Vincenzo
Sospiri

Vincenzo Sospiri was born in Forlì in 1966 and began karting in 1981. He won several Italian and European karting titles and took the 100cc World Karting Championship in 1987. He then moved up to Formula Ford, winning the Formula Ford Festival in 1988, and on to Formula 3000. In 1995 he won the F3000 title with Super Nova, taking three victories and finishing ahead of his team-mate Ricardo Rosset.

In Formula One, Sospiri first tested for Simtek and was a test driver at Benetton. In 1997 he got a race seat with Lola. At the first race he and Rosset were well outside the 107 per cent qualifying limit and failed to qualify. Before the second race, in Brazil, the team was withdrawn. His Formula One career therefore consisted of a single entry without a start.

Sospiri went on to race in the United States. At the 1997 Indianapolis 500 he started third for Scandia and finished seventeenth, and later that season he took second place at New Hampshire. In 1998 he drove the final four races for Dan Gurney's team. In sports cars he won the Sports Racing World Cup in 1998 and 1999 in a Ferrari 333 SP, and in 1999 he raced for Toyota at Le Mans. He retired from driving in 2001 and works as team manager at Vincenzo Sospiri Racing. Michael Schumacher named him as an inspiration from his karting days.

Source: Wikipedia, “Vincenzo Sospiri”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.