The Made in Italy is reviving

The new racing season will shortly start and, besides Formula 1, even preparatory Championships are completing their driver line-up. Like it was in 2013, the new year started in a positive way for the three-coloured flag, in fact, although our country is in a recession which makes everything more complicated, we see many Italian drivers taking part in the most important Championships on an international scale.

Gimmy Bruni, Davide Rigon, Luca Ghiotto, Antonio Fuoco, Raffaele Marciello, Riccardo Agostini and Antonio Giovinazzi are only a few drivers who will try to make the national anthem play in the most important circuits in different racing series such as FIA WEC, GP2, F.3 Euroseries “Go-karting and Formulas are experiencing a rearrangement phase. As ACI-CSAI and Federal School, we’re reaping the benefits of 6/7 years of work and Italy is regaining reliability even on a political scale, thanks to the President Mr. Sticchi Damiani”, says Gian Carlo Minardi on the website www.minardi.it. “The goal is to go back to the magnificence of the ‘80s. Today we have two first drivers such as Bruni and Rigon who are ready to defend the Italian flag in the FIA WEC Championship, driving the AF Corse’s Ferrari; Raffaele Marciello will take part in the GP2 Championship alongside Racing Engineering, Luca Ghiotto is ready to take the next big step alongside Draco in the WSR 3.5 Championship and the trio Fuoco-Agostini-Giovinazzi will compete in the European F.3.”, says also the Faenza-born manager.

Italy will be the first country to carry out the Formula 4 project, which was strongly supported by FIA and FIA’s President Mr. Jean Todt. The new Formula 4 car is completely made in Italy: the chassis is made by Tatuus, the engine is supplied by FIAT, and compounds are made by PIRELLI. “We’re very proud to launch the first F.4 Championship, where a car completely made in Italy will be raced. All companies who resulted eligible to become official suppliers are Italian. Only the gearbox comes from France as will of the International Federation. The first deliveries will be made in April and collective testing is scheduled for May at the circuits of Vallelunga and Adria.” Good results come also from the number of cars reserved for the Championship “More than 20 cars have been reserved, so far and many teams who are already engaged in other Championships will join this competition. There’s a strong will to prepare young drivers for competing in different racing scenarios, that is to say both in covered-wheel and in open-wheel Championships.”

A good sign of this rebirth comes also from the FIAT Group, who returns to car racing “This is a positive sign, for sure. In the’70s – ‘80s the Turin-based automaker was very active in the world of motorsport”, ends Minardi “Drivers coming from preparatory open-wheel Championships were secured a professional racing career thanks to the FIAT’s engagement into several racing categories, which is something that the group hasn’t done over the past few years. This may help motorsport get back to the magnificence of past times.”