The 2011 Superleague Formula season was the fourth and final season Superleague Formula championship. The series reverted to being known simply as "Superleague Formula", with 2009's two-year sponsorship deal with Sonangol also having expired. The first race of the season was held on 5 June at Assen and was due to finish at a venue in New Zealand after 8 race weekends.

After three seasons in which the cars were run in club team colours, the 2011 season saw drivers competing in the colours of their nation, with countries adorning team names as had been set out by Team China in 2010, thus beginning a severing of the strong links the series had attempted to make by linking each team entry with a football club. As many as eight of the announced fourteen entries no longer had links with football teams.

The season ended after just two of the scheduled rounds after a number of complications, which saw tracks not being ready in time for the series, and disagreements with race organisers.

Teams and drivers All teams competed on Michelin tyres for the fourth season in a row. EntrantRace teamRace driver(s)Rounds Belgium – R.S.C. Anderlecht Azerti Motorsport 1 Neel Jani All Netherlands – PSV Eindhoven 2 Yelmer Buurman All France – Girondins de Bordeaux 3 Tristan Gommendy All Czech Republic – AC Sparta Prague Atech Reid Grand Prix 4 Filip Salaquarda All Luxembourg 5 Frédéric Vervisch All New Zealand 6 Earl Bamber 1 Chris van der Drift 2 Japan 7 Duncan Tappy 1 Robert Doornbos 2 Netherlands 8 1 Russia 17 Mikhail Aleshin 2 Spain – Atlético de Madrid EmiliodeVillota Motorsport 9 María de Villota 1 Andy Soucek 2 Turkey – Galatasaray S.K. 10 1 Duncan Tappy 2 China 11 Ho-Pin Tung 1 South Korea 19 Max Wissel 2 Brazil Alan Docking Racing 14 Antônio Pizzonia All Australia 24 John Martin All England 31 Craig Dolby AllSource:

Driver changes Entering/Re-Entering Superleague Formula After racing the 2010 season in Stock Car Brasil, Antônio Pizzonia returns to Superleague Formula with the Brazil entrant. Formula Renault 3.5 Series driver Filip Salaquarda will join new Superleague Formula club, AC Sparta Prague, supported by Atech Reid Grand Prix.

Leaving Superleague Formula Adderly Fong and Hywel Lloyd will both move back to British Formula 3 in 2011 with Sino Vision Racing, as will Bruno Méndez, racing for Hitech Racing. Having contested the final race of the 2010 season with PSV Eindhoven, Esteban Guerrieri will move into Firestone Indy Lights with Sam Schmidt Motorsports. Máximo Cortés, Julien Jousse and James Walker will race in the Le Mans Series in 2011, having raced in Superleague Formula on different occasions in 2010. Narain Karthikeyan, who raced for PSV Eindhoven during much of 2010, will return to Formula One with Hispania Racing following a five-year absence from the series. Celso Míguez will race in the Spanish GT Championship in 2011 with Aurora Racing Team having competed in Superleague Formula at two events during 2010. Last year's Superleague Formula champion Davide Rigon will make the step up to the GP2 Series in 2011 with team Scuderia Coloni.

Mid-season changes Chris van der Drift switched to the Formula Renault 3.5 Series for the start of 2011 but returned to Superleague Formula for round two in Zolder. Max Wissel rejoined the series with new entrant South Korea, and Mikhail Aleshin joined the other new entrant, Russia, racing in Superleague Formula for the first time. Robert Doornbos took over from Duncan Tappy in the championship-leading Japan car, with Tappy moving to the Galatasaray car to replace Andy Soucek, who in turn replaces María de Villota at Atlético de Madrid.

2011 schedule Superleague Formula announced its full 2011 calendar on May 2, which saw the championship embark on a "Nations Cup", with races on four different continents this season in 8 rounds. For the first time, races were scheduled to be held in Russia, Brazil (two races), the Middle East and New Zealand. The Russian round, due to be held at the newly built Smolensk Ring, was later cancelled. The Middle East round was later replaced by a round in South Korea and a second round in China was added to replace the Russian round. The two rounds in Brazil were cancelled after apparent issues with the track in Goiânia. The series finale in New Zealand was later cancelled. The "Nations Cup" branding also had to be abandoned due to issues with naming rights which the series was still looking to resolve. With the announcement of the calendar, it was confirmed that each round was known as a 'Grand Prix'. The SF World Feed commentators at Zolder were Andrew Coley and Earl Bamber.

Race calendar and results Round Grand Prix Date Pole position Fastest lap Winning club Winning team Weekend winner Report 1 R1 GP Assen – Holland 4–5 June France – GDB France – GDB Netherlands – PSV Azerti Motorsport England Report R2 Czech Republic – SPR Japan Atech Reid Grand Prix 2 R1 GP Zolder – Belgium 16–17 July England New Zealand England Alan Docking Racing Luxembourg Report R2 Australia Australia Alan Docking RacingSources:

Cancelled races Grand Prix Date GP Italy 16–17 April GP Portugal 7–8 May GP Germany 18–19 June GP Spain 2–3 July GP Britain 6–7 August GP Russia 3–4 September GP Goiânia – Brazil 8–9 October TBC 15–16 October GP Beijing – China 29–30 October GP Shanghai – China 5–6 November GP Seoul – South Korea 12–13 November TBC 10–11 December

Test calendar and results There was a two-day pre-season test session at Spain's Circuito Monteblanco on 9–10 December 2010. The Circuito de Navarra in Spain was due to host a two-day test on 30–31 August 2011. However, the scheduled event was cancelled, without an explanatory announcement.

Championship standings Pos Entrant Drivers ASS ZOL PtsR1R2SR1R2S 1 Australia John Martin 6 2 4 7 1 2 158 2 Japan Duncan Tappy 7 1 6 136 Robert Doornbos 5 7 6 3 Luxembourg Frédéric Vervisch 3 13 DN 3 4 1 134 4 Netherlands – PSV Eindhoven Yelmer Buurman 1 10 3 6 6 7 130 5 Belgium – RSC Anderlecht Neel Jani 4 9 7 2 9 3 125 6 England Craig Dolby 2 8 1 1 13 X 124 7 New Zealand Earl Bamber 9 5 X 113 Chris van der Drift 4 8 5 8 Brazil Antônio Pizzonia 8 3 2 9 12 X 102 9 Czech Republic – AC Sparta Praha Filip Salaquarda 5 6 5 12 10 X 95 10 Turkey – Galatasaray SK Andy Soucek 13 7 X 88 Duncan Tappy 10 5 X 11 South Korea Max Wissel 8 2 4 71 12 Russia Mikhail Aleshin 11 3 8 56 13 France – Girondins de Bordeaux Tristan Gommendy 14 4 X 14 11 X 52 14 China Ho-Pin Tung 10 11 X 34 15 Spain – Atlético de Madrid María de Villota 12 12 X 28 Andy Soucek 13 14 X 16 Netherlands Robert Doornbos 11 DN X 16 Pos Entrant DriversR1R2SR1R2S Pts ASS ZOLSources:NOTE – R2 starts with reverse grid S = Super Final

Race 1 and 2 points Position 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th 19th 20th 21st 22nd DNF DNS Ref Points 50 45 40 36 32 29 26 23 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 0

Super Final points Position 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th DNQ DNS Ref Points 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 0 0 0

New for 2011 was the alteration that the top 8 points-scorers from the weekend would compete in the Super Final, in contrast to 2010 where only the top 6 would qualify.

References

External links

V12 Racing: Independent Superleague Formula Fansite Magazine Superleague Formula at thenewsmarket.com