Saturday – Finali Mondiali Qualifying and Superpole
Saturday’s Superpole qualifying consisted of two sessions, where the top six from the first session went through to the second session in a bid to set the fastest time. Tom topped the timesheets in the second session, putting him on pole for Sunday’s race. James also put in a sterling effort, qualifying 17th overall on the 37-car grid, and 8th in class.
Sunday – WORLD FINAL
The race got off to a dramatic start with Tom being sandwiched and squeezed down to third position going into the first corner, but he managed to get the switchback and regain the lead coming out of the corner. There were then three separate incidents further down the field, resulting in a total of five cars finding themselves in the gravel or the barriers. Thankfully James made it through unscathed. After a few laps behind the safety car, the red flag was brought out to allow the marshals time to repair the barriers. After 40 minutes in pitlane awaiting the restart, the cars returned to the track behind the safety car once more, and Tom once again managed the restart perfectly to maintain the lead. Unfortunately, shortly afterwards the safety car was called out yet again, meaning the pressure was on for Tom to produce yet another superlative restart, which he did successfully. Whilst all of this was going on, James was putting in a sensational drive to avoid all the chaos occurring around him and climb up to 9th place overall. Astonishingly, with just under 7 minutes remaining, the safety car was brought out for a fourth time. Following yet another perfect restart, Tom had to keep the field behind him for 2 nail-biting laps to the chequered flag. Tom and the team could finally breathe a massive sigh of relief when Tom took the chequered flag to emerge victorious and become Ferrari Challenge World Champion! James put in an incredibly impressive drive to maintain 9th place overall following the restarts, meaning he rounded off his season with a hard-fought 4th in class.
The FF Corse team are incredibly proud of what James and Tom have both achieved in their debut season in car racing, having obtained their race licenses just a matter weeks before the season started. James had no previous racing experience of any sort, and yet he has consistently managed to finish ahead of far more experienced drivers, giving him a really solid foundation to head into the 2024 season with. Tom had raced karts previously, but has quickly adapted to his 488 and shown the motorsport world that he means business.
In our only two appearances at the World Finals, FF Corse has emerged victorious on both occasions! Our previous triumph was in 2019 with Adam Carroll behind the wheel.
We would like to thank the sponsors, our team members and our extended FF Corse family for all their support, and we can’t wait to do it all again next year!