24h Le Mans
Photo : Michel Legeay - ACO/Nikon
The Houston, Texas-based team, which won the GT class at Le Mans in 2008 and 2009, has concluded an agreement with the French Ferrari entrant, Luxury Racing, for provision of full team engineering and technical support of the No. 59 GTE-Pro Ferrari 458GT Italia. It will be raced by Risi regular Jaime Melo together with former Risi driver, Stéphane Ortelli and his fellow Frenchman Frédéric Makowiecki, and will remain a Luxury Racing entry.
Giuseppe Risi (Risi Competizione Team Principal): “We met the Luxury Racing team at this year’s 12 Hours of Sebring. With both teams running the new Ferrari F458GT Italia, we had lots to talk about. Luxury is new to racing a Ferrari and, of course, we have been at it for quite some time. They are a relatively new team and definitely new to Le Mans—a race we have won twice in the last three years—and when they found out that we were not racing at Le Mans, they inquired if we might be able to provide some technical assistance for one of the 458s they have entered. I believe this is a win-win situation for both teams as Luxury can tap into all the experience and knowledge that we bring to this very tough event, and we will have the opportunity to gather additional data and knowledge about how the F458 performs in the 24 Hour race. I’m delighted to be of assistance to the Luxury Racing team, and am looking forward to giving them our full support for the race.”
A small number of the team were seconded to Luxury for the Le Mans test day at the end of April, and 12 team members are en route now to France for the race itself.
(Based upon Risi Competizione press information)
Photo : LE MANS 24 HOURS TEST DAY, 22ND APRIL 2011. The #59 Luxury Racing Ferrari will be driven at Le Mans by Stephane Ortelli, who won the race in 1998.
