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1981-86
Sospiri a big name in the Italian and European karting world |
Although not quite as short as Masami Kuwashima's fleeting appearance in F1, Vincenzo Sospiri, from the Italian town of Forli, still has one of the shortest Grand Prix careers on record. Which is in total contrast to the long time it took him to get to F1 in the first place. At the age of 15, in 1981, in began racing in the Italian Junior 100cc Karting Championship, taking two wins. The following two years saw him rise to become champion in that category, taking 15 and 12 wins respectively.
In 1984 he took another 12 wins to become 100cc Italian Intercontinental Karting Champion, and that year also saw him victorious in the 100cc European Intercontinental Karting Championship. Although he continued in the latter series in 1985, he slipped down to 2nd place despite taking 9 wins. 1986 saw him continuing his run of success, becoming 125cc Italian champion, 100cc European champion, and taking pole in the 100cc World Karting Championship Final. |
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1987-90
Performs brilliantly at FFord level, wins British Vauxhall Lotus title |
1987 was his last year in what had been a long karting career. He prevailed to win the 100cc World Karting Championship with 12 wins, whilst also coming 2nd in the 125cc World Championship with 7 wins, and also placing 2nd in the Italian 125cc Championship after 5 wins. A move to car racing in Britain for 1988 saw Sospiri take 9 wins in the RAC British Formula Ford championship, 3 more victories in the Esso Championship, plus the prestigious Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch.
That was more than enough to justify a step up to higher categories in 1989. On one hand he raced in the Opel Lotus Euroseries and gained a singleton victory there, but he also took the gamble to race in British F3 in a Reynard 893 Toyota. An unsuccessful campaign prompted a return to Opel Lotus racing for 1990. In the Euroseries he claimed 2nd overall after three successes, while in the British Vauxhall Lotus championship he was a convincing champion with 4 wins to his credit. |
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1991-93
Tries the water with Hill in F3000, but drops back to Italian F3 before trying again |
In another potentially presumptuous step, for 1991 he jumped straight into F3000, taking the seat in a Middlebridge Lola T91/50 Cosworth as team-mate to Damon Hill. An uncompetitive car plus his general inexperience meant he only scored 9 points for a 4th place at Mugello and a sensational 2nd at Hockenheim, which left him 8th overall. A wise return to Italian F3 in 1992 with the Traini Corse team in a Dallara F392 Mugen Honda saw Vincenzo placed 5th overall with 23 points after 1 win.
In 1993 Sospiri felt he was ready to return to F3000, and this time he did make a better fist of it. In his Reynard 93D Judd prepared by the Mythos team, after a slow start he gained some solid points scoring momentum, building up his bank with six consecutive points-paying finishes, including 2nd at Enna and 3rd at Hockenheim, which saw him finish up with 16 points, enough for 7th place overall. |
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1994
Consistent at Super Nova, but no wins leaves Autosport puzzled |
A change in 1994 to David Sears' Super Nova team in F3000 was to prove the start of a golden period in Sospiri's career. Although he did not win a race, his consistency in terms of results, with a 5th at Magny-Cours, 4ths at Silverstone and Hockenheim, 3rd at Barcelona, and 2nds at Pau and Estoril, left him in the championship hunt towards the end of the season. His inability to claim a victory, though, saw him end the series trapped in 4th with 24 points.
The oft-respected motorsport magazine Autosport was unimpressed. They ranked him as the 5th best F3000 driver of 1994 and criticised his qualifying efforts. To sum up, they described Vincenzo in this way: "Sometimes lacks application. By turns enigmatic, great company, infuriating, charming, funny, blindingly quick, surprisingly ordinary. A very intriguing driver." |
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1995-96
Wins F3000 title at 4th go, but all it nests him is a Benetton test rôle |
If you stay in F3000 too long without getting anywhere, it probably means you don't really have what it takes to go all the way to F1. So for Sospiri 1995, his fourth season in F3000, was a make-or-break season. In a very strong response, he took three wins in his Super Nova Reynard 95D Cosworth at Barcelona, Pau and Spa, and with 2nd places at Silverstone and Enna he wrapped up the title with a race in hand. With 42 points he beat his team-mate Ricardo Rosset to the title.
But perhaps it was too late already. Normally F3000 drivers would attract attention from both F1 and CART teams, but in the winter of 1995-96 Vincenzo's name barely got a mention in the silly season. Perhaps he had gained a reputation as being a grafter rather than a talent. In the end, the only door that opened for him was as Benetton's official test driver for 1996, although in reality it was a very unsatisfying year on the sidelines. |
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1997 MasterCard Lola The possibility was there for both success and utter disaster... |
However, salvation was at hand in 1997, or so Sospiri must have thought. He landed a drive with the new works Mastercard Lola entry, Eric Broadley's company making one last stab at F1 as a team in its own right rather than merely as a chassis supplier for some other team. With Rosset as team-mate again, a reliable if outdated Ford Zetec R V8 engine, and the wisdom of Broadley's experience pumped into the new Lola T97/30 chassis, the ingredients were there for a respectable season.
