Maranello, 7 January, 2016

Ferrari has decided its crews for the 2016 season of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) and the IMSA United SportsCar Championship (USCC) in which the Prancing Horse will deploy the new 488 GTE.

In the WEC, two-time world champion Gianmaria “Gimmi” Bruni will team up with Britain’s James Calado in the historic AF Corse car no. 51. Sam Bird will replace James in the no. 71 alongside Davide Rigon. Sam has previously driven a 458 Italia for AF Corse but this is his debut as an official Maranello driver. The 28 year-old Briton won the 2015 WEC world title in the LMP2 class.

In the IMSA USCC championship Giancarlo Fisichella will be joined in the Risi Competizione car by Toni Vilander, second in the WEC in 2015 together with Bruni.

With the addition of Bird there are now eight Ferrari official GT drivers. The season’s programme for Andrea Bertolini and Olivier Beretta is still being decided.

Vilander teams up with Fisichella in 488 of Risi Competizione

Experience is generally crucial in car racing, but is even more so in America’s IMSA United SportsCar Championship. A consistently good performance, notching up the points race by race, is more important than high notes, which is why Ferrari decided to give to Risi Competizione team a new crew to try to win the GT-Le Mans class championship.

Winners at Le Mans

Giancarlo Fisichella and Finland’s Toni Vilander, until last year paired up with Gianmaria “Gimmi” Bruni in the WEC, will crew the new 488 turbo engine car that will make its debut in this competition at Daytona in late January. Fisichella and Vilander will have no problems working together as they have previously paired up six times in the Le Mans 24 Hours, winning in 2012 and 2014. Fisichella and Vilander will race the entire season at the wheel of car no. 62 of Giuseppe Risi’s team and will try to win a title that Ferrari has repeatedly just missed out on in recent seasons.