The BOSS GP Racing Series is a motor racing series in Europe. The category originated in 1995 as the BOSS Formula series and evolved into the EuroBOSS Series.

BOSS GP
CategorySingle seaters
CountryEurope
Inaugural season1995
Constructors
Tyre suppliersPirelli
Drivers' championF1 Class:
Austria Ingo Gerstl
OPEN Class:
Brazil Antônio Pizzonia
FORMULA Class:
Italy Simone Colombo
SUPER LIGHTS Class:
Germany Henry Clausnitzer
Official websiteBOSS GP
Current season

BOSS is an acronym that stands for Big Open Single Seaters.

History

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Group 9 BOSS cars racing at Road America, 2007

The BOSS series was founded in 1995 under the regulations of the RAC Motor Sports Association and raced mainly in Great Britain.[1] The series grew in popularity and later expanded to Europe,[2] being renamed to European BOSS (shortened by the competitors to EuroBOSS) following the European expansion and the involvement of Paul Stoddart's European Aviation. The move to Europe resulted in increased investment into the series and an increased number of Formula 1 cars taking part in races.[2] It mainly saw grids of around 12–15 cars, but on some occasions as few as five cars competed in a race.

After the 2009 EuroBOSS season Marijn van Kalmthout, Klaas Zwart (founder of Ascari Cars and the Ascari Race Resort), Henk de Boer and Frits van Eerd [nl] decided to split off and organize their own race series. This ended up becoming BOSS GP. EuroBOSS continued on into 2010. BOSS GP flourished, with many drivers making the switch to the new series, whilst EuroBOSS saw smaller and smaller numbers. Eventually, the final 3 races of the 2010 EuroBOSS season were cancelled and the series was disbanded, with competitors switching over to BOSS GP.

Most BOSS GP entries are more recent secondary level single-seaters such as GP2 cars and Renault World Series cars along with a small number of 90s and 00s Formula 1 cars, but common EuroBOSS entries included Formula 1 machines from Benetton, Jordan, Tyrrell, Minardi and on occasions a V12 Ferrari. Other frequent entrants in BOSS series have been Lola and Reynard CART chassis, the 1997–2002 Panoz (aka G-Force) and Dallara IndyCar chassis. From 2012, the 2003-2011 Dallara and Panoz Champ Car chassis have also been used after the switch to the new IndyCar formula.

The series is mainly populated by wealthy drivers, although efforts have been made to attract more young drivers who want experience with Formula 1 or Formula 2-level machinery.[1] BOSS GP removes a lot of the restrictions present in the majority of Formula series, allowing weight and power restrictions to be abandoned as long as they comply to the FIA safety requirements.[1] The series uses Pirelli tyres that have a larger operating window than those in F1 and F2; this is mainly designed to help the drivers, but they still behave similarly enough to the P-Zeros used in F2 to provide a valid reference for the younger drivers.[1] BOSS GP also has fairly loose restrictions on testing, something which many junior drivers have exploited to gain experience with new circuits, new cars and learning how to handle cars with high levels of downforce.[1]

As of 2013 two rounds of the BOSS GP series have formed an official German championship sanctioned by the DMSB. In the 2018 season, BOSS GP ran a support race for two major motorsports events (the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim and the Red Bull Ring round of the DTM Championship[3]) for the first time. The series later supported DTM at Assen in 2019 and Spa-Francorchamps in 2020.[4] It also expressed an interest in taking part in the planned 70 years of F1 celebrations at Silverstone[1] before those plans were cancelled entirely due to COVID-19 restrictions.

In 2020 the championship ran with a reduced season; the planned Misano and Hockenheim rounds were forced to be cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions,[5] reducing the 2020 season to four weekends.[6]

Notable drivers who have raced in BOSS, EuroBOSS and BOSS GP include Scott Mansell (who won the EuroBOSS championship in 2004), IndyCar driver Rinus VeeKay, former Williams and Jaguar driver Antonio Pizzonia, former Minardi driver Tarso Marques and former Formula 2 driver Mahaveer Raghunathan.[1] Romain Grosjean also did some test sessions with BOSS GP regulars Top Speed before his return to F1 with Lotus in 2012.[1]

Similar series

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EuroBOSS was the European equivalent of USBOSS and OZBOSS. EuroBOSS tended to mainly have F1 Cars, whilst USBOSS consisted mainly of Indy and Champ Cars and OZBOSS tended to have Formula 4000 or equivalent.

Cars

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Over the years the classes have been updated. Relatively new cars like the Dallara GP2/11 and GP2/08 (GP2), Dallara T12 and T08 (WSbR) and Lola B05/52 (A1GP/Auto GP/FA1) have recently been raced in the series, as well as some Formula 1 cars from the 2000s such as the Toro Rosso STR1, Super Aguri SA06, Jaguar R3 and Jaguar R5. For 2010, EuroBOSS allowed the Tatuus N.T07 International Formula Master car to race in the series; this car was never allowed in the BOSS GP series.

The Toro Rosso STR1 (left), an F1 Class car and the Dallara IR-05 (right), an OPEN Class car.
The Dallara GP2/11 (left), a FORMULA Class car and the Dallara T08 (right), a SUPER LIGHTS Class car.

