Risi Competizione
Risi Competizione is an
Racing history
Risi Competizione was initially created as a competition arm of Ferrari of
The new partnership was able to quickly find success as the team won in only the second race of the season, drivers Wayne Taylor and Eric van de Poele earning victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. In Europe for Le Mans, Taylor and Van de Poele were joined by Fermín Vélez, and although they were unable to win the race overall, they scored victory in their class with an eighth-place finish.[2] Back in the United States, Doyle-Risi earned their third victory of the year at the inaugural Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, winning the race overall against several teams they had competed against at Le Mans. With two victories for the year, Doyle-Risi won the team championship for the World Sports Car class, while Taylor was second and Van de Poele third in the drivers' championship.
Doyle-Risi opened the 1999 season by competing in the 24 Hours of Daytona, finishing the race in second place and only two laps behind the race winner. Doyle-Risi followed this by joining the American Le Mans Series, a replacement for the previous year's IMSA GT Championship. Both of their 333 SPs were entered for the full season. However, facing stiffer competition from Audi, BMW and Panoz, the team was unable to score any victories over the year, although they did score a season-best result of fourth at the Grand Prix of Atlanta. The team finished the season fourth in the LMP championship. Giuseppe Risi took full control of the team in 2000, rebranding it as Risi Competizione, and retained one of the 333 SPs from Doyle.
During Risi's year away from competition, the company began development work on a competition version of the
Now that their development of the 360 Modena was completed, Risi Competizione was chosen by Ferrari in 2005 to campaign another new car in the American Le Mans Series, this time the
Risi improved over the next season, earning eight victories out of the twelve races in the American Le Mans Series, including the 12 Hours of Sebring. The team once again secured the team championship, while Salo and Melo share the drivers' championship. Both F430s also attended the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the third time in the team's history, where a car used in partnership with Krohn Racing finished 17th overall and second in the GT2 class.
For Risi Competizione's 2008 campaign in the American Le Mans Series, two F430s were once again in use. The team's primary car is once again piloted by defending champions Salo and Melo. The second car is used in partnership with Krohn Racing for several races during the season, but driven by Patrick Friesacher and Harrison Brix for the remainder of the events. The Risi team finished 3rd in the ALMS GT2 championship behind Krohn Racing and Flying Lizard Motorsports with Salo and Melo finishing 7th in the drivers championship.
Risi also entered the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the second year in a row, entering a Salo and Melo along with Ferrari factory driver Gianmaria Bruni in their primary car, while Krohn Racing used Tracy Krohn, Niclas Jönsson, and Eric van de Poele in their cooperative entry. Although the Krohn entry was the first retirement of the race, the main Risi entry went on to take the GT2 class victory, 19th overall. This marked their second victory at Le Mans in four attempts.
Risi kicked off the
For their third straight year, Risi Competizione received an invitation[3] and would compete in the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans using the same driver lineup from their ALMS entry. Risi's F430 would once again overcome its rivals and take home the GT2 class victory with an 18th overall finish. Krohn Racing's F430 entered in partnership with Risi would finish 3rd in the GT2 class and 22nd overall.
In 2014, Risi competed in the GTLM class of the newly created United SportsCar Championship, running a Ferrari 458 Italia GTLM driven by Giancarlo Fisichella and Pierre Kaffer. They took class victories at Road America and Virginia, finishing the championship in 6th in GTLM with 298 points.
The following year they continued to run with the same car and drivers in the 2015 United SportsCar Championship. They failed to pick up any class wins, finishing in 4th place in GTLM in the championship with 295 points.
In 2016, Risi used the new
Risi started the 2017 season in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with the same drivers and the same car. They repeated their Le Mans entry but failed to finish after being hit by a competitor from another class. After the 24 Hours of Le Mans, they temporarily withdrew from the IMSA series.
In 2018 Risi competed at the 24 Hours of Daytona, 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans with Ferrari factory drivers without scoring a podium. They finish in P3 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in GTE Am class in a Weathertech sponsored car driven by Jeroen Bleekemolen, Ben Keating and Luca Stolz.
In 2019 Risi made only 3 races, scoring a GTLM class win at MOTUL Petit Le Mans with the Le Mans-winning crew Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Daniel Serra, and a runner-up finish at the 24 Hours of Daytona with the same drivers and Davide Rigon. They raced also the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
In 2020 Risi contest the 24 Hours of Daytona and 24 Hours of Le Mans. The team announce the participation at the 12 Hours of Sebring in March, but after the race re-schedule in November due to Covid-19 pandemic the team doesn't enter the race.
In 2021 the team competed the 24 Hours of Daytona with Ferrari factory drivers Alessandro Pier Guidi, Daide Rigon and James Calado joined by Jules Gounon.
With the introduction of the
In 2023 the team gave the race debut to the Ferrari 296 GT3 at the 24 Hours of Daytona, and scored two GTD Pro class podium at the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen and Petit Le Mans.
On 28th January 2024, Risi Competizione won the
References
- ^ "History". Risi Competizione. Archived from the original on 2008-05-29. Retrieved 2008-06-30.
- ^ "Non-Championship Races 1998". World Sports Racing Prototypes. 2005-10-01. Retrieved 2008-06-30.
- ^ "LEMANS: ACO prepares for 2009 Le Mans with first invites | News | Motorsport.com". www.motorsport.com. Archived from the original on 2012-05-31.