Wikipedia

Trevor Carlin

Trevor John Carlin(born 13 March 1963) is a British motorsports team manager. He foundedCarlin Motorsportand ran the team under that name (1996-2008), Carlin (2009-2022) and Rodin Carlin (2023).

Trevor Carlin
Born(1963-03-13)13 March 1963(age 61)
St Albans, United Kingdom
NationalityUnited KingdomBritish
OccupationMotorsport team owner

Career

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As a schoolboy in Hertfordshire, Carlin began working as a gofer with the PRS Formula Ford 1600 company of his uncles Vic and Steve Hollman. After leaving school, he worked with PRS as a mechanic,[1]building the company's FF1600 and Formula Ford 2000 cars. He then joinedFormula 2and 3 powerhouseRalt,[1]and during the mid-1980s was sent by the company to the United States to work at its Ralt America offshoot, working with customers inFormula AtlanticandFormula Super Vee.[1]

In 1988, Steve Hollman formedBowman Racingto compete inBritish Formula 3.[2]Carlin returned from the USA to act as team manager.[1]From 1988-1992 the team competed in British F3, winning the overall championship and theMacau Grand PrixwithDavid Brabhamin 1989,[1]and claiming race victories withGary Brabham,Philippe AdamsandSteve Robertson– all in Ralt cars. Bowman also constructed its own F3 cars from 1991, designed by former Ralt staffer Bruce Carey.[2]While at Bowman, Carlin worked with engineersAdrian Burgessand Anthony 'Boyo' Hieatt – the nucleus of the early days ofCarlin Motorsport.

After Bowman Racing pulled out of British F3, Carlin attempted to set up a team for 1993 using theDallaracar – then the pacesetting machine in Europe – with Robertson driving. Without finance to make this happen, he accepted a job to work as a mechanic for Walker Racing in theCART Indycarseries. He had just returned to England to collect his belongings when he received a call fromWest Surrey Racingboss Dick Bennetts. Carlin accepted the job of team manager for the British F3 season[1]and was later reunited with Hieatt and Carey, who also joined WSR. After the Dallara showed amazing form in the some early-season British F3 races in 1993, WSR switched from Reynard to the Italian car. By 1994 nearly every car on the grid was a Dallara.[3]With WSR, Carlin won British F3 races withMarc Goossens,Vincent RadermeckerandCristiano da Matta.

For 1996, WSR switched from F3 to theBritish Touring Car Championship[4]as the works team for Ford, withPaul Radisichand Robertson driving. The project was underfunded and uncompetitive, and Carlin left. Along with AMT founder Martin Stone, he began running the Williams Pitstop Challenge for the F1 team – a travelling road show.[1]Meanwhile, veteran driver coach and ex-Ralt F3 race winner Rob Wilson introduced a young protégé Henry Stanton to Carlin. This allowed Carlin and Stone the means to establish an F3 team – Carlin Motorsport – from a barn on a farm in Woking, with Stanton driving. The team began competing in 1997, but the farm was sold toMcLarento build its newMcLaren Technology Centre.Carlin Motorsport moved into the Byfleet former premises of Weylock Racing before heading to Aldershot.

In 1998, the team began runningNarain Karthikeyan[1]after testing a young karter calledJenson Button,who was managed by Steve Robertson and his father David, to assess his potential for car racing. Suitably encouraged, the Robertsons found Button a seat in Formula Ford. Karthikeyan, meanwhile, gave Carlin Motorsport its first race win in the Madras Grand Prix in January 1999 and its first British F3 victory at Brands Hatch in April of that year.

Karthikeyan was friends with an inexperienced young Japanese driver calledTakuma Sato,who joined Carlin Motorsport in 2000.[1]In 2001, Sato gave the team its first championship title in British F3,[1]also winning theMacau GPand Marlboro Masters of F3 at Zandvoort. Across the year, Sato won 17 races across all competitions and team-mateAnthony Davidson,an F3 rookie, won eight; they were engineered by Hieatt and Burgess respectively.

