The newly formed Malaysian Qi-Meritus.Mahara outfit has announced that it will field cars for Luca Filippi and Hiroki Yoshimoto in the inaugural GP2 Asia series.
Filippi and Yoshimoto both have extensive experience in GP2 and last season both competed in the 'regular' GP2 championship, with the former finishing third in the standings.
Peter Thompson, president and team founder, is looking forward to the first GP2 Asia Series event, which takes place at the Dubai Autodrome later on this month, running from January 25-26.
He is also happy to have strengthened his squad by appointing Gianfranco Bielli as team principal and technical director.
"Meritus is the only truly Asian team in the all new GP2 Asia series," he stated. "We have plenty of experience to draw on in this region having won 25 Asian motorsport titles since 1995.
"We have been looking forward to this moment since our GP2 Asia entry was confirmed by Bruno Michel, the GP2 Asia Series organiser, last September. The Malaysian-based team is racing under a Saudi ASN license underlining the importance of our Saudi partners in this endeavour.
"We will run with race numbers 26 and 27 on our cars and I am proud that Qi, the sponsors of our Malaysian team in Formula
BMW Asia and Formula V6 Asia, are supporting our strong line-up for our first season in GP2 Asia.
"Luca Filippi, and Hiroki Yoshimoto will be at the wheel for the team's first season in GP2 Asia. Luca is the 2005 Italian Formula 3000 champion having raced two seasons in the GP2 series and tested for Honda Racing in
F1 before signing for the 2008 GP2 European season with team Art Grand Prix for GP2 Europe. We also have Hiroki, who has won for Meritus in Formula V6 Asia (FV6) last November and dominated in an impressive range of machinery including Formula Nippon, GT Japan, and GP2 European series.
"Under the direction of the Qi-Meritus.Mahara team principal Gianfranco Bielli, we will continue to work with the teams' Asian spirit to ensure we are well honed and ready for the first race."
![Hiroki Yoshimoto - BCN Competicion [pic credit: GP2 media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/223505.jpg)
