Open wheel juggernaut Carlin has been rebranded as Rodin Motorsport ahead of the upcoming season following the departure of founder Trevor Carlin late last year.
New Zealand-based track car manufacturer Rodin Cars invested in the outfit in 2023, purchasing a stake previously owned by Grahame Chilton, father of former F1 and IndyCar driver Max Chilton. That led to the team being renamed Rodin Carlin, before Rodin assumed full control at the turn of the year.
“I am thrilled to lead Rodin Motorsport in this new era of our racing history,” said Rodin Motorsport director David Dicker. “The team has a tremendous racing pedigree which we will continue to build upon moving forward. The 2024 season is once again going to be an exciting year for everyone at Rodin Motorsport and I for one can’t wait to get back on track where we belong.
“Our core values remain the same and we continue to strive to be the leading junior motorsport team. Our commitment to the drivers, championships and staff remains unwavering; we are here to race, develop drivers and keep winning.”
The renaming will also see the team ditch its famous blue color palette for New Zealand’s black and white, but it will remain based in the UK. Rodin Cars itself is headquartered on New Zealand’s South Island.
The Carlin name has been synonymous with junior racing since the team’s founding in 1996, competing in the likes of Formula 2, Formula 3, Formula 4, GP2, GP3, Formula Renault, Formula Renault 3.5, and Indy Lights. The team also previously ran programs in IndyCar, Formula E (running the Mahindra team for the inaugural season in 2014-15), GP3, A1 Grand Prix (where it ran entries for Portugal, Japan, Lebanon, and Korea), and Porsche Supercup.
It has won a total of 456 races, with over 30 of its drivers progressing to Formula 1, including seven of the current grid.
Daniel Ricciardo and Carlos Sainz Jr. raced for the team in British and European Formula 3 as well as the Macau Grand Prix during their time as Red Bull juniors; Lando Norris also raced for the team in F3, as well as MSA Formula (now British Formula 4) and Formula 2; George Russell had a stint with the team in Formula 3, while Yuki Tsunoda raced for it in F2 in 2020. Kevin Magnussen raced for the team in British F3 back in 2011, graduating to Formula Renault 3.5 with the outfit the following year, while Logan Sargeant raced for the team in British F4 in 2017, before returning to the team for the 2022 F2 season.
Sebastian Vettel, Robert Kubica, Brendon Hartley, Felipe Nasr, Daniil Kvyat and Antonio Giovinazzi are among Carlin’s other F1 alumni. Formula E champions Nelson Piquet Jr., Sebastien Buemi, Jean-Eric Vergne, Antonio Felix da Costa, and Jake Dennis also raced for Carlin at various points in their careers, as did 2022-23 title contender driver Nick Cassidy.
From the current IndyCar crop, Takuma Sato, Josef Newgarden, Marcus Ericsson, Will Power, Colton Herta, Conor Daly, Jack Harvey, Devlin DeFrancesco, Callum Ilott, and Tom Blomqvist spent parts of their junior careers with the team, while the team itself competed in IndyCar between 2018-21, with Chilton, Daly Charlie Kimball, Pato O’Ward, and Sage Karam among its drivers.
Rodin has affirmed its commitment to its programs in F2, F3, F1 Academy, GB3, Spanish F4, and British F4 for 2024, although the team’s announcement made no mention of Extreme E, where it ran Lewis Hamilton’s X44 Vida Carbon Racing team in 2023, taking over from Prodrive which carried it to the 2022 title. RACER has reached out to X44 for clarification on that program’s current status.
Last year, Rodin revealed it had unsuccessfully applied to join the Formula 1 grid with a New Zealand-based operation that would have guaranteed a seat for a female driver had it been approved.