Shadow

Shadow FE Team was a British racing team and McLaren's feeder team. Founded in 2019 as an eSports team as McLaren Shadow Project, the team soonly generated enough funds thanks to McLaren's support to make the step through real-life racing. In 2026, they bought the bankrupt Prema team and founded their own racing team. Despite its name, it is not linked to the original Shadow team who raced in the 1970s. The team endured a horrible debut year marred by multiple incidents regarding the car's flaws, but later started to make a slow and gradual move up the grid, eventually reaching the front and even becoming a rival to McLaren and Ferrari. Following the introduction of the new regulations, Shadow plummeted again to the back of the grid, but managed later to pull of a comeback, even beating McLaren in 2035 and 2036. In 2039, Shadow won their first titles with Farid Esmaeilzadeh winning the 2039 world title and the team winning the teams title. However, it was their only title win, as in the end of the year, Shadow was purchased by a Dutch consortium and was rebranded as NIG Zandvoort.

Origins
McLaren Shadow Project was created by McLaren as the official eSports team, aming to find young talents and help them transition from the gaming world to the real world. The team saw lots of success in the eSports scene and soonly started to get funds and support from McLaren to race in various regional series in real life. In 2025, McLaren had given them the proper funds in order to move up further, and Shadow took over Prema, who had just declared bankruptcy, and founded their Formula Earth team called Shadow FE Team.

2026: A horrible debut campaign
For their first ever campaign, the team signed McLaren test driver Edvin Beqiri and Alexander Albon, whose contract was bought alongside Prema's assets. The team, despite the support from McLaren, had a torrid debut campaign. The car was slow, unreliable and horribly fragile and borderline dangerous due to the team's lack of experience. There were two notable incidents regarding the car's poor built. Albon had a horrendous crash in Hungary following a sudden tyre explosion, leaving him unable to race until the season finale, with Rene Lentz filling in for those 5 races. Beqiri also had a horrific moment at Texas when the car suddenly burst into flames despite not having any problems before, forcing him to exit the car and triggering a red flag. Overall, the team was the worst of the season and even faced lots of criticism about their car's severe faults.

2027-2029: Rising up the grid
Following Beqiri's draft contract with McLaren expiring, Shadow signed American prospect Jarvan Lightshield to partner Albon. This year saw the team scoring its first ever points, with Albon scoring 4 and Lightshield scoring 1, beating fellow backmarkers Alpha Tauri and Williams. Albon picked up an injury again, with Josephin Yashin, McLaren's new drafter, replacing him for 3 races. In 2028, the team signed Kevin Magnussen from Haas in a swap deal that saw Lightshield move to the American team. Shadow managed to move up to the midfield, scoring a combined total of 34 points, with Magnussen scoring 22 points and Albon scoring 12 points. Lastly, in 2029, Shadow became the fourth best team in the grid, even scoring their first win with Magnussen in the wet Turkish GP. Magnussen also scored 2 more podiums and Albon added one further podium, with both drivers finishing in the top 10 and with 3 digits in points.

2030-2031: Becoming a contender
In 2030, Shadow had a major overhaul, buliding a top car and also signing a new lineup following the retirement of Magnussen and Albon. The team signed Christian McGonagall from Williams and Indian prodigy Raviraj Kudmal after a strong Formula Champions campaign. The team showed impressive pace, with McGonagall scoring his first ever win and 144 points. Kudmal struggled to adapt following the change from Formula Champions to Formula Earth, but managed to perform consistently at the second half of the season.

In 2031, Shadow made what was the strongest car on raw pace and became one of the candidates to win the title, even being tipped to beat McLaren for the title. 2031 was the most succesful year of the team, scoring 3 wins and McGonagall finishing fourth in the standings, beating both Ferrari drivers. Kudmal finished 7th but also made history by becoming the first ever Indian driver to win a race, scoring his only career win at Istanbul.

2032-2034: New regulations and nosedive
When the new regulations of 2032 were introduced, both McLaren and Shadow fell down the pecking order, but while McLaren had managed to stay in the upper midfield, Shadow had sank to the backmarker group for the first time since 2027. McGonagall and Kudmal were kept by the team, but both of them failed to score a single point, thus leading to their departure from the team when their contracts expired. The team signed 2030 Formula International champion Alexandre Gagnon from Racing Point and Danish prospect and Formula International's youngest ever debutant Abelone Ulf. Gagnon scored the team's sole point of the year, beating Ferrari for the penultimate place on the standings, while Ulf finished last.

The duo was retained for 2034 and the team managed to score more points than last year, with Gagnon scoring 4 points and Ulf also managing to score her first point in the series, finishing in ninth place and beating the rest of the backmarker teams, Ferrari, Campos Repsol and Renault.

2035-2037: Resurgence
Shadow managed to build a more competitive car for 2035 and kept the duo for a further year. Gagnon, despite his age, managed to become the breakout star of the season, scoring a podium and managing to perform consistently enough to finish in a stunning 8th on the final standings. While Gagnon impressed heavily to get a contract extention for 2036, Ulf underperformed severely, finishing again on last place with only 6 points compared to her teammate's 82, thus costing Shadow a good result in the team's championship. Also, the team managed to beat McLaren for the first time in their history,

Shadow signed a sponsorship deal with Heineken in 2036 and after releasing Ulf following her contract expiry, the team signed Charles Leclerc from McLaren on a short-term deal. Despite concerns over their driver's age, with Gagnon being 35 and Leclerc 39, the team enjoyed its best form since 2031, being the fourth best team of the grid and surprising people with their consistenty. Also, both Gagnon and Leclerc scored two wins, one each, and ended finishing in 10th and 11th, with Leclerc above Gagnon, and also beating McLaren for a second succesive time.

Leclerc moved to McLaren and rookie Joao Paulo Kitayama was promoted to the first team in what was a controversial signing at first due to his poor loan spell at Saudia in 2036. In 2037, Gagnon fought for the title and finished in 3rd in what was his last year as an active driver. Kitayama, who was tipped to flop, defied all odds by scoring 2 podiums, finishing 11th and becoming rookie of the year.

2038-2039: Winning the double and sale
Farid Esmaeilzadeh moved from Red Bull in a surprising move after the team failed to sign Leclerc for a second time. Shadow had improved on their consistency for the 2038 season, with Esmaeilzadeh finishing 4th and Kitayama improving further and finishing 6th, with the team having rised in second place in the standings. In 2039, however, Shadow had made a very powerful car and experienced a fantastic season, with Esmaeilzadeh winning his third world title with 13 podiums and 3 wins and Kitayama securing the second place and helping the team win their first and only double in their history, recording 3 wins and 7 podiums. As a result, Shadow became the first team coming from eSports to win an FE title and the first feeder team to do so. However, this turned out to be the last season in the team's history. A large Dutch consortium took over the team in the end of the year, and relocated them to Haarlem, Netherlands. The team was rebranded as NIG Zandvoort, ending their status as McLaren's feeder team.

Notable Drivers

 * Edvin Beqiri (2026)
 * Alexander Albon (2026-2029)
 * Rene Lentz (2026)
 * Jarvan Lightshield (2027)
 * Josephin Yashin (2027)
 * Kevin Magnussen (2028-2029)
 * Christian McGonagall (2030-2032)
 * Raviraj Kudmal (2030-2032)
 * Alexandre Gagnon (2033-2037)
 * Abelone Ulf (2033-2035)
 * Charles Leclerc (2036)
 * Joao Paulo Kitayama (2037-2039)
 * Farid Esmaeilzadeh (2038-2039)