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Larbre Compétition have entered two Prodrive-built
550s for Pedro Lamy/Gabriele Gardel and Lilian Bryner, Enzo Calderari
and young Swiss driver Steve Zacchia, the 2004 LMES GTS Champion. 2003 and 2004 Champions BMS Scuderia Italia are noticeable by their abscence, having elected to run their 550s in the Le Mans Endurance series, perhaps acknowledging that they cannot hope to be competitive against the Maserati MC12. JMB Racing have moved from Ferrari to Maserati and Vitaphone racing from Saleen to the Trident, signing up '03 FIA GT Champion, Thomas Biagi as one of their drivers. There is one only 360GTC entered in the GT2 class at the moment, from Mastercar for Monti and Monzo, although more Ferraris are expected in both classes on a race-by-race basis. In the recent pre-season test at Monza the Russian Age racing 550 was quickest on the first day, but a Vitaphone MC12 was quicker and quickest on the second, which is ominous, even though it was expected. Although the decision to develop the MC12 from the Enzo probably seemed sound at the time for marketing reasons, it was always incomprehensible to Ferrari fans that a re-badged Ferrari should be used to beat Ferrari. To add insult to injury, the car was actually built on the Enzo line at Maranello! The marketing people never seemed to g.php that Ferrari owners and fans would never embrace Maserati; we have been denied an Enzo GTC and now Maserati are not even part of the Ferrari Group! The Series itself looks in good shape, with 28-30 entries expected for the first race featuring Saleen, Chevrolet, Lister, Lamborghini and Mosler in addition to Ferrari and Maserati as well as loads of Porkies in GT2. Finally, there is no news this year of Patrick Tambay or René Arnoux, either in a Ferrari or even a Maserati....
Click here to return to the Ferrari Happenings page.
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The
2005 FIA GT Championship starts at Monza on April 10th. The entry list
includes six Ferraris, five of them in the GT1 class. 2004 runners-up
in the teams' title, GPC Sport have entered 575 GTCs
for Jean Denis Deletraz/Andrea Piccini and Jaime Melo/Jean-Philippe Belloc,
the 2001 FIA GT Champion.
