ACI Team Italia's 2023 campaign kicked off from Vicenza on February 4th. The eight young drivers selected by ACI Sport who will represent the Italian National Team in the top continental and Italian series were presented at the ACI Champions Awards, held at the Vicenza Exhibition Centre.
Three crews will compete in the FIA European Rally Championship 2023. The group is made up of 25-year-old Alberto Battistolli and Simone Scattolin from Vicenza, the leading duo in the top Rally2 category, and Trentino-born Roberto Daprà and Luca Guglielmetti, who will compete in the FIA ERC Junior. They will be joined by the 21-year-old Mattia Zanin and Fabio Pizzol from Treviso, in their first year in the continental series, also competing in the FIA ERC Junior. The cars - the Skoda Fabia Rally2 for Battistolli and the Peugeot 208 Rally4 for Daprà and Zanin - will all be managed by Delta Rally and fitted with Pirelli tyres.
At the same time, the program of two very young debutants in the world of rallying will be developed. Both were born in 2007 and supported by two great co-drivers. Valentino Ledda, from Burgos in Sardinia, with Anna Andreussi at his side as co-driver, while Giovanni Trentin from Treviso will be paired with Danilo Fappani. They will begin their rally journey at the wheel of the Ford Fiesta Rally4s, managed by Baltic Motorsport and fitted with Pirelli tyres, in a race calendar that includes the rallies of the Estonian Championship (Autoralli Terminal Oil Eesti Meistrivõistlused 2023) and Latvian Championship (Latvijas Rallija Čempionāta 2023). These national series in the Baltic countries also allow underage pilots - from the age of 16 - to participate. An opportunity that will allow Trentin - already involved in a preparatory test at the end of January in Finland - to start from the Sarma Rally on February 11th in Latvia, but which will force Ledda to wait for his 16th birthday in April before starting his adventure.
The twenty-six-year-old Damiano De Tommaso is also confirmed as the representative of ACI Team Italia. The driver from Varese will join the Campionato Italiano Assoluto Rally Sparco 2023 and he is expected to be one of the title contender among the cars of the Rally2 category.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Gabriele Mini are instead the two confirmations that arrived for the speed on the track that will make a career upgrade. The Federation's support for the two drivers who emerged through the Scuola Federale ACI Sport continues, which first accompanied Gabriele and then Kimi from the achievements in karting to those in single-seaters. Andrea Kimi Antonelli - Mercedes-AMG Petronas Junior Team driver who won the Italian F.4 Championship and the ADAC F.4 Championship last season - has been announced once again with Prema Racing to compete in the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine 2023. Upgrade also for Gabriele Minì who will race in Formula 3 with Hitech, as a rookie, after two great seasons in the F.Regional.
