Scuderia Vittore
Vittore | |
---|---|
Full Name | TIM Scuderia Vittore Ferrari |
Base | Ravenna, Italy |
Founder(s) | Luigi Vittore Jose Braggia |
Team Principal(s) | Jose Braggia |
Technical Director | Antonio Liatti |
Current Drivers | Denis van Walwijk Lorenzo Crescenzi Natalia Valenti Template:FRA Alexandre-Laurent Voeckler |
Other Noted Drivers | Alberto Cara Template:GBR Jordan Davies Pedro Renales |
Debut | 2015 Blackwood GP |
Races | 19 |
Constructors' Championships | 0 |
Drivers' Championships | 0 |
Race Wins | 3 |
Podiums | 4 |
Points | 36 |
Pole Positions | 3 |
Fastest Laps | 3 |
Scuderia Vittore is an Italian racing team founded in 2015 by Italian entrepreneur Luigi Vittore and ex-racing driver Jose Braggia, originally to compete in the Rejects of LFS championship. Shortly thereafter, they moved into sportscars, and are now the designated manufacturer team for Ferrari in the GT-Rejects World Championship.
History
Origins in single seaters
2015 - Rejects of LFS
The team made its first foray into motorsport in the now defunct Rejects of LFS series, and at the time were known as Tissot Scuderia Vittore Mercedes. Italian Andrea Bianchi was signed to drive for the team in their debut campaign, after a relatively successful F1RICS campaign, alongside young German Martyn Rietacher, who graduated from British Formula 3. Luigi Vittore managed to convince Mercedes to supply the team with engines for the 2015 season.
On one side of the garage, the team was immediately a front-runner, with Rietacher winning the opening Heat race of the season, and also taking a feature race victory at Fern Bay. While the German would go on to to finish 3rd in the drivers' championship, his team-mate Bianchi suffered a far less enjoyable year. After spinning out of the opening feature race of the year, he publicly criticised the team, and as punishment was dropped for Spanish rookie - and the team's test driver - Marcos Marcia. He returned for Fern Bay, where he won his heat, but left again after that weekend to focus on his F1RICS career instead.
Marcia started brightly, with a 2nd place in his opening appearance for the Westhill heat race, but would fail to score any other points for the duration of the season.
2016 - International Formula Reject Challenge
When the Rejects of LFS season was dissolved at the end of 2015, Vittore elected to enter the new series from the same organisers of the aforementioned series - International Formula Reject Challenge - the following year. With the new formula came a new engine partner and title sponsor. In place of Mercedes came American marque Acura, with the team branded as Acura Racing Team during the season.
The team suffered from instability, fielding no less than eight drivers during the course of the season. Their most featured driver during the course of the year was Alberto Cara, who managed a podium in the Mexico feature race, but only scored a handful of other points all year in the 8 weekends he attended (out a total of 12).
Their next most frequent pilot was Jordan Davies, who did half of the races, all of which were in the second half of the year. He was the team's most consistent points scorer, often finishing in the Top 5, and so brought the team more points than any other driver during the course of the year. Frenchman Benoît Voeckler also made several appearances, while Calvin Brooks, Angel Jose Castañeda, Daniela Anger, Jan van der Maeyede and Geoff Donnelly made brief cameos during the season.
GT-R World Championship
2016 - Lister Privateer
2016 also saw Vittore make its first foray into the world of sportscars. Entering as a privateer team with a Lister Storm, they lined up with the pairing of South African Denis van Walwijk, with Alexis Tantovich of Ukraine his co-pilot.
The highlight of their debut season was a podium at Paul Ricard, beating several factory cars in the process, including both factory Listers. They scored consistently in the lower points paying positions during the season, albeit with their form dropping off towards the end of the season.
They also prepared a second Lister Storm for fellow privateer team Puyo Puyo, who they outscored 24-14 over the course of the season. They were the second best Lister crew in the championship, edging out the second factory Storm GT by 3 points in the drivers' championship.
2017 - Ferrari manufacturer status
At the end of 2016, Il Barone Rampante switched from running the factory Ferrari programme to field the new works Maserati effort, and Vittore were successful in assuming their positions as the factory supported Ferrari squad in the series. With this change, they expanded to running two cars under their own banner, with Tantovich leaving and three new drivers coming into the team: former F1 driver Alexandre-Laurent Voeckler joined Italian duo Lorenzo Crescenzi and Natalia Valenti in becoming their quartet of drivers of the year, and by extension, factory Ferrari drivers.
The team picked up from where IBR left off, establishing themselves as title contenders in both championships. The two pairings of Van Walwijk/Crescenzi and Voeckler/Valenti won a race apiece, with the former duo coming close to the drivers' championship title.
Touring Cars
2017 - AutoReject GTi
Vittore diversified further in 2017, branching into the AutoReject GTi spec-series, where all drivers used the Volkswagen Lupo GTi. Taking over Plus One Racing Engineering's entry in the series from the previous year, it inherited their driver pairing of Pedro Renales and James Turner.
