Arguably the world's fastest GT3 driver, Raffaele Marciello, will contest this year's Intelligent Money British GT Championship with race winner John Ferguson and reigning teams’ champions RAM Racing.
The Swiss-Italian joins his Mercedes-AMG colleague Jules Gounon on this year's GT3 entry list, which now includes no fewer than eight factory drivers.
Marciello is the reigning ADAC GT Masters and Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS Overall/Endurance Cup champion whose trophy-laden 2022 campaign also featured Intercontinental GT Challenge Powered by Pirelli wins at the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, Kyalami 9 Hour and Indianapolis 8 Hour.
A European Formula 3 champion and GP2 Series race-winner during his Ferrari-affiliated single-seater career, he switched to GT racing in 2017 and joined the Mercedes-AMG driver roster a year later.
“I’m really happy to be adding the British GT Championship with RAM Racing to my plans for the season,” he said. “The British tracks are world-famous and look amazing, so I can’t wait to get to drive them and learn some new ones. Plus, I really love racing in the rain, which means the British weather won’t even be a problem for me!
“This year the level in British GT looks to be very high with a lot of professional drivers involved so it will be a nice challenge. I’m sure that between myself, John and RAM Racing we will have the tools to do a good job and fight for some nice results. I know we can have a very strong year.”
Ferguson, meanwhile, was the only Silver-Am class entrant to win a race outright last year when he, Ulysse De Pauw and RAM triumphed at Snetterton. This will be his third British GT campaign after first joining the GT4 class in 2021.
“I wanted to do something dramatic for British GT this year, and this is the culmination of many months of trying to get Raffaele onboard for this year, and I’m delighted!” he said. In my mind, I’ve got the best GT3 driver in the world in my corner, and his record speaks for itself. I know I’ll learn huge amounts from working with Lello this year, which will help me improve as a driver.
“I was very pleased with how last year went in the end, but I know the areas I need to work on. Race pace was never the issue for me as I’ve always had good consistency, but I need to deliver more in qualifying – finding that ultimate single-lap pace on new tyres is the hardest part.
“This year is shaping up to be the toughest British GT season ever with the level of quality in the entry, so starting races near the front and staying out of trouble is going to be key. I have to aim high with a driver like Lello as my team-mate, so the goal is to fight for race wins and see where that takes us in the championship. Now it’s up to me to work hard and train hard to be in the best possible position to help make that happen.”
RAM Racing also won the drivers’ title with Ian Loggie last season but has scaled back to a single-car operation for the upcoming campaign, which begins at Oulton Park on April 8 & 10.
The team and both drivers will also attend tomorrow’s pre-season media day at Donington Park. Entry is free for fans from 08:30.