News June 20 2006

Maserati back in the red

Maserati is back the red, not on the balance sheet but on the track, with Maseratis back on the race track in the traditional Italian racing colour for the first time in nearly 50 years for a 24 hour race at the infamously difficult German Nürburgring race track.

Red was the colour worn by Italian competition cars before the advent of sponsors and it was the colour in which Juan Manuel Fangio took the 1957 F1 world title in his Maserati 250 F at the Nürburgring, universally considered the greatest of his career.

Red was also the colour of the Maserati 300 S that was victorious in the Nürburgring 1000 kilometres with Moss, Behra, Taruffi and Schell at the wheel.

The Maserati GranSport Trofeo is the same colour as this car and the vehicles, like Fangio’s championship winning 250 F, also have yellow piping around the grille.

In the driving seat of the GranSport Trofeo in the official competition will be the French star, Jacques Laffite. He will be flanked by the Italian Gianni Giudici, American Patrick Hong and Englishman Richard Meaden.

Maserati will be going back to the past in one respect but will innovate and look to the future in another. The “Maserati R&D Factory Team” will line up for the 24 Hour in a GranSport “Laboratorio”. This vehicle is the sole example on which experimental solutions are tested before their possible introduction on racing and standard models. Among the modifications on the car is the new carbon fibre driveshaft with a new sequential gearbox.

The GranSport “Laboratorio” features the team Vitaphone livery in which Maserati won the 2005 Spa 24 Hour and the Constructors’ Cup in the 2005 FIA GT Championship. Andrea Bertolini, German Michael Bartels, Belgian Eric Van de Poele and the gentleman driver, Gianni Giudici (who appeared in two cars) took turns behind the wheel.

Both vehicles are equipped with Pirelli tyres, with which Maserati has renewed its partnership agreement for a further two years.