South American club joins Superleague
Flamengo joins AC Milan, FC Porto, PSV Eindhoven, Olympiacos, Borussia Dortmund and Anderlecht in the new series that will feature 750 horsepower V-12 powered single seaters displaying the colors of the world's leading football clubs.
Founded in 1895, Flamengo is one of the world's most popular football clubs with an estimated 33 million supporters. Based in Rio de Janeiro, Flamengo actually began its life as a rowing club – hence the official name of Clube de Regatas do Flamengo.
The team is one of the four clubs never to be relegated from the Brazilian First division. Its championship successes include 29 Rio de Janeiro State Championships and five Brazilian national titles. 1981 was a special highlight in Flamengo’s history for winning both the South American Championship and the World Club Championship – beating Liverpool in Tokyo.
Along with football, motorsport will join rowing, artistic gymnastics, athletics, basketball, judo, swimming, volleyball and water polo as the official sports of the club. In fact, Flamengo has also won South American championships in volleyball and basketball and actually scored the women's basketball World Championship in 1966.
"We are very proud to be part of this wonderful venture and to have the opportunity of taking our brand and our excellence in various sports to a new competitive category – motorsports – where we will surely follow our tradition to fight for the title," said club President, Márcio Braga
For Superleague Formula's debut season, six championship rounds will be staged with each race weekend featuring two races – one with a complete reverse grid.