Prodrive to run Ferraris
Prodrive, the World Rally Championship team, has been contracted to design
its own version of the Ferrari 550 Maranello that was campaigned with such
little success by FIRST Racing and Italian preparation specialists
Italtechnica last season.
The Ferrari failed to finish a single race last year, retiring with engine-related problems, and the team handed Prodrive one of its two cars for evaluation. FIRST Racing driver Fabien Giroix has threatened to abandon the Ferrari project this year, preferring instead the Porsche Supercup or the German V8 silhouette series though has not ruled out another FIA GT Championship campaign with Ferrari in 2002.
Prodrive looked at several cars, including the Ferrari, before the as-yet un-named team made its decision to have the Banbury-based team construct one car in time for the fourth round of the FIA GT Championship at Silverstone, and a second in time for the Hungarian round in July. The British company will then build further customer examples of the Ferrari for sale to customer teams next year. Drivers have yet to be announced.
-Motor Sport News