Their new venture brought immediate success, with Renales and Turner winning six of the nine races during the season (three apiece), finishing 1st and 2nd in the Drivers' Championship respectively, and securing the Teams' Championship with it.
2018 - SEAT Leon Supercopa
With both drivers from the previous year departing for International Pro Car, they drafted in Plus One protege Martin van der Maeyede to lead the team, with American rookie Riley Griffith partnering him.
Van der Maeyede continued the team's good fortune by finishing 2nd in the championship with two victories, albeit a long way behind that year's series champion Manuarii Vahirua. Griffith however lasted only a single race, before being replaced for the rest of the year by Nelson Odewa. While not as impressive as his Dutch team-mate, Odewa was at least consistent in scoring points, placing in the Top 10 in five of his eight races during the season.
Despite finishing the year as one of the front-running teams in the series, Vittore wound up its touring car operation at the end of the season, having elected to focus solely on its commitments to Ferrari in sportscars.
Results
Rejects of LFS
Year | Car | No. | Driver | BLA | WES | FER | SOU | AST | KYO | 200 | Points | Overall | ||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
H1 | H2 | FEA | H1 | H2 | FEA | H1 | H2 | FEA | H1 | H2 | FEA | H1 | H2 | FEA | H1 | H2 | FEA | |||||||
2015 | Scaven-Mercedes | 24 | Andrea Bianchi | 3 | Ret | 1 | 14 | 36 | 3rd | |||||||||||||||
Marcos Marcia | 2 | 14 | 13 | DNQ | 11 | DNQ | 9 | 7 | DNQ | |||||||||||||||
25 | Martyn Rietacher | 1 | 19 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 11 | DNQ | 5 | 12 | 3 | 12 | 15 |
International Formula Reject Challenge
Year | Car | No. | Driver | Template:AUS | Template:FRA | Template:GBR | Template:USA | Template:BEL | Points | Overall | |||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
H | F | H | F | H | F | H | F | H | F | H | F | H | F | H | F | H | F | H | F | H | F | H | F | ||||||
2016 | Swift-Cosworth | 3 | Alberto Cara | A:Ret | Ret | A:6 | 2 | A:8 | 8 | A:12 | Ret | A:12 | Ret | A:8 | 15 | A:Ret | DNQ | A:Ret | DNQ | 49 | 13th | ||||||||
Calvin Brooks | A:10 | 15 | A:19 | DNQ | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Angel Jose Castañeda | A:Ret | DNQ | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jan van der Maeyede | A:16 | DNQ | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
4 | Benoît Voeckler | B:Ret | DNQ | B:Ret | 14 | B:9 | Ret | B:10 | Ret | ||||||||||||||||||||
Daniela Anger | B:9 | 22 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jordan Davies | B:5 | Ret | B:2 | Ret | B:5 | 12 | B:10 | 5 | B:7 | Ret | B:4 | Ret | |||||||||||||||||
Geoff Donnelly | B:Ret | DNQ |
GT-R World Championship
Year | Car | Class | No. | Drivers | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | Points | Overall |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2016 | Lister Storm GT | Template:Independent | 0 | Denis van Walwijk | MAL 11 |
AUS 9 |
ITA Ret |
FRA 3 |
CAN 8 |
USA 8 |
GER 14 |
GBR 6 |
BEL 10 |
ARG 14 |
BRA Ret |
CHN 13 |
JPN 17 |
SGP Ret |
24 | 10th |
Alexis Tantovich | ||||||||||||||||||||
2017 | Ferrari 550 Maranello | Template:Manufacturer | 27 | Denis van Walwijk | ARG | BRA | GBR | FRA | ITA | USA | CAN | GER | BEL | MAL | CHN | JPN | SGP | ? | ? | |
Lorenzo Crescenzi | ||||||||||||||||||||
28 | Template:FRA Alexandre-Laurent Voeckler | ARG | BRA | GBR | FRA | ITA | USA | CAN | GER | BEL | MAL | CHN | JPN | SGP | ||||||
Natalia Valenti |
AutoReject GTi / Supercopa
Year | Car | No. | Driver | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Points | Overall |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2017 | VW Lupo GTi | AUS | GBR | FRA | AUT | CAN | USA | GER | BEL | CZE | 757 | 1st | ||
0 | Pedro Renales | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 4 | ||||
3 | Template:GBR James Turner | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 6 | ||||
2018 | SEAT Leon Cupra R | GBR | WIS | NY | CAN | FIN | GER | FRA | CZE | HUN | 469 | ? | ||
1 | Template:USA Riley Griffith | Ret | ||||||||||||
Nelson Odewa | 9 | 7 | 8 | 20 | 4 | 13 | 21† | 9 | ||||||
2 | Martin van der Maeyede | 9 | 1 | 16 | 3 | 1 | Ret | 4 | 4 | 2 |