Who is Antonello Coletta
Behind the history Ferrari victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans there is undoubtedly the directorial role of Antonello Coletta, head of GT Sports Activities of the Maranello team. After fifty years of absence from the top class in the historic endurance race, the crew made up of Alessandro Pier Guidi, Antonio Giovinazzi and James Calado managed to cross the finish line first in the Ferrari 499P, with a victory that resonated Worldwide.
56 years old from Rome, Coletta he has been part of Ferrari for 26 years. Graduated in Economics and Commerce from Sapienza, he started in motorsport as sporting director of Forti Corse in F.3000, before moving to Peugeot and Alfa Romeo, arriving in Maranello in 1997. Various roles covered in the Prancing Horse, as coordinator of Ferrari Challenge first and responsible for Ferrari Corse Clienti, Scuderia Ferrari sports activities and GT sports activities, Fiorano circuit and road show activities afterwards.
The shadow of Coletta on Vasseur
A Ferrari that immediately won at the 24 Hours of Le Mans is counterbalanced by a more than limping Red in Formula 1, which has not conquered the iris since 2007 among the pilots and since 2008 among the constructors. Frederic Vasseur, who arrived in January, is trying to rebuild the team, but the project seems rather complex, given the strength of the rivals – Red Bull above all – and the weakness shown so far by the SF-23 project. Today’s edition of The print underlined the coincidence on the weekend of July 7-9 between the Silverstone race of F1 and the 6 Hours of Monza of the WEC, wondering: “Seeing the Le Mans winning 499P on the track with two Italian drivers […]or follow the (dis)adventures of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz against the elusive Red Bull?”.
Il Sports Couriersigned by Fulvio Solms, went further, painting Antonello Coletta as the “first man on the bench for the eventual succession of Frederic Vasseur”underlining that “Le Mans has brought the candidacy to maturity“. The Roman newspaper explained: “Either Ferrari will become successful in F1, or President Elkann will try to build this reality in 2025, with the aim of having a winning team in 2026“, carrying on: “The president is convinced that the plant of the F1 team can be grafted with the inclusion of Coletta”whose presenceit will be a thorn in Vasseur’s side“. The newspaper then noted: “Coletta […] he was disappointed when in April 2014, Stefano Domenicali resigned, the then number one Montezemolo went to fish Marco Mattiacci. And he took it even worse when […] he was forgotten in a corner by Marchionne and Arrivabene. Coletta thus closed himself in the fort of the GT business […]never drooling over F1 and indeed opposing ‘no, thank you’ to five different occasions in which Elkann proposed to him, or simply made him understand, to be able to entrust him with the team that belonged to Binotto”. And he concluded: “On the sixth advance […] – reports those who are very close to him – Coletta will have a hard time saying no“.
2023-06-14 07:00:41
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