Following their 1998 LM P1 win at Le Mans, Giuseppe Risi and Dan Doyle earned a reputation as one of the best teams running a Ferrari 333 SP. Later in 1998, they won the first Petit Le Mans, the 1,000-mile or ten-hour endurance race held at Road Atlanta, Georgia (USA). Eric Van de Poele, Wayne Taylor and Emmanuel Collard formed the winning team. In 2000, as sole owner, Risi changed the name of his team to Risi Competizione for a more Italian flavour:" It has a much better ring to it than Risi Racing", smiles the Sicilian.

Risi soon became a familiar figure at the 24 Hours of Le Mans - and a striking figure too, always impeccably turned out in an immaculate white shirt, smart black trousers and patent leather shoes, except during the race when he sports Ferrari red overalls.  But make no mistake, beneath the polyglot’s natural elegance is a gritty determination and down-to-earth professionalism. "When you drive for Giuseppe, you quickly get the message that you’d better not damage the car", says Eric Helary, 1993 Le Mans winner who drove for Risi Competizione in 2007.

When they came second at the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2003 with the Ferrari 360 Modena, Risi Competizione were offered support from the Ferrari factory. "It’s very difficult for a privateer to win Le Mans," says Risi. "There’s so much to manage, that you can only really cope if you have the backing of the factory." Risi’s new status means he can run the Ferrari F430 GT, the road version of which was unveiled at the Paris Motor Show in 2004. The car spelled success for Risi: class wins at the two classic endurance races, the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

After Brazilian Jaime Melo snatched victory from Jörg Bergmeister in the Porsche on the last corner at Sebring in 2007, Risi Competizione went on to claim two long-awaited class wins for Ferrari at Le Mans 2008 and 2009. In 2008, while the other team members stood cheering on the pit lane wall as the #82 F430 crossed the finish line, Giuseppe Risi slipped out. Ten minutes later he reappeared dressed in his famous white-shirt-black-trousers-shiny-shoe combo, his eyes puffy with fatigue and suppressed emotion.
 
To Risi, “the world’s greatest endurance races are the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 12 Hours of Sebring. Yet ask anyone to name the world’s greatest race and the answer will inevitably be the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Having won both, I can say that if you don’t ruin your car on the concrete track at Sebring, you have a pretty good chance of finishing Le Mans! "The 2008 victory was a springboard for Italian driver Gianmaria Bruni’s career. He has since become one of the world’s very best GT drivers, with two more class wins at Le Mans in 2012 and 2014 and two FIA WEC titles in 2013 and 2014.

Risi’s last involvement at Le Mans was in 2012, as a consultant for Luxury Racing. Frédéric Makowiecki took pole position in LM GTE Pro with the Ferrari 458 Italia. The Frenchman and his teammates Dominik Farnbacher and Jaime Melo came second in their class. Now, four years later, Risi Competizione is back, ready to compete in the world’s greatest endurance race once again. Watch out for that white shirt!