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 Alexandre-Laurent Voeckler
Other Noted Drivers	Alberto Cara 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																									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	I	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	M	27	Denis van Walwijk	ARG	BRA	GBR	FRA	ITA	USA	CAN	GER	BEL	MAL	CHN	JPN	SGP		?	?
				Lorenzo Crescenzi
			28	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	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	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