Ferrari Challenge

In October the Mugello International Circuit in Florence, Italy, played host to the 2007 Ferrari Finals. Watched by over 30,000 avid Ferrari fans, the highlight was a demonstration by recently crowned 2007 Formula One World Champion Kimi Räikkönen, teammate Felipe Massa and the rest of the 2007 World Championship winning team.

The now traditional end-of-season festival was a four-day tribute to all things Ferrari.

It featured the World Finals of the Shell-powered Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli Championship for F430s, which was won by Vito Postiglione (Motor/Malucelli) ahead of Niki Cadei (Rossocorsa) and Lorenzo Bontempelli (Rossocorsa), with Giorgio Massazza (Rossocorsa) taking victory in the Shell Cup for gentlemen drivers.

The deciding rounds of the hotly contested Shell Ferrari Historic Challenge also took place during the weekend, with Tony Smith’s 1960 Ferrari 256 F1/FL winning the “A” category for single-seaters, the 1956 Maserati 250 SI of Marc Devis taking the “B” group for sports and GT cars fitted with drum brakes and Paul Knapfield’s 1980 Ferrari 512 BB LM taking the title in the “C” group for cars with disc brakes.

The Shell Ferrari Historic Challenge is a step back in time for historic motor racing enthusiasts and a chance for Shell to demonstrate the depth of its long-standing and successful relationship with Ferrari. Shell created many of the fuels that these original cars run on and now creates new fuels to match the evolution of technology.

"The Shell technical partnership with Ferrari started in the 1930s and it was a great help because we have a huge database where we exactly know which car needs what kind of fuel,” says Joerg Landschof, Shell Project Manager Motorsport and Fuels Development. “When we started to create Shell Racing Fuel Historic, we talked to the Ferrari technicians and talked about the needs, for example octane and protection which was given by having lead in the fuel. So, what we did is we took out the lead and we found a synthetic replacement."

The F430s and Historic cars will take to tracks in the USA, Europe and Italy again in 2008, supported by Shell.