<< Prev Page 2 of 2 In round six of the eleven-round FIA GT championship, seasoned drivers Alain Menu and Rickard Rydell debuted the new racer at the Hungaroring. Teething problems saw the car retire early in the race, but the pace was promising. Just two rounds later at the A1 Ring in Austria, the Care/Prodrive 550 Maranello scored its first win in the hands of Peter Cox and Rydell. A third place finish at the Nürburgring and a victory at Jarama followed to complete this promising debut season. In 2002 more cars were constructed for additional privateers and more victories were scored in the FIA GT championship. Prodrive entered one car in the 2002 24 Hours of Le Mans and qualified for the GT pole ahead of the favoured Corvettes and Vipers. Rydell, Menu and Tomas Enge led their class rivals until a flaming oil leak forced their retirement in the 13th hour.
All the lessons learned in the two previous seasons were applied in 2003, which saw a complete domination of the GT championship by the Prodrive 550 Maranellos entered by the BMS Scuderia Italia team. Veloqx Prodrive returned to Le Mans and beat the fastest Corvette by ten laps to score Ferrari's first GT class trophy in almost thirty years. Perhaps the biggest compliment came from Ferrari when they announced a competition version of the 575M Maranello. Although the works built racer took a victory at its debut in the last round of the 2003 season, it has since rarely been able to match the 550 GTS Maranello's pace.
More success came in 2004 with BMS Scuderia Italia continuing their stronghold on the FIA GT Championship. At Le Mans the Maranello again impressed with blistering lap times, but couldn't ultimately overtake the two Corvettes. Because both the Corvette and Maranello proved capable of prototype-matching pace, they were penalized with additional ballast for the 2005 running of the legendary endurance race. This didn't seem to affect the Corvette team since they had a completely new car, but the privateer Maranellos were left severely hampered and subsequently unable to challenge the new Corvette C6.R and the Aston Martin DBR9.
Prodrive concluded their involvement with the 550 Maranello project in 2004 after being commissioned by Aston Martin to construct a racing version of the DB9. In the GT championship, privateer Maranellos were frequently outpaced by the Maserati MC12 but in the Le Mans Endurance Series (LMES) they continued to show their worth with class victories in most rounds.
Thanks to Frederic Dor and Prodrive a new chapter has been added to Ferrari's racing history. The successes scored by the 550 GTS Maranello reminded of the marque's finest hours when cars such as the 250 GTO and 365 GTB/4 Daytona Competitizione's dominated GT racing. It also inspired Ferrari to return to GT racing, initially with little luck but eventually with considerable and continued success. << Prev Page 2 of 2
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In round six of the eleven-round FIA GT championship, seasoned drivers Alain Menu and Rickard Rydell debuted the new racer at the Hungaroring. Teething problems saw the car retire early in the race, but the pace was promising. Just two rounds later at the A1 Ring in Austria, the Care/Prodrive 550 Maranello scored its first win in the hands of Peter Cox and Rydell. A third place finish at the Nürburgring and a victory at Jarama followed to complete this promising debut season. In 2002 more cars were constructed for additional privateers and more victories were scored in the FIA GT championship. Prodrive entered one car in the 2002 24 Hours of Le Mans and qualified for the GT pole ahead of the favoured Corvettes and Vipers. Rydell, Menu and Tomas Enge led their class rivals until a flaming oil leak forced their retirement in the 13th hour.