Vincenzo Sospiri

Sospiri 1997 in Lola T97 / 30

The Toyota GT-One with the Sospiri the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans was the start

Vincenzo Sospiri (born October 7, 1966 in Forlì ) is a former Italian racing driver .

Career

Beginnings in motorsport

Sospiri started karting at the age of 15 . He spent a long time there until he became world kart champion in 1987. He then got into Formula Ford and in 1991 moved to Jordan in the International Formula 3000 Championship . In a car that was not very competitive, he was only able to score nine points during the season, but finished second at the Hockenheimring . After a detour to the Italian Formula 3 Championship in 1992, he returned to Team Mythos Racing in the International Formula 3000 Championship in 1993. There he was able to improve his performance and switched to Super Nova Racing for the following season . In 1995 he finally secured the championship in front of his teammate Ricardo Rosset .

formula 1

Already in 1994 Sospiri had a test drive with the Formula 1 team Simtek , but could not convince and did not receive a cockpit in Formula 1. Although he won the International Formula 3000 Championship in 1995, he received no offers as a racing driver and therefore took over in the 1996 season the role of test driver at Benetton .

In 1997 Sospiri finally got his chance at Lola to take part in Formula 1 races. Unfortunately, it was already clear after the first race in Australia that the vehicle, the T97 / 30 , would not qualify for the starting field, as Sospiri and his team-mate Ricardo Rosset clearly had a 107 percent advantage in qualifying. Rule failed. Sospiri hoped to be able to compete in the next race in Brazil , but the main sponsor Mastercard withdrew before the race, which meant that the team's funding was no longer secured and the race had to be abandoned.

According to Formula 1

Sospiri soon turned his attention to other racing series and in 1997 drove the remainder of the season in the Indy Racing League . With his team-mate Emmanuel Collard , he won the FIA sports car championship in 1998 and 1999 in a Ferrari 333SP . Due to his success, Sospiri received a place in the Toyota works team in 1999 and was allowed to compete with Martin Brundle and Collard in the Toyota GT-One in the Le Mans 24-hour race . The team started the race from pole position, but had to retire due to ongoing transmission problems and a tire damage. After the 2001 season, Sospiri ended his racing career.

statistics

Statistics in the Formula 1 World Championship

Single results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th
1997
	DNQ

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1998	JB Racing	Ferrari 333SP	Jean-Christophe Boullion	Jérôme Policand	failure	transmission
1999	Toyota Motorsport	Toyota GT-One	Martin Brundle	Emmanuel Collard	failure	Tire damage

Web links

Commons : Vincenzo Sospiri  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Vincenzo Sospiri at Racing Sports Cars