11 April 2018
Maranello, 10 April 2018 - The 2018 Le Mans Cup season kicks off next weekend at Circuit Paul Ricard. The prize at stake for the GT3 cars and LMP3 prototypes competing in this championship is qualification for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Kessel galaxy. Kessel Racing is very well represented with three 488 GT3s. The Swiss team will field Sergio Pianezzola and Giacomo Piccini in car no. 8. The latter has just taken two podiums in the Blancpain GT Sprint Cup series. Claudio Schiavoni and Andrea Piccini will be in no. 77. Then, finally John Hartshorne and Oliver Hancock will make their debut in the 488 GT3 no. 50.
Other teams. The other three Ferrari cars will race on behalf of three teams. Christoph Ulrich will be in car no. 51 of Spirit of Race, making his debut in the 488 GT3 after spending last season in the 458 Italia GT3. He will be joined by Maurizio Mediani. AF Corse will deploy car no. 71 for the tried and tested pair of Piergiuseppe Perazzini and Marco Cioci. Then the 458 Italia GT3 of StileF Squadra Corse will be crewed by Switzerland’s Martin Grab and Japan’s Yoshiki Ohmura.
History. Ferrari has many GT race wins to its name at the Paul Ricard, even though its first victory only came in 1998 with Didier Theys and Fredy Lienhard in the F333 SP of Horag-Lista team in the ISRS championship. The most recent dates back to last year, when Duncan Cameron, Aaron Scott and Matt Griffin triumphed in the European Le Mans Series with the 488 GTE of Spirit of Race.