 Championship
- Champions in other categories
- Andy Priaulx (2001: 18th) - 2004 European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) Champion, 2005, 2006 and 2007 World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) World Champion
- Matteo Bobbi (2001: 11th, 2002: 6th) - 2003 FIA GT Champion
- Filipe Albuquerque (2007: 4th) - 2006 Eurocup Formula Renault and Formula Renault 2.0 NEC
TV broadcasters
Live broadcasters
Highlights-only broadcasters
| Country | TV Network | Language(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Vorlage:Flagicon Singapore | ESPN Star | English, Hindi, Korean and Mandarin |
| Vorlage:Flagicon United Kingdom | Sky Sports | English |
| Vorlage:Flagicon The Netherlands | SBS 6 | Dutch |