This established Carlin Motorsport as the pre-eminent force in British F3, and the team won another title withAlan van der Merwein 2003.[1]Over the winter of 2004-05, Carlin was appointed by newJordan F1managing directorColin Kolles,whoseF3 Euro Seriesteam Carlin had helped, as team principal.[5]Burgess also joined Jordan as sporting director,[6]while Hieatt left Carlin Motorsport to establishRäikkönen Robertson Racingwith the Robertson family. Carlin left Jordan in the middle of the 2005 season,[6]while Burgess soon left too to work very successfully in AustralianV8 Supercars.Carlin Motorsport itself went from strength to strength, withAlvaro Parentewinning the British F3 title in 2005,Jaime Alguersuaridoing the same in 2008, andDaniel Ricciardofollowing suit in 2009.[7]The team had also become established as a leading contender inWorld Series by Nissanand thenWorld Series by Renault,winning races with drivers includingTiago Monteiro,Will Power,Sebastian VettelandRobert Wickens.[8]Further race victories had come inPorsche Supercupin 2001 (the team run by Carlin's uncle Steve Hollman) and inFormula BMWUK from 2004-07.[8]

At the end of the 2009 season, Carlin relinquished overall control of the team to Capsicum Motorsport, the company of Grahame Chilton (father ofMax Chilton,who drove for the team in F3 and GP2)[9]and Rupert Swallow, but continued as team principal of the squad, which was now rebranded simply as Carlin. In 2011, the team moved into a new facility on the outskirts of Farnham.

With Carlin leading from the front, the team continued under the umbrella of Capsicum until early 2023, when the Capsicum share transferred to Rodin Cars impresario David Dicker.[9]The company continued as Rodin Carlin in 2023, again with Carlin heading the operation, until he departed late in the year, followed by wife Stephanie, who left her deputy team principal role and joined the McLaren F1 team as business operations director.[10]

During the 2010-2023 period, Carlin took the team intoF3 Euro Series/FIA European F3,GP2/Formula 2,GP3/FIA Formula 3,Formula E(one season running Mahindra’s team),British F4,BRDC British F3/GB3,Euroformula Open,Asian Le Mans Series,Spanish F4andF1 Academy.Carlin also established a US arm to compete first inIndy Lightsand then inIndyCarwith Max Chilton, initially in the former premises ofDyson Racingin New York State and then in Florida. This closed at the end of 2021.

Further championship wins in the 2010-2023 period in Carlin-run cars were achieved byMikhail Aleshin(2010 World Series by Renault),[11]Jean-Éric Vergne(2010 British F3),[12]Robert Wickens(2011 World Series by Renault),[13]Felipe Nasr(2011 British F3),[14]Jack Harvey(2012 British F3),[15]Antonio Felix da Costa(2012and2016 Macau GP),[16][17]Jordan King(2013 British F3),[18]Alex Lynn(2014 GP3),[19]Lando Norris(2015 British F4and2017 FIA F3 European Championship),[20][21]Ed Jones(2016 Indy Lights),[22]Max Fewtrell(2016 British F4),[20]Enaam Ahmed(2017 BRDC British F3),[23]Jamie Caroline(2017 British F4),[20]Clement Novalak(2019 BRDC British F3),[24]Zane Maloney(2019 British F4),[20]Kaylen Frederick(2020 BRDC British F3),[25]Zak O'Sullivan(2021 GB3),[26]Callum Voisin(2023 GB3)[27]and Louis Sharp (2023 British F4).[20]

Under Carlin as team principal, the Carlin team secured overall victory in almost 500 races from 1999 to 2023. No fewer than 28 of its graduates have gone on to race in F1:Sebastian Vettel,Lando Norris,George Russell,Carlos Sainz Jr.,Daniel Ricciardo,Yuki Tsunoda,Kevin Magnussen,Nico Rosberg,Robert Kubica,Takuma Sato,Bruno Senna,Anthony Davidson,Narain Karthikeyan,Tiago Monteiro,Marcus Ericsson,Antonio Giovinazzi,Daniil Kvyat,Jean-Éric Vergne,Jaime Alguersuari,Sébastien Buemi,Jolyon Palmer,Felipe Nasr,Brendon Hartley,Max Chilton,Logan Sargeant,Nicholas Latifi,Will StevensandRio Haryanto.

