Superleague Formula has secured one of the biggest names in world sports with Liverpool Football Club – the most successful club in the history of English football – joining the football-themed motor racing championship.
The “Reds” will make their championship debut less than 100 miles away from their Anfield home at the historic Donington Park circuit on August 30/31.
Liverpool becomes the 17th club to sign up for the championship and the second Premier League outfit – joining London team Tottenham Hotspur. Local fans at Donington Park will now have three teams to follow covering the UK from top to bottom – Tottenham, Liverpool and Scottish side, Rangers.
Founded in 1892, Liverpool have won more trophies than any other English club including a record 18 League titles, seven FA Cups , a record seven League Cup trophies and 15 Charity Shield wins (5 shared) .
The club has also won more European Cup/Champions League trophies than any other English club (five) and shares the overall record for the most UEFA Cup wins (three).
Two of Liverpool’s European wins were against two of its Superleague Formula rivals, AS Roma (1984) and AC Milan (2005).
The Superleague Formula grid will now include teams from the UK (Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur), Scotland (Rangers), Italy (AC Milan and AS Roma), Spain (Sevilla), Portugal (FC Porto), Netherlands (PSV Eindhoven), Germany (Borussia Dortmund), Belgium (RSC Anderlecht), Switzerland (FC Basel), Greece (Olympiacos), Turkey (Galatasaray), UAE (Al Ain), Brazil (Flamengo and Corinthians) and China (Beijing Guoan).
All teams will do battle with purpose-built, 750 horsepower, V12 powered single seaters in a six round championship featuring 1 million euro prizemoney for each race weekend.
“We are always keen to develop our range of commercial partners and working with Superleague Formula gives us an excellent opportunity to do that,” said Ian Ayre, Liverpool FC Commercial Director.
“This also provides an interesting and new dimension for Liverpool Fans to support their team in a different way and in a different sport. The opening race at Donnington is a great chance for our UK based fans to see the car in action and the short and long term plans to grow the series will reach out to our fanbase globally.”
The Liverpool car will be unveiled in Liverpool next week following on from Superleague Formula on-track testing at Donington Park on Thursday.
Superleague Formula President and CEO Alex Andreu believes the addition of Liverpool will significantly boost the profile of the new championship.
“As a global sports brand, Liverpool is one of the biggest names in the world,” Andreu said.
“Donington Park is only a couple of hours from Liverpool and we are really looking forward to hearing fans break into “You’ll Never Walk Alone” at a motorsport event.
“Our dream for our championship is now becoming a reality – our first race is only a matter of weeks away and all the hard work of our team at Superleague Formula is paying off.
“We are delighted to welcome Liverpool as our latest club and we look forward to announcing our final teams on the grid very soon.”
The complete Superleague Formula calendar includes Donington Park (August 30-31), Nurburgring (September 20-21), Zolder (October 4-5), Estoril (October 18-19), Vallelunga (November 1-2) and Jerez (November 22-23).
Tags: Liverpool, SuperLeague Formula, The Reds
Joaquin wrote,
I´m worried. There are only 14 days left and there are still 3 unknowns teams participating. When are we going to know the identidy of the last 3 clubs?
Link | August 15th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Rage-in-Chief wrote,
Worried?
Why, do you have money invested in them?
The reality is, who cares, many teams have no nominated drivers and some that do have scraped the very bottom of the talent barrel.
Link | August 15th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
peterg wrote,
This is actually turning out to be a shame. The teams, through the sponsorship of the FC’s, are funded enough to do a season.
Most teams/drivers are locked in a full time struggle for funding & yet here a cars ready to race a season.
I’ve done a bit of a back flip on this series. If they can snag some good pilots out of F3 & WsbR then good luck to them.
Link | August 16th, 2008 at 2:00 am
Jim Montgomery wrote,
I have followed this new and exciting superleague formula all over Europe, going to Donnington, Nurburgring, Zolder, Estoril and Jerez this year and can confirm that it is probably the most exciting form of motor sport I have attended. I go to Silverstone every year for the Fi Grand Prix, but this is different. I am able to get in the paddock and sometimes in the garage. I have become very friendly with Liverpool’s driver a very talented young spaniard called Adrian Valles. He is a superb driver, whether in the wet or in the dry.
The actual format is quite new withits very own qualifying formmat, run along the same lines as a european champions lweague tournament.
I would urge anyone interested in motor sport to attend the 2009 season and enjoy.
Link | December 29th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Rage-in-Chief wrote,
Jim, while I’m glad you enjoyed the season I don’t share your enthusiasm for this formula.
For a series that was supposed to attract both racing and football fans it failed to attract much attention from the public.
They only averaged a little less than 35,000 in attendance per event. That combined with the current economic environment I’d guess this series will never make it past the second season. If it makes it through that complete year.
Link | December 30th, 2008 at 2:18 am
Jim Montgomery wrote,
I don’t know why you are so pessimistic about this new formula?
Don’t you want a new arena where petrol heads and football fans can join together to enjoy motorsport?
Also as you rightly point out we are in a credit crunch, therefore the people who provide this very exciting new formula have priced it right so it is affordable for the masses, unlike formula 1 who seem to be pricing themselves out off existence. This combined with the draconian restrictions imposed on fans at F1 events means supporters cannot get anywhere near their heroes.
I for one am very pleased that someone has had the guts to try and provide something different for motorsport fans and football fans to enjoy together.
On my travels around Europe last year I met some wonderful people from different football clubs, motorsport arenas and the general public. This can only be good for sport and the European culture.
So please don’t dismiss this new and exciting formula out of hand, give it a chance, after all it was only the first season last year and it needs time to gain its feet and become an alternative form of enjoyment for everyone.
Link | January 8th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Jim Montgomery wrote,
Furthermore, you say they are scraping the bottom of the barrel for the drivers!!
Do you think that Robert Doornbos and Antonio Pizzonia are bottom of the barrel drivers?
I am a Liverpool FC supporter and I have to say that Adrian Valles has been a revelation as the driver for Liverpool. He probably should have won the championship, had it not been for the car letting him down on so many occasions. The problems started at Donnington Park and ended in Jerez, where he was leading the race by 12 seconds until 2/3rds of the way round the last lap when the car gave up on him.
However as I said above last year was only the inaugural year and we need a format where new young talents can experience driving proper racing cars.
Link | January 8th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Rage-in-Chief wrote,
Jim, Jim Jim… where to start?
I’m pessimistic because of the current financial status AND because this has been tried (a football/formula racing tie-up) before. And it was a great failure then.
You claim it’s priced for “the masses,” NEWSFLASH; It didn’t help, they only averaged 35 thousand per event. A1GP in its inaugural season averaged nearly twice that and didn’t have millions (billions?) of football fans to draw from.
Finally, did I say all drivers were scraped from the bottom of the barrel?
Simply no, a quick look at the driver line-up will show many that drove this past year were near unknowns at any level above F3 or the BMW/Renault formulas.
Link | January 8th, 2009 at 9:49 pm