FOC Comps - Ferrari Owners' Club

Scuderia Ecosse Come Back Smiling

15.3.08

British GT Champions and FIA GT2 contenders Scuderia Ecosse suffered a huge setback in the closed season with the departure of driver and long-time sponsor Chris Niarchos and Cobra, who left with main driving talents Andrew Kirkaldy and Tim Mullen to set up their own Ferrari 430 team.

Niarchos had previously bought into Kirkaldy's racing team and this metamorphised into CR Scuderia. They have announced an ambitious programme of FIA GT2 and British GT plus continuing in Formula Renault UK. However, undaunted, the Scottish team has bounced back with the arrival of Jamie Davies, Fabio Babini and Pirelli sponsorship.

Davies climbed the single-seater ladder as high as Formula 3000 where he spent four seasons. He first raced a sportscar in 1998 and has driven them exclusively since 2001. In 2002 he was recruited by Veloqx Motorsport to drive a Ferrari 360 N/GT in the British GT Championship which he won. The following year saw a move to the highly competitive FIA GT Championship campaigning a Ferrari 550M under the iconic Team Maranello Concessionaires banner.

2003 saw Davies join the ranks of the chosen few with a class win at Le Mans in a Ferrari 550M. That year was brought to a close on a high with a second win on the famous French circuit – the Le Mans 1,000Km – also in a Veloqx run Ferrari. Sadly, with no Ferrari prototype to race, Veloqx defected to Audi the following year before pulling the plug on their racing operation.

In 2005 Davies raced as a Pirelli works driver, they placed him in different cars in different championships. He drove a Maserati MC12 (re-badged Ferrari Enzo) in FIA GT, where he was first teamed with Babini, and a Ferrari 550 for BMS Scuderia Italia in the LMES Championship. In 2006 he again raced an MC12 before being switched to the Aston Martin DBR9 of former Ferrari favourite BMS Scuderia Italia in 2007, when he was re-united with Babini - the pair finishing eighth in the 2007 FIA GT1 Drivers' Championship.

Fabio Babini has enjoyed a long and successful GT career scoring a class win a Le Mans and four outright wins in FIA GT. He has previously raced a Ferrari for two seasons. In 2003 he drove a 550 Maranello for JMB racing, winning at Estoril, switching to a GPC Giesse Squadra Corse Ferrari 575 Maranello the following year when he finished fourth in the GT1 Drivers' Championship.

Needless to say the Scuderia Ecosse F430 GT2 will run on Pirelli tyres and has just completed a successful test at sunny Monteblanco racing circuit in Spain, where both drivers reported that the car felt "great". The FIA GT teams have just completed an official test at Monza where Davies was quickest in GT2, where he revealed "I am more than happy with the team and the tyres".

The CR Scuderia F430 GT2s are running on Michelin tyres, so the scene is set for an interesting confrontation. The season starts at Silverstone on 20 April where CRS will run Kirkaldy with Rob Bell and Niarchos with former Scuderia Ecosse team mate Tim Mullen. The team will also run Ferrari 430 GT3s in British GT for Michael Meadows/Jeremy Metcalfe and James Sutton/Luke Hines.

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The Pirelli-shod F430GT of Davies/Babini was quickest in GT2 in testing at Monza

The rival CR Scuderia car locks up a Michelin

The GT2 field at Monza was nearly all Ferraris

pics by DPPI/FIA GT