The European series gets underway in Monza over the weekend of 7th April, for the first of seven rounds featuring two races each. As was the case in 2011, there will again be a non-championship event, when competitors in the European series will tackle just one race as a curtain raiser to the legendary Le Mans 24 Hours at the famous French track, over the weekend of 11th June. Back on the calendar are Brno (19th May) and Portimao (21st July,) which precedes the round at Hockenheim on 1st September, which also hosts the Ferrari Racing Days, the special event featuring activites organised by the department which looks after on-track events for owners of the marque.

The 2013 Ferrari Corse Clienti season actually gets underway officially at the end of January, with a prestigious first for competitors in the Stars and Stripes series as they tackle a single race as a support event to the 51st Daytona 24 Hours, which takes place from 24-27 January at Florida’s Daytona International Speedway. The Asia Pacific series will also kick off with a special event, this one at the Abu Dhabi circuit over the weekend of 10th May, when also taking part will be those owners involved in the special F1 and XX programmes.

As far as the sporting regulations are concerned, the European series will continue to run the Coppa Giovani category for younger entrants in the Trofeo Pirelli, while there is also a Coppa Gentleman for amateur drivers over 55. The qualifying system undergoes changes next year, with a handicap for the top three finishers in the two races, in the form of grid place penalties at the following round, to ensure a consistently high level of competition, with very close racing from start to finish.

Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli - 2013 European Series - Season 21

Ferrari Challenge Europe - 2013 Calendar

This year, the car’s second in competition, saw it win important titles in Europe and Asia and now it is being prepared for another season with a new aerodynamic bodywork, so that the privateer teams can once again fly the Ferrari flag in the top international GT championships.

The GT3 was created in 2011 as the racing iteration of the 458 Italia, along with GT2 and Grand AM versions. It totally lived up to expectations, matching and even beating the achievements of its predecessor the F430, which was one of the most successful cars ever built in Maranello. For a second year in succession, it won the Asia GT3 series and also shone in the Open GT, the Blancpain Endurance Championship and the International GT Sprint series, getting the better of some serious opposition, thus confirming the intense effort Ferrari has put into maintaining its technical supremacy.

A very large number of Company employees were there with their families, along with President Luca di Montezemolo and they received gifts from some very special Father Christmases, including Scuderia Ferrari drivers Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa, Jules Bianchi, Marc Gene, Andrea Bertolini and Davide Rigon.

Gianmaria Bruni, Toni Vilander and Gaetano Ardagna had already won the inaugural edition of this race last year and this time they took their Ferrari 458 GT3 to victory with a margin of over 25 seconds on the sister car, run by AF Waltrip for Alex Popow-Ryan Dalziel-Pierre Kaffer.

The win for the crew of car number 1 was down to a strategy that saw it make two of the compulsory pit stops in the second part of the race during a safety car period brought on by an accident involving the MRS Molitor McLaren. That’s how it pulled out its lead over the second placed car at the end of the 309 laps.

In third place was the Autorlando Porsche, which was followed home by the second AF Waltrip Ferrari of Steve Wyatt, Maurizio Mediani and Michele Rugolo.

Kessel Racing’s last outing of the year was less successful and, just as in last year’s race, it’s chances of victory evaporated after it had led the first six hours. The Ferrari 458 GT3 of Philipp Peter, Daniel Zampieri and Michael Broniszewski saw its race compromised because of a problem with the splitter, which meant it could do no better than sixth. It’s sister car was next home, crewed by Kola Aluko-Thomas Kemenater-Niki Cadei.

4 constructors' titles, 9 team victories, 8 drivers' victories and the amazing results at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Petit Le Mans.

Titles won

FIA World Endurance Championship

Constructors: Ferrari

Teams: AF Corse

Grand-AM

Constructors: Ferrari

Teams: AIM Motorsport

Drivers: Assentato/Segal

Open GT Championship – GT2

Constructors: Ferrari

Teams: AF Corse

Drivers: Bruni/Leo

Open GT Championship – GT3

Constructors: Ferrari

Teams: Kessel Racing

Drivers: Dalle Stelle/Zampieri

Asia GT Series

Drivers: Mok Weng Sun

European Le Mans Series

Teams: JMW Motorsport

Drivers: Cocker

Blancpain Endurance Championship

Teams: AF Corse

Drivers: Hommerson/Machiels

International GT Sprint Series – GT2

Teams: Black Team

Drivers: Palma

International GT Sprint Series – GT3

Teams: Ombra Racing

Drivers: Cordoni

Great wins

24 Hours of Le Mans

Bruni/Fisichella/Vilander, 458 Italia GT2, AF Corse

Petit Le Mans

Sharp/Van Overbeek/Vilander, 458 Italia GT2, Extreme Speed Motorsport

Spectacular passing moves and action were the ingredients of the final races of the Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli, which crowned the world champions in the three series. The victors received their trophies from the Scuderia’s drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa along with the Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo.

