Jake Rosenzweig To Partner Rio Haryanto At Barwa Addax In 2013

Spanish GP2 team Barwa Addax have confirmed that American driver Jake Rosenzweig will partner Rio Haryanto at the outfit in the forthcoming GP2 season, after the 23-year-old competed in the final two rounds of the season for Barwa Addax last year. Rosenzweig will become the first American to compete in the Series since Scott Speed.

After enjoying Championship supremacy in 2011 with Romain Grosjean, Barwa Addax endured a relatively tough 2012 season which yielded only two victories at the hands of both Johnny Cecotto jr. and Josef Kral. The Spanish outfit finished the year only 8th in the Constructors’ Championship with 131 points scored, a tally they will be aiming to better in the coming season with a revised driving line-up which includes Rio Haryanto and American star Jake Rosenzweig.

Jake Rosenzweig’s path to the GP2 Series has included stints in both the GP2 Asia, Auto GP and Formula Renault 3.5 categories. Towards the end of the 2012 GP2 season, Jake Rosenzweig was called upon by the Spanish outfit to partner Johnny Cecotto jr. in the final two rounds of the year at Monza and Singapore, where the American driver managed to finish all four races albeit well outside the points paying positions. However, Barwa Addax were impressed with Rosenzweig’s performances during both the final two rounds of the season and the post-season tests, and he will therefore compete in his first full season of GP2 action in 2013 alongside Indonesian ace Rio Haryanto.

“I am excited to be joining Addax for the 2013 GP2 season and wish to thank all involved for making this possible.” Said Jake Rosenzweig, “Having raced in the final two rounds of the 2012 Championship with Addax, I know what an opportunity this represents to be working with them again. The race calendar has some great circuits and I am looking forward to hitting the ground running. I will do my best to score as many points as possible over the course of the season.”

Barwa Addax have become the sixth team on the grid to confirm their full driver line-up for the forthcoming season, along with DAMS, Lotus GP, Arden International, Racing Engineering and Carlin. With so many Championship contenders on the grid for the new season, 2013 is expected to be yet another sensationally exciting season of GP2 action. Both Rio Haryanto and Jake Rosenzweig will be hoping to add to the excitement once the action gets underway in March at the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Picture Copyright © Alastair Staley/GP2 Series Media Service

Jake Rosenzweig Replaces Josef Kral At Barwa Addax For Monza

American driver Jake Rosenzweig will make his return to the GP2 Series this weekend in Monza, as the 23-year-old prepares to replace Josef Kral for this weekend’s penultimate race weekend of the season. This comes after Kral won last time out in Belgium, and is the second time the Czech driver has been replaced this season.

Jake Rosenzweig raced for Super Nova Racing in last season’s non-Championship final at Abu Dhabi, and has this season raced in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series (World Series by Renault) for ISR, albeit yielding slightly uncompetitive results with a personal best of 6th at Spa-Francorchamps earlier in the year. This is the third driver change ahead of this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix, after Stefano Coletti moved from Coloni to Rapax, forcing Coloni to re-sign Luca Filippi to fill his vacant seat.

This change is the second time Barwa Addax have replaced Josef Kral, after the Czech driver was replaced by HRT reserve driver Dani Clos for the two back-to-back Bahrain races at the start of the season. Although the Czech driver has endured a highly uncompetitive season throughout 2012, Josef Kral did win last time out at Spa-Francorchamps. However, this was only Kral’s second finish in the points all season, and could well be the reason behind why Addax have replaced Kral with Rosenzweig.

Jake Rosenzweig will become the first American driver to partake in an official GP2 event since the inaugural season back in 2005, when Scott Speed raced for iSport International alongside Turkish driver Can Artam. Barwa Addax have won three races so far this season, with both Josef Kral and Johnny Cecotto jr. victorious throughout the year. Jake Rosenzweig will undoubtedly be striving to emulate those results, and battle at the sharp end of the field for a competitive race result once the action gets underway this weekend.

Picture Copyright © Drew Gibson/GP2 Series Media Service