18
A
Among the teams participating in the F.Renault 2.0
ALPS competition organised by Fast Lane Promotion
again this year is Vincenzo Sospiri's Euronova
Racing. A brilliant ex-driver, whose career highlights
include the 1995 F. 3000 title, a stint as a test driver
for the Benetton F.1 team in 1996, as well as the
abortive season in Formula 1 with the Lola team who
were unfortunately forced to withdraw following the
first race of the 1997 season, a pole position at the
first attempt at the Indianapolis 500 in 1997 and two
Sports car championship in the Ferrari 333 Sp, in
recent years Sospiri has dedicated his efforts to
developing young drivers. Euronova Racing, which is
owned by another ex-F.1 driver, Taki Inoue, will
features the debutants Gregor Ramsay, Javier Amado
and Ukyo Sasahara this year.
What convinced you to move back to F.Renault 2.0?
“Euronova has always been committed to promoting
young drivers and helping them to grow. The ALPS
championship has developed very well since its
inception and features an exciting, competitive
single-seater, excellent organisation and some very
high level competition. What more could you ask
for?”
How's the current season going for the Euronova
team?
“We’re working hard to get better all the time. Our
three rookies, Amado, Ramsay and Sasahara, are
improving with every race. We’re getting closer and
closer to the level of the championship leaders, and
we’re already very pleased about that. But there’s still
work to do before we can start thinking about
thinking about finishing in the top three”.
Euronova has always featured Japanese drivers, and
this year it’s Sasahara’s turn. Is there any particular
reason for that?
“There’s a very simple answer to that. While I am
responsible for managing the team in Italy, it’s owned
by another ex-driver, Taki Inoue. Naturally, he takes a
great interest in talented young drivers from Japan
and whenever one comes to our attention we give
them a trial. If, like Sasahara, they have the right
qualities and possess all the basic skills necessary to
progress, then we enter them in the championship. At
the moment we also have two Japanese drivers in
Auto GP, Sato and Kuroda. However it’s not a
prerequisite, and we could just as well go for a
season without a representative from the land of the
Rising Sun…”.
Will you also be participating in the European Renault
2.0 championship next year?
“We tried to enter this year, but our application was
turned down. So we’ll be limiting our participation to
ALPS again next year, we’re not interested in taking
part in the Eurocup for the time being because it’s
not possible to carry out tests during the season. As I
already mentioned, we’re in the business of
developing young talent and we believe that the best
thing for them is to get as much time in as possible
on the test track, rather than taking part in the
European races where they're limited to just four
days of testing. In ALPS there are no such limits, and
by the end of the season the drivers will have
covered more kilometres than they would have done
competing in the Eurocup. Moreover, we’ve seen that
our boys learn much more during testing. And that’s
what we’re aiming for”.
