🇮🇹 Vincenzo Sospiri

Vincenzo Sospiri is an Italian established professional who raced in International Formula 3000 and IndyCar between 1990 and 1997. He drove for Super Nova Racing in Formula 3000, the series in which he took all three of his career wins. His sole IndyCar campaign came in 1997, where he competed on oval tracks only for Team Scandia and finished 16th in the season standings.[1]

Sospiri won the 1995 International Formula 3000 championship with Super Nova Racing after six seasons in the series, during which he accumulated three wins and eleven podiums across 35 starts. His 1997 IndyCar effort yielded one podium from six oval-track rounds. Across both series, he finished 41 starts with three wins and twelve podiums. He holds an FIA Silver rating in endurance racing, placing him among drivers developing towards the professional grades.[2]

The Formula 3000 grids of his era included established professionals and former champions. In head-to-head racing against Christian Fittipaldi, the 1991 Formula 3000 champion and a former Formula 1 driver who would later win at endurance level, Sospiri occasionally prevailed. He regularly finished ahead of fellow regulars Jérôme Policand and Paolo Delle Piane, both of whom had comparable experience in the series. On the oval tracks he contested in IndyCar, he beat Tony Stewart once, an established professional with substantial experience in both that series and American motorsport.