Actual classes and cars in the BOSS GP Racing Series (since season 2022):

BOSS GP F1 Class
Entitled types: Formula 1 cars built from 1996
BOSS GP OPEN Class
Entitled types: Lotus T125, Rodin FZED, Champ Car and IndyCar built from 2008
BOSS GP FORMULA Class
Entitled types: F2/GP2, Auto GP, A1GP, FA1, Superleague Formula, World Series by Nissan/Renault V8
BOSS GP SUPER LIGHTS Class
Entitled types: World Series by Nissan/Renault V6, Formula 3000, Formula Nippon

Circuits

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Champions

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BOSS Formula & EuroBOSS

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Season Champion Team Champion
BOSS Formula
1995   Klaus Panchyrz
Reynard 93D-Cosworth
  Mönninghoff Racing
1996   Johan Rajamaki
Footwork FA13-Judd
  Rajamaki Racing
1997   Nigel Greensall
Tyrrell 022-Ford
  European Aviation
1998   Nigel Greensall
Tyrrell 022-Ford
  European Aviation
1999   Tony Worswick
Jordan 194-Judd
  Worswick Engineering
2000   Dave Hutchinson
Benetton B194-Ford
  Kockney Koi Yamitsu
EuroBOSS
2001   Tony Worswick
Jordan 194-Ford
  Worswick Engineering
2002   Earl Goddard
Benetton B194-Ford
  Kockney Koi Yamitsu
2003   Klaas Zwart
Benetton B197-Judd
  Team Ascari
2004   Scott Mansell
Benetton B197-Judd
  Mansell Motorsport
2005   Patrick d’Aubreby
Benetton B192-Ford
  Team Griffiths/Team Ascari
2006   Klaas Zwart
Benetton B197-Judd
  Team Ascari
2007   Klaas Zwart
Benetton B197-Judd
  Team Ascari
2008   Ingo Gerstl
Dallara SN01-Nissan
  TopSpeed
2009   Henk de Boer
Panoz DP01-Cosworth
  De Boer Manx
2010   Damien Charveriat
Dallara GP2/05-Mecachrome
  Zele Racing

BOSS GP Racing Series

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Season Open Champion Team Champion Secondary Class Champion
2010   Klaas Zwart
Benetton B197-Judd
  Team Ascari M:   Karl Heinz Becker
Dallara SN01-Nissan
2011   Klaas Zwart
Jaguar R5-Cosworth
Benetton B197-Judd
  Team Ascari F:   Ingo Gerstl
Dallara GP2/05-Mecachrome
M:   Norbert Gruber
Dallara T05-Renault
2012   Klaas Zwart
Jaguar R5-Cosworth
  Team Ascari F:   Bernd Herndlhofer
Dallara GP2/05-Mecachrome
M:   Johann Ledermair
Dallara T08-Renault
2013   Gary Hauser
Dallara GP2/08-Mecachrome
  Racing Experience F:   Gary Hauser
Dallara GP2/08-Mecachrome
M:   Hans Laub
Lola B99/50-Cosworth
2014   Jakub Śmiechowski
Dallara GP2/08-Mecachrome
  Inter Europol Competition F:   Jakub Śmiechowski
Dallara GP2/08-Mecachrome
M:   Hans Laub
Dallara T08-Renault
2015   Klaas Zwart
Jaguar R5-Cosworth
not awarded F:   Johann Ledermair
Dallara GP2/08-Mecachrome
M:   Hans Laub
Dallara T08-Renault
2016   Ingo Gerstl
Toro Rosso STR1-Cosworth
F:   Christopher Brenier
Panoz DP09B-Menard
2017   Ingo Gerstl
Toro Rosso STR1-Cosworth
F:   Mahaveer Raghunathan
Lola B05/52-Gibson
2018   Ingo Gerstl
Toro Rosso STR1-Cosworth
F:   Florian Schnitzenbaumer
Dallara GP2/08-Mecachrome
2019   Ingo Gerstl
Toro Rosso STR1-Cosworth
F:   Marco Ghiotto
Dallara GP2/11-Mecachrome
2020   Ingo Gerstl
Toro Rosso STR1-Cosworth
F:   Marco Ghiotto
Dallara GP2/11-Mecachrome
2021   Ulf Ehninger
Benetton B197-Judd
F:   Marco Ghiotto
Dallara GP2/11-Mecachrome
2022   Ingo Gerstl
Toro Rosso STR1-Cosworth
O:   Harald Schlegelmilch
Dallara T12-Gibson
F:   Simone Colombo
Dallara GP2/11-Mecachrome
SL:   Andreas Hasler
Dallara T08-Renault
2023   Ingo Gerstl
Toro Rosso STR1-Cosworth
O:   Antônio Pizzonia
Dallara T12-Gibson
F:   Simone Colombo
Dallara GP2/11-Mecachrome
SL:   Henry Clausnitzer
Tatuus FRV6-Renault

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wood, Elliot (24 July 2019). "The gentleman driver series that could put youngsters on the map". Formula Scout. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  2. ^ a b Arbon, Adam (31 August 2016). "BOSS GP: A motorsport series going from strength to strength". The Checkered Flag. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  3. ^ "TREND-SETTING: BOSS GP WITH DTM IN SPIELBERG". BOSS GP. 18 September 2018. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
  4. ^ van der Walt, Andries (31 July 2020). "BOSS GP Is Ready For Spa". Rallystar. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  5. ^ "CANCELLATION MISANO AND HOCKENHEIM". BOSS GP. 4 June 2020. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
  6. ^ "Events".
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