
Multiple-champion team ART has announced that it will not contest the Formula 3 Euro Series in 2011 - a major blow for the championship, which has struggled for numbers this year.
ART (previously known as ASM) drivers won every Euro F3 title from 2004 to '09, although the team was deposed by the Signature squad and Edoardo Mortara this year.
The team has recently entered into a new partnership with Group Lotus, and while it will remain in GP2 and GP3, it has decided to call time on F3.
"The F3 Euro Series was the ideal platform for ART Grand Prix, one on which the company based its growth and its success since the birth of the discipline in 2003," said team boss Frederic Vasseur.
"It is with regret that due to the termination of our F3 programme we leave the F3 Euro Series after having obtained all the titles between 2004 and 2009.
"We make a point of thanking [engine supplier] HWA as well as our partners and drivers, but the time has come for ART Grand Prix to concentrate on new ambitious challenges."
The F3 Euro Series' grids were rarely above the 13 mark this season, but the organisers hope that revised event formats for 2011 would spark renewed interest. ART ran three cars in this year's championship.
The team's F3 squad launched several big names towards F1, including '05 and '08 champions Lewis Hamilton and Nico Hulkenberg. Jamie Green ('04), Paul di Resta ('06), Romain Grosjean ('07) and Jules Bianchi ('09) delivered its other titles, with Adrian Sutil and Sebastian Vettel taking the runner-up spot in ASM cars in '05 and '06 respectively.