The race between the Trofeo Pirelli competitors saw the title go to Alessandro Balzan, who was already the European champion. Finishing behind the Ferrari Moscow driver in the order were Lorenzo Casè (Motor/Piacenza) and the Venezuelan Enzo Potolicchio (Ferrari Ft.Lauderdale), while among the gentleman drivers of the Coppa Shell the sought-after title went to Alexey Basov in the Ferrari run by the Russian team, who won the championship with a race to spare. Basov finished ahead of Raffaele Giannoni (Motor/Piacenza) and the duo of Daniele and Renato Di Amato (CDP). The racer who shone through in the Coppa Giovani was Patrick Gobbo (Rossocorsa/Pellin) while Fons Scheltema (Kessel Racing) came out on top in the Coppa Gentleman. The intense round of competition was then followed by an extraordinary show by the stars of the Gran Turismo championships and the Scuderia Ferrari itself, who shared the wheel of the five cars which have written the history of the one-make Ferrari championship. The final act of the celebration saw Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso take to the track at the wheel of two F60s for the traditional end-of-year greeting. Sky Sport and Marca TV broadcast live the most important moments of the Finali Mondiali, while the Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli races were shown in more than 60 countries throughout the world.

Trofeo Pirelli - EU/NA/APAC
Free Practice
Qualifying 1
Qualifying 2
Race 1
Race 2

Coppa Shell - EU
Free Practice
Qualifying 1
Qualifying 2
Race 1
Race 2

Coppa Shell - NA/APAC
Free Practice
Qualifying 1
Qualifying 2
Race 1
Race 2

Trofeo Pirelli - World Final
Coppa Shell - World Final

2012 Champions

Race report (download pdf)

“We are enjoying these times, we are enjoying a 458 that is competitive everywhere and a company that, in spite of a very difficult year around the world, has managed to beat all records in terms of economic results both in terms of the number of cars sold and in terms of our presence in different nations.”

Formula 1 nonetheless dominated his traditional meeting with the representatives of the media. It couldn’t be any other way, above all in Spain: “I will begin straightaway with the ending, that way we can stop thinking about it,” said Montezemolo. “I’ve already said it but I want to say it again: I am proud of what the team has done and I want to thank everyone for that. In particular I want to thank Fernando, who has had the best season of his career: I must congratulate him because he never gave up and he managed to give more than anyone could have thought possible. It also gave me great pleasure to see a great second half of the championship by Felipe, showing we did well to keep him hanging on before we confirmed he would be staying: he has been with us for many years and this end to the season will be very important to him for the start of next year, not just psychologically. We have had extraordinary reliability and this is down to Domenicali and all his men, just as we have been very strong in our strategies and pit stops:
it’s hard to find real errors in these areas. We haven’t had a car at the same high level as the top two and we have to improve this. To win races you have to start at the front and to win the championship you have to win races. I want to win the World Championship and I expect a big step forward by the team in terms of organisation, methods and quality of work: if we can give a car that is capable of winning to our drivers then they will do the rest. This year perhaps we suffered a few too many pile-ups but that is a part of the sport and now we must look ahead. I am celebrating 21 years at Ferrari: for me the most important thing is to have always had a team that is united, compact, which works together and takes meticulous care.”

As for the affair that dominated the days after the end of the championship, Montezemolo was very dry: “Some people cried scandal, or said a bit too much. The story is very simple: we saw some images, some of which were broadcast on all the internet sites, and we received thousands of requests from our fans so we did the simplest and most straightforward thing: we asked the FIA what they thought, telling them we would accept whatever decision they took. I think that is the best way to resolve questions when there are doubts. The FIA replied that in their view Vettel had been given a green flag before the passing move and then we said that for us the discussion was closed: you can’t be any more straightforward than that. I would like to take this chance to congratulate Vettel and Red Bull because they won and we like to congratulate whoever wins, hoping and wishing that next year it can be others who are congratulating us. If anyone says a bit too much then I’m sorry but that’s too bad for them.”

Asked for an opinion on some of what was seen in the final moments of the season, in particular the ease with which Vettel managed to carry out certain passing moves, the President said this: “I was expecting a slighty different final race on the part of Michael Schumacher because he is a driver with links to Ferrari through some extraordinary moments and with whom we feel very close. As for the rest, I don’t want to make any comment other than to underline that in the past we have been strongly criticised for playing a sensible, necessary, right and open team game. I have always told my drivers that they are not racing for themselves but for Ferrari. Ours is one team, you can see that in the pit stops and you can see it on the track and one of the things I most appreciate about Felipe is the fact that he has always been a team player and I know that Fernando has been one too. We have had criticism for how we apply these team games but it’s up to the public and the spectators to judge these things. I don’t like to create controversy for its own sake: we look ahead and everyone makes their own judgement.
The behaviour of Ferrari has always prized the team game and the sport.”

Montezemolo also looked to the future of Formula 1: “There are things that aren’t going well in this sport and the moment has arrived to clarify these once and for all in the appropriate places. We can no longer have a situation in which the transfer of technology from the track to the street is reduced to the bare minimum, engines and gearboxes are always the same and the aerodynamics no longer has anything to do with research for road cars. Moreover, it cannot be that in this sport you can’t test. We’ve been saying this for a while and we will repeat it in the appropriate places so for the moment I don’t want to add anything else. But our patience has run out so someone needs to think about whether they want Formula 1 still to have companies that invest and consider it the most advanced research bench for its own cars – as Ferrari has always done since 1950. We are constructors, not sponsors: I’m no longer happy that we can’t do testing on tarmac and that you can’t give any chance for young drivers to emerge – since some people have used the expression “It’s a joke” in recent days, I would like to say that this is the real “joke”. Yes, I’m referring to one of Ecclestone’s phrases: my father always taught me that you have to have respect your elders, above all when they reach the point that they can no longer control their words. So I will stop there. Certainly, old age is often incompatible with certain roles and responsibilities.”