When the 13 GP2 Asia teams line up for the second round at Dubai Autodrome on December 5, only one will be able to claim to be truly "Asian" – My Qi-Meritus.Mahara.
The Malaysia-based, Saudi co-owned Meritus, who have won 30 of their 34 championships in Asia in the past 12 years, and have employed almost every Asian driver who has reached Formula One since 1998, were recently awarded the 'super-brand' status.
In China last weekend for the Shanghai Grand Prix, team founder Peter Thompson told Emirates Business how they went from humble beginnings to 'super-brand' status.
"The Meritus story begins on a farm in Ireland," says Thompson. "Our family were farmers with no background in motor racing, but I had a passion for cars so I studied automative design and worked in the industry.
"In 1980, when I was 23, with a £1,000 (Dh6,180) loan from my mother I formed what was Ireland's first automative industry on the farm. I sold the horses and the stables became the offices, the cows were sold and their pen became the assembly, fabrication place and the hen houses became the paint house. We utilised all the facilities on the farm for Thompson Motor Company (TMC).
"That's where Ireland's motor industry started off. We built up TMC into a $100 million company on the New York stock exchange. Our family were not educated in motoring – we just had a passion for doing something specific and we followed our dream."
It's this dream that took Thompson across the United Kingdom into England in 1988 where he started Meritus, the racing team. After competing successfully in Europe for several years, the Irishman decided to expand into Asia in 1995.
"That's when I fell in love with Malaysia," says Thompson, who has lived there ever since. "I was also successful in finding sponsorship money in Asia – which is essential to survive in motor racing.
"Motor racing is about engineering and good drivers, but if you can't find sponsorship money it will never be a business as it all revolves around the sponsors.
"When we moved to Asia, I phoned Marlboro and explained my business and as they didn't have a team in Asia, we did a three-year deal in 1995.
"In 1996, we won the Formula BMW Asia championship with Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan, who went on to race in Formula One [in 2005 for Jordan]. In 1997, Takuma Sato was the winner [and he progressed to Formula One in 2002].
"We are now in Asia for 12 years and have won 30 championships in that time. No other team is even close – I think the closest team has won two."
Malaysian team Director Firhat Yuri Bin dato Mokhzani invested in Meritus in the late 1990s making it a part-Asian owned team, while Saudi Arabian businessman Raad Abduljawad bought a stake in the team last year, when they took part in the inaugural GP2 Asia series, to give My Qi-Meritus.Mahara a Middle East co-owner as well. The team have a reputation for identifying and nurturing young talented drivers from the region and when the concept of a GP2 Asia series was formulated, F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone offered Meritus the only Asian license for GP2. So, what has helped Meritus achieve so much success?
"I think it's the personality of the team," says Thompson. "We have created a family environment.
"Sometimes drivers are not taken care of by a team, but I'm like a father to these boys. When they have an argument with their parents they come live in my house – when they come to Malaysia they live in my house.
"I have six children of my own, but sometimes I have six more race drivers living at my house – which creates a family environment for the team."
Success on the track means success in the bank as well and despite recent news that Formula One are looking at new ways to cut costs in the near future, motorsport is still a lucrative business for Meritus.
"The GP2 season is costing us €1.7m (Dh7.99m) and we target to make about €2.5m – a 20 per cent return on our investment. "Sometimes things don't go according to plan and accidents happen, but the insurance covers most of the losses.
"The cost per driver is €100,000 for Formula BMW, €275,000 for V6 and €650,000 for GP2 and for that they get a third of the ad rights on the car. We try to sell the ad rights at around €1.5m euros per car and so the company does turn over quite a bit, but we invest a lot back into the company.
"The success of Meritus also attracts sponsors – they like winning, they are not fools. Sponsors want to generate more exposure for their company. Last year, we generated $35m from television for sponsors and $9m in the print media. "Every article that gets written, we get professional people to evaluate it. Like, for example, last season in the GP2 we had about 350 articles written on us in the print media, 100 on the internet and we generated $5m for sponsors on TV. We also spent $2.5m on advertising campaigns in Asia and the Middle East."
So what are Thompson's plans for Meritus in the future?
"Meritus were awarded 'super-brand' in Asia, and we are only the 81st company to get it. This shows the sponsors we are a serious company. We are a Meritus brand now.
"We want to use the success to generate other avenues in motorsport.
"I want to get into manufacturing Asian race cars within the next two years. Next year I plan to launch a Meritus lifestyle clothing range.
"Just as Virgin go into different things, we want to do the same. Obviously, we will never be as big as Virgin, but we want to move the brand in different directions as well."
In the future, one of those directions could be Formula One, considering how well upcoming young star Earl Bamber performed in his first ever GP2 race.
The 18-year old New Zealander finished sixth and second respectively in his first two races at the Shanghai circuit, impressing racing experts. For now though, Thompson is happy to act as a feeder for F1 teams.
"We have development programmes for our drivers," says Thompson.
"We introduce them to F1 teams who then take the drivers out of our Asia programme into F1 development programmes and there is transfer a fee involved in buying their contract from us."
Waiting in the wings
Every now and then there emerges a young driver that gets motorsport fans all excited and 18-year old Earl Bamber is one of those young stars.
The New Zealand driver, pictured far left, who has won more than a quarter of all the professional races he has entered, is having a fantastic year. Leading the Formula V6 Asia Championships with two rounds to go, Bamber was invited to race in the A1 GP were he landed on the podium in both his first two races.
His performance led the My Qi-Meritus.Mahara team to promote him to drive in the GP2 Asia series were he ended up sixth and second in the two races of the first round at the Shanghai Grand Prix – the first time he had ever raced a GP2 car.
The onlooking Formula One scouts and team owners were impressed and racing experts predict it won't be long before he gets snapped up by one of the F1 teams.
"Formula One is the ultimate goal for every driver," says Bamber, who was the first and only rookie to win the Formula BMW Asia Championship. "GP2 is the development series and while it's very close, it's still very far. But I'm still young and it's where I need to be – getting more experience, racing against the best guys in the world here."
As coincidence has it, like Meritus, who also have their roots on a farm, Bamber also started his race career riding around his parents farm in New Zealand before winning the Formula Ford Series as a 14-year old.