Canadian Raimondo to race in Italian F3 in 2010

Here’s a quick follow-up on my item regarding the 2010 racing plans of talented St. Catharines teenager Alex Ellis (see blog post below).

Ellis had a teammate at Toronto's Team Autotecnica, Gianmarco Raimondo, who finished third in the 2009 Formula BMW Americas championship and who also hails from St. Catharines. Raimondo and Ellis, besides racing on the same team, also attended the same high school in St. Kitts.

Raimondo is in Italy as we speak, signing a contract to race in the Italian Formula 3 series this season with the Lucidi Motors team, whose driver, Mirko Bortolotti, won the '09 championship.

Raimondo – known as "G-Mo" – actually went to Italy last fall after the BMW-Americas race at Mosport, which he won, to test for various teams in the Italian championship. He auditioned for Team Corbetta/Minardi and actually drove in one race, at the Vallelunga circuit near Rome, where he earned a point.

He tested with Alan Racing at Circuit de Magny-Cours near Paris in November, just prior to his Mugello test with the Lucidi Motors team. Raimondo reports that he "gelled" with the Lucidi team’s engineer and mechanics and that’s when he made his choice.

The carrot on the stick to finish in the top three in Italian F3?

How about a Formula One test with Ferrari?

The season will start for "G-Mo" on April 25 at the Circuit Misano and end in September at Monza, when the Italian F3 series will be part of the Italian Grand Prix weekend.

We’ll try to keep an eye on Raimondo, Ellis and all the other up-and-coming Canadian drivers as they chase their dreams in 2010.

Comments

[Matti Lilleberg]

Great article! Does this show a trend of rising young Canadian stars going abroad to further their careers, whereas before Canada itself produced many drivers of world caliber. The list in the '80s include Berg, Fellows, Tracy, Goodyear just to mention a few.