Aramco

**Saudi Aramco Racing,** known commonly as **Aramco,** was a Saudi Arabian racing team. Founded by Mohammed bin Salman following his success in Formula International with Saudia, the current feeder team of Aramco, he entered after Audi withdrew from the sport and left the position open. Thanks to their financial power, they were able to become competitive from the start, scoring a podium on their debut season. Overall, the team has either been in the upper midfield, with the occasional fight for wins, winning the teams championship in 2034. After an underwhelming 2035, the team won in the following year the double, with star driver Martin Fenin winning the world title, becoming the first Eastern European world champion. Aramco scored another title with Fenin in 2038, but from 2039 the team started to struggle following the loss of interest from their own owners, and after the third race of 2040, were gone from the grid. A Chinese-Korean consortium consisting of Geely and Hyundai took over the team, running it as Sino-Korean Racing for the rest of the season, and rebranded the team into Lotus-Genesis from 2041 onwards.

## Origins

Mohammed bin Salman, King of Saudi Arabia and owner of oil company Aramco, had entered the motorsport scene in 2028, creating Formula International side Saudia eRacing Team with the intention of promoting motorsport in the country and helping restore the country's image and reputation in the global scene. After the mandatory poor start every new team had to face, they won the title in 2030, just their second season. Shortly after the success and Audi's withdrawal, bin Salman announced that he would create Saudi Aramco Racing and officialy enter Formula Earth.

## 2032-2034: Strong beginnings and winning the teams title

For their first season, Aramco signed Martin Fenin from McLaren on a multi-year deal and also managed to get Lando Norris on a free transfer, since his Audi contract had ended following the team's departure. The debut year was a strong one, with Fenin scoring the team's first ever podium and narrowly missing a place in the top 10 in the standings. Norris finished 14th, scoring some decent resutls, but overall being past his prime.

Norris made a return to McLaren in 2033 and the team promoted draftee Zouzou Randrianambinina from Saudia. The team improved, with Fenin managing to finish to ninth place, with Randrianambinina finishing down in 14th, in the same place with Norris. In 2034, the team made huge progress, battling for titles. While Fenin failed to win the drivers title after losing to Farid Esmaeilzadeh, the team's consistency and both Fenin and Randrianambinina finishing in the top 6, Aramco won the teams title, winning their first ever title in just their third year on the sport.

## 2035-2038: Winning the double

The duo was kept for the 2035 season, but the team experienced a setback in performance in order to focus on the 2036 season. During this transitional stage, the team returned to its original midfield position, with Fenin 10th and Randrianambinina 14th.

When 2036 came hitting, the team found itself back on top, battling with arch-rivals Renault for the title, with both Fenin and Ranbrianambinina being title contenders, battling against Renault star Levi Lea'ai. Due to Renault's second driver Davor Dordevic fizzling out in mid-season, Aramco managed to get a major advantage in the team standings and managed to score enough points to win their second teams title. However, the drivers title had to be decided in the final race following a grueling battle between Lea'ai and the Aramco drivers. In the end, after a dramatic race, Fenin, who had failed to win the World Cup earlier that year due to bad luck, managed to not only win the race after dominating the last laps, thus winning his first ever world title and Aramco's first ever drivers title. Fenin also became the first driver from Eastern Europe to win a drivers title.

In 2037, the team underperformed for one more year, again saving money to be competitive for 2038, with the team being in the midfield, but in 2038, Fenin and Randrianambinina dominated the grid, finishing 1st and 2nd and winning the double in what was their most succesful year, with Fenin winning his second world title.

## 2039-2040: Decline and financial collapse

In 2039, however, the team found itself on the other side of the table and also in trouble in various aspects. Randrianambinina demanded an exit from the team and left for Venturi after his contract expired and the team promoted draftee Charles Lauvergne on the second car following his title win in Formula International. Aramco also was affected by the declining interest from bin Salman and the entire Middle Eastern consortium as a whole, which led to their decline. The team struggled in the lower midfield for 2039, with both Fenin and Lauvergne struggling for results.

While 2040 began somewhat optimistically performance-wise, the final blow came just months after Saudia was sold in the end of 2039. After the third race of the year, the team's owners and sponsors pulled out of the team, and thus Aramco's year ended before it even started practically, thus ending the existence of one of the best teams of the 2030 decade. With Aramco unable to continue, the team ran as a neutral team for the fourth race, and then a Chinese-Korean consortium, operated by Geely and Hyundai, took over the assets and ran a temporary team, named Sino-Korean Racing. For 2041, the team was rebranded as Lotus-Genesis.

## Notable Drivers

* Martin Fenin (2032-2040)
* Lando Norris (2032)
* Zouzou Randrianambinina (2033-2038)
* Charles Lauvergne (2039-2040)