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Coloni confirms Coletti and Onidi

Stefano Coletti won two races in the main GP2 series in 2011 © Sutton Images

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• Drivers:
• Stefano Coletti
• |
• Fabio Onidi

• Teams:
• Scuderia Coloni

Scuderia Coloni has confirmed that Stefano Coletti and Fabio Onidi will drive for the team in the 2012 GP2 championship.

Coletti made his GP2 debut for Trident last season and enjoyed an impressive campaign as he took two victories on his way to 11th in the championship as his year was cut short by an injury sustained at Spa. After testing for Coloni last year, Coletti raced for the team at the GP2 Final in Abu Dhabi, finishing tenth in the feature race before retiring from the sprint race. He said that his time with the team at the end of 2011 had helped him make the decision.

"I'm really happy of this agreement with Scuderia Coloni for the next GP2 season, and first of all I'd like to say thanks to Paolo (Coloni, team principal) and the whole Coloni family for that," Coletti said. "We started talking immediately after the end of the 2011 Championship and they made me understand that I was an important part of their project. 2012 will be a key year in my career, so I did put a lot of thinking on this choice, as I wanted to be sure that the decision was the right one for my future.

"Right from the first test I did with Coloni I had an excellent feeling with the car, the engineers and the whole staff, they are focused and their approach to the race weekend is aggressive, something that I really like. I'm looking forward to the first testing sessions and the start of the season, as the 2012 calendar is really fascinating. I'm also happy to have Fabio Onidi racing alongside me. He's a good guy and a skilled driver, we raced against each other in karting and in some other occasions and I'm sure that with him it will be very easy to create an atmosphere of cooperation."

Onidi's drive at the GP2 Final was his first appearance in the category, and driving for Super Nova he finished 18th in race one and 11th in race two. He admitted that he would have liked to have driven for Coloni in Abu Dhabi having tested for the team prior to the weekend, but is now fully focussed on the new season.

"GP2 has been one of my aims in the latest seasons, so being finally part of it is a really good feeling, the first achievement of 2012 for me," Onidi said. "Besides this, I'm really happy to do that with Scuderia Coloni. The feeling with the team was immediate, and the same was with the car, allowing us to be really quick in the Jerez testing. I would have liked to race with them in Abu Dhabi but in the end it wasn't possible, so now I'm really looking forward to the first commitments of the 2012 season. I'm pretty confident, but at the same time I know that for a driver the debut year in GP2 can be a tough one: that's why I'm really pushing to be ready, both working with Scuderia Coloni's simulator at their HQ and obviously at the gym with the physical preparation. I want to be in the best possible shape when the championship starts, and the next three months will be vital for that."

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