Those to drive under Carlin at his team have also claimed IndyCar championship titles (Will Power andJosef Newgarden), Indy 500 victories (Sato, Power, Ericsson and Newgarden), Le Mans 24 Hours wins (Buemi, Hartley, Giovinazzi andJames Calado), and top-class World Endurance Championship crowns (Buemi, Davidson and Hartley).

See also

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References

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  1. ^abcdefghijk"People - Trevor Carlin".grandprix.com.Retrieved25 April2024.
  2. ^ab"Bowman".F3 History.Retrieved25 April2024.
  3. ^Evans, Ben (20 June 2008)."The Ben Evans column: Dallara".racefans.net.Retrieved28 April2024.
  4. ^"West Surrey Racing - Conquered F3 in the Past, Conquering BTCC Today".snaplap.net.20 January 2017.Retrieved28 April2024.
  5. ^"Midland F1".f1technical.net.Retrieved23 January2023.
  6. ^ab"Burgess Takes Over From Carlin At Jordan".motorsport.com.10 June 2005.Retrieved28 April2024.
  7. ^"British F3".motorsportmagazine.com.Retrieved28 April2024.
  8. ^ab"Carlin Motorsport".racingyears.com.Retrieved28 April2024.
  9. ^ab"Rodin buys out Chilton at Carlin"(PDF).Retrieved28 April2024.
  10. ^Simmons, Marcus (9 January 2024)."Rodin Team Renamed After Carlin Departure".au.motorsport.com.Retrieved28 April2024.
  11. ^"Russian Mikhail Aleshin secures Renault World Series title".www.autoracing1.com.11 October 2010.Retrieved25 April2024.
  12. ^"The 2010 British F3 season review".Autosport.15 October 2010.Retrieved25 April2024.
  13. ^"Formula Renault 3.5 World Series - Season 2011".Speedsport Magazine.Retrieved25 April2024.
  14. ^Allen, Peter (6 September 2011)."Felipe Nasr crowned British F3 champion".Formula Scout.Retrieved25 April2024.
  15. ^Simmons, Marcus."The story of British F3 2012: Harvey's quick steps".Autosport.Retrieved25 April2024.
  16. ^Beer, Matt (19 November 2012)."Antonio Felix da Costa says Macau GP win the greatest of his career".Autosport.Retrieved25 April2024.
  17. ^Chan, Pedro (20 November 2016)."Portuguese Antonio Felix da Costa clinches second Macau victory".Asia Times.Retrieved25 April2024.
  18. ^"Jordan King is 2013 Cooper Tires British Formula 3 Champion".moderntiredealer.com.27 September 2013.Retrieved25 April2024.
  19. ^Allen, Peter (6 December 2014)."2014 GP3 Series season review".Formula Scout.Retrieved25 April2024.
  20. ^abcde"British F4 History".FIA Formula 4.Retrieved25 April2024.
  21. ^"F3 - Lando Norris is the new FIA Formula 3 European Champion".FIA. 14 October 2017.Retrieved25 April2024.
  22. ^"Ed Jones wins 2016 Indy Lights title in season finale".Autosport.12 September 2016.Retrieved25 April2024.
  23. ^Wood, Ida (24 December 2017)."BRDC British Formula 3 2017 season review".Formula Scout.Retrieved25 April2024.
  24. ^"BRDC British Formula 3 Championship - Season 2019".Speedsport Magazine.Retrieved25 April2024.
  25. ^"2020 Championship Standings".britishf3.com.Archived fromthe originalon 1 December 2020.Retrieved25 April2024.
  26. ^Mackley, Stefan (17 October 2021)."O'Sullivan secures GB3 title with victory at Donington".Autosport.Retrieved25 April2024.
  27. ^"Voisin" Over the moon "with GB3 title".gb-3.net.Retrieved25 April2024.
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