Vincenzo Sospiri

Vincenzo Sospiri
Born (1966-10-07) 7 October 1966 (age 55)
Forlì, Italy
Formula One World Championship career
NationalityItaly Italian
Active years1997
TeamsLola
Entries1 (0 starts)
Championships0
Wins0
Podiums0
Career points0
Pole positions0
Fastest laps0
First entry1997 Australian Grand Prix
Last entry1997 Australian Grand Prix

Vincenzo Sospiri (born 7 October 1966) is an Italian former racing driver.

Early career

In 1981, at the age of 15, Sospiri started racing in the Italian 100cc karting championship. In a karting career described by Michael Schumacher as 'dominating', Sospiri won several Italian and European karting championships and finished runner-up in several more, eventually winning the 100cc World Karting Championship in 1987.

In 1988 Sospiri progressed to Formula Ford, before working through to Formula 3000 in 1991, as teammate to Damon Hill in the Middlebridge Lola T91/50 Cosworth. In an uncompetitive car, he was only capable of 9 points all season, including a second place at the German round of the championship at the Hockenheimring. He stepped back down into the Italian F3 series in 1992, before making a return to Formula 3000 in 1993, driving a Reynard 93D Judd for the Mythos team. He moved to the Super Nova team for 1994 and mounted a challenge for the championship despite not winning any races, eventually finishing fourth. He stayed at Super Nova for 1995 where he won three races and beat his teammate Ricardo Rosset to the F3000 title.

Sospiri revealed, in a 2022 YouTube interview with a fan, that his biggest heroes in racing were Ayrton Senna and Dan Gurney, for whom he would later drive.

Formula One

Sospiri driving for MasterCard Lola at the 1997 Australian Grand Prix.

He had tested for the Simtek Formula One team at Estoril in 1994, but was unable to raise enough funds to gain a race seat at the time. Despite winning the Formula 3000 title in 1995, very few options were available for Sospiri, so he chose to take the role of official Benetton test driver for the year.

Sospiri finally got his chance to race in Formula One with the MasterCard Lola project in 1997. Unfortunately it was clear from the first race, where both Sospiri and his former F3000 teammate Ricardo Rosset were more than 10 seconds off the pace and failed to qualify after being well outside the 107% rule, that the car was not capable of making the grid in a world championship race. Sospiri hoped to return to the grid in Brazil, but the team was withdrawn due to the massive debts incurred by its failing Formula One effort.

After Formula One

IndyCar and Champ Car

After the collapse of Mastercard-Lola, Sospiri turned his attention to the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series where he signed on with Team Scandia to race in the 1997 Indianapolis 500. Sospiri put the Scandia Dallara-Oldsmobile third on the starting grid in his first IndyCar start and finished 17th in the race. Later that season he finished second at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He finished 21st in the championship despite only competing in six of the ten races of the 1996-1997 season. In 1998 Sospiri was brought on to Dan Gurney's All American Racers team as a late-season replacement for P. J. Jones and drove in the final four races of the season for the team. He had a best finish of 15th at both Houston and Surfers Paradise and failed to finish in the points as the team's struggles continued. He was named to an ISM Racing entry for the 1999 Indianapolis 500 but the car was driven by Brian Tyler instead, who failed to qualify.

Sports cars and team ownership

In 1998 and 1999, he won the Sports Racing World Cup with a Ferrari 333 SP, teaming up with Emmanuel Collard. This resulted in a drive in the lead Toyota at the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans with Collard and Martin Brundle. Unfortunately, frequent gearbox problems and a puncture while Brundle was driving took the polesitter out of the race. He retired from racing in 2001 and is now the team manager for the Euronova team in Italian Formula 3000.

Legacy

Sospiri was a major inspiration for Michael Schumacher. In a Q&A session with F1 Racing readers in 2012, when asked about his racing heroes, Schumacher replied: "To start with, it was Vincenzo Sospiri. Then it was Ayrton Senna. Those two guys inspired me big time while I was karting".

Racing record

Complete International Formula 3000 results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 DC Points
1990 Eddie Jordan Racing DON SIL PAU JER
8
MNZ PER HOC BRH BIR BUG NOG
DNQ
NC 0
1991 Eddie Jordan Racing VAL
Ret
PAU
DNQ
JER
15
MUG
4
PER
Ret
HOC
2
BRH
16
SPA
10
BUG
Ret
NOG
13
8th 9
1993 Mythos Racing DON
Ret
SIL
Ret
PAU
6
PER
2
HOC
3
NÜR
6
SPA
5
MAG
5
NOG
Ret
7th 16
1994 Super Nova Racing SIL
4
PAU
2
CAT
3
PER
Ret
HOC
4
SPA
Ret
EST
2
MAG
5
4th 24
1995 Super Nova Racing SIL
2
CAT
1
PAU
1
PER
2
HOC
Ret
SPA
1
EST
7
MAG
4
1st 42

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 WDC Points
1997 Mastercard Lola F1 Team Lola T97/30 Ford V8 AUS
DNQ
BRA ARG SMR MON ESP CAN FRA GBR GER HUN BEL ITA AUT LUX JPN EUR NC 0

Complete Formula Nippon results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DC Points
1997 Mirai SUZ MIN FUJ SUZ SUG FUJ MIN MOT FUJ
Ret
SUZ
15
34th 0

American open-wheel racing results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

IndyCar

Year Team Chassis No. Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Rank Points
1996–97 Team Scandia Dallara IR7 8 Oldsmobile NWH LSV WDW PHX INDY
17
TXS
9
21st 134
22 PPIR
6
CLT
20
NH2
2
LV2
22
1999 ISM Racing G-Force GF01C 36 Oldsmobile Aurora V8 WDW
PHX
CLT INDY
DNQ
TEX PIK ATL
DOV
PIK
LSV
TEX - 0

Indy 500 results

Year Chassis Engine Start Finish Team
1997 Dallara Oldsmobile 3 17 Scandia

CART

Year Team Car Engine Tyres 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Rank Points
1998 All American Racers Eagle 987 Toyota RV8C G MIA MOT LBH NZR RIO STL MIL DET POR CLE TOR MIS MDO ROA VAN LS
22
HOU
15
SRF
15
FON
23
29th 0

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year Class No Tyres Car Team Co-Drivers Laps Pos. Class
Pos.
1998 LMP1 5 M Ferrari 333 SP
Ferrari F310E 4.0L V12
France JB Racing France Jean-Christophe Boullion
France Jérôme Policand
187 DNF DNF
1999 LMGTP 1 M Toyota GT-One
Toyota R36V 3.6L Turbo V8
Japan Toyota Motorsports
Germany Toyota Team Europe
United Kingdom Martin Brundle
France Emmanuel Collard
90 DNF DNF

This page was last updated at 2022-09-07 02:45 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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