That was the case on paper, at least. On paper also the finances for the team seemed to be in order, with strong sponsorship from Mastercard. However, the truth of the matter was that Lola had planned to re-enter only in 1998. Mastercard was impatient and at the eleventh hour pushed Lola's timetable forward an entire year. Broadley's men were forced to design and build a car in three months' time, and when the cars made it to Melbourne for Round 1 they had never even seen a wind-tunnel! |
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1997
Sospiri back 113% off pole - he might have been faster in his F3000 Super Nova |
The soothsayers predicted doom, and for once they were spot on. From the time they hit the track it was patently clear that the Lolas were hopelessly off the pace. Perhaps even F3000 machines would have gone quicker. In Friday practice, Michael Schumacher went fastest in his Ferrari with a 1:32.496 around the Albert Park track. Sospiri was bog last out of 24, slower even than Rosset, with only a 1:42.590, over ten seconds off the pace. The writing was on the wall.
On Saturday morning things would only get worse. Jacques Villeneuve's Williams dropped down to a staggering 1:28.594. Vincenzo, though, had only gone slower, blowing out to a 1:44.286. In qualifying, Villeneuve managed a 1:29.369, while Sospiri finally went faster than Rosset and delivered a 1:40.972. That time was a truly remarkable 113% of pole, and the stewards were never going to allow either of the Lolas to start. |
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1997
Vincenzo reads about his own team's demise in the Sao Paulo newspaper |
Afterwards, Sospiri lamented: "It was always going to be a tough job. We all tried to make it work but we need track time to find the balance and how to generate more grip."The Lola T97/30 had also been proven to be unreliable, as was inevitably the case for a car which had not even been shaken down before going to Australia, as well as just plain slow and aerodynamically inefficient. But that was the least of Lola's problems. Although chances are the car was a lemon right from the start, perhaps with development Sospiri may have qualified for the odd race or two towards the end of the season. But that short whirlwind that was the Mastercard Lola effort had seen the team somehow build up massive debts, and by round two in Brazil the team had withdrawn. Sospiri only found out in a local paper after he had made the trip to Sao Paulo, but it was game over for his F1 career. |
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1997
Takes a brilliant rookie 3rd on the grid at Indy 500 |
It was to his credit that Vincenzo bounced back strongly throughout the rest of the 1990s - just not in F1. For the rest of 1997, he firstly picked up a drive with the Scandia team in the Indy Racing League in a Dallara Aurora. With no oval experience, he was nothing short of stunning at Indianapolis, where he qualified 3rd on the outside of the front row as a rookie for the 500 mile classic, although he was forced out of the race after 163 laps having dropped down the field.
In other IRL races (he did 6 in total) he claimed 6th at Pikes Peak and also 2nd at New Hampshire, and in the final standings he placed 21st with 134 points. Throughout the rest of the year, he also did one Porsche Supercup race at Silverstone, finishing 7th, and towards the end of 1997 also competed in two races in Formula Nippon in Japan, although with a spin at Fuji and only 15th at Suzuka he would have considered that foray to have been unsuccessful. |
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1998
Convincing winners in ISRS, makes an unnoticed stab at CART |
But 1998 was something was an annus mirabilis. The Jabouille-Bouresche Racing team took Sospiri on to drive their Ferrari 333SP in the International Sports Racing Series, pairing Vincenzo with former F3000 sparring partner Emmanuel Collard in the car. In an amazing run, out of eight races they won six, retiring in the first and last races but winning the rest. With 120 points the pair were clear champions.
But in the same sort of car for the same team at Le Mans, Sospiri retired with transmission problems with Jean-Christophe Boullion and Jerome Policand. Yet his heart was still with open wheelers, and he couldn't resist a late-season tilt that year in CART, driving the unfashionable All American Racers Eagle 98I Toyota in four races. He retired at both Laguna Seca and Fontana, but finished 15th in Houston and on the Gold Coast, although generally his performances went unnoticed. |
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1999-2001
Continues winning in sports cars, before Houdini act after Sebring ALMS round |
So for 1999 it was back to sports cars. In the JB-Giesse Ferrari 333SP in the renamed Sports Racing World Cup, Sospiri and Collard took three more wins and 4 other podiums to score 104 points and retain the championship. He retired in the Daytona 24hrs in the Konrad Lola Lotus B98/10 he shared with Franz Konrad and Jan Lammers. Then at Le Mans, he drove a works Toyota GT-1 with Collard and Martin Brundle. Although the Englishman put the car on pole, it retired 90 laps in.
Sospiri then disappeared from the racing scene, although he made one brief re-appearance at the start of 2001 when he did the ALMS round at the Sebring 12hrs in a Kelly-Moss Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3-RS, shared with Rick Polk and Cort Wagner, but the car failed after only 47 laps. On a personal note, away from the track Sospiri lives in Monte Carlo, and apart from karting he also enjoys scuba diving and playing squash. |
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