With the main international championships at the starting line and the 24 Hours of Daytona approaching, Ferrari officially announced the schedules of the Competizioni GT official drivers in the European and international closed-wheel series. The season will be especially rich given the simultaneous race début of the Ferrari 499P in the FIA World Endurance Championship, and the Ferrari 296 GT3, with the latter due to feature in the opening round of the IMSA series.
WEC. Kicking off in March with the 1000 Miles of Sebring, the World Endurance Championship will see Ferrari’s return to the top class with two crews at the wheel of the 499P. Official drivers Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen will be in the number 50 car, while Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi will be at the wheel of the number 51.
After delivering Ferrari the Manufacturers’ World Championship in the LMGTE Pro class, the 488 GTE will be in the spotlight in the LMGTE Am class, raced by private teams. Announced in recent days as the first-ever female Competizioni GT official driver, Lilou Wadoux will race for the new Richard Mille AF Corse team alongside Alessio Rovera and Luís Pérez Companc. The Piacenza-based team will also field a car crewed by Davide Rigon, Thomas Flohr and Francesco Castellacci. Finally, Brazilian Daniel Serra will return to the WEC, sharing the Kessel Racing car with Takeshi Kimura and Scott Huffaker.
IMSA. The North American series opens at the end of January with the sixty-first 24 Hours of Daytona.
Davide Rigon and Daniel Serra make their Florida début in the 296 GT3 of Risi Competizione, in the GTD Pro class, this time sharing the car with Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado. The Italo-Brazilian pairing, who won the Drivers’ title in the Endurance Cup in 2022 with the same team, will continue their journey in IMSA with ambitious goals, considering that Rigon and Serra will participate in the season’s four scheduled endurance races: after Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring, the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen and the Petit Le Mans.
In his second year as a Maranello official driver, Alessio Rovera will race at Daytona with Andrea Bertolini, alongside Onofrio Triarsi and Charlie Scardina in Triarsi Competizione’s GTD class car. Therefore, it will be a very special year for the twenty-seven-year-old driver from Varese: Rovera will continue to develop the 296 GT3 and participate in major international events, taking part to the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup.
Antonio Fuoco starts his year with the Daytona endurance race at the wheel of the 296 GT3 of Cetilar Racing in the GTD class. He will share the cockpit with Roberto Lacorte, Giorgio Sernagiotto and Alessandro Balzan. This marks the twenty-six-year-old driver’s return to the American series, where the Italian team won at Sebring last year.
Miguel Molina also starts his season at Daytona International Speedway, where the AF Corse crew includes the Spanish driver, Simon Mann, Luís Pérez Companc and Francesco Castellacci.
GT World Challenge Europe. Robert Shwartzman, who will compete in the Endurance Cup with Alessio Rovera and Nicklas Nielsen for the AF Corse team, enters the production-derived GT car championship. It is a new adventure for the talented twenty-three-year-old who trained in the Ferrari Driver Academy and will continue as a reserve driver for the Formula 1 team in 2023 – a role he shares with Antonio Giovinazzi. Shwartzman will drive the 296 GT3 in some of Europe’s most demanding endurance races, including the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in July.
In the same series, Davide Rigon, Daniel Serra and Antonio Fuoco will constitute a second crew with AF Corse.
The continental series will also see Andrea Bertolini line up in the Endurance Cup with Louis and Jeff Machiels in the same Piacenza-based team’s car. The forty-nine-year-old from Sassuolo will thus continue to feature in the Pro-Am class, where in 2022, he won the Drivers’ title with Louis Machiels and Stefano Costantini.
Other championships. Nicklas Nielsen will continue in GT racing, participating in both the European Le Mans Series and the Asian Le Mans Series with Johnny and Conrad Laursen. Mikkel Mac will deputise for the Dane when he competes in the WEC with the 499P. The Asian series will also feature Miguel Molina with Stefano Costantini and Simon Mann. Both drivers will race with the AF Corse team.
The schedules of the Prancing Horse's other official drivers will be announce in due course.