Cozzolino Buoyed by PONOS Ferrari Speed After Near Miss

Kei Cozzolino says he has been bouyed by the speed shown by PONOS Racing’s Ferrari 296 GT3 in last weekend’s SUPER GT round at Sportsland Sugo despite he and teammate Lilou Wadoux narrowly missing out on victory in mixed conditions.

The newly-formed PONOS team scored by far its best result of the season so far in Sunday’s fifth round as Cozzolino took full advantage of the wet conditions that suited the car’s Michelin tires perfectly to surge into an early lead.

But, with two safety car periods bunching up the field, Wadoux was powerless to hold on to the lead on a drying track after taking over from Cozzolino, losing out against the faster LEON Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Takuro Shinohara.

Wadoux and Shinohara, who took over the LEON car from Naoya Gamou, engaged in a lengthy nose-to-tail battle after the final restart, but with the track having mostly dried out by this stage, the superiority of the Bridgestone dry tire became clear as Shinohara passed Wadoux into Turn 1 on lap 64 of 79.

Second place still made Wadoux only the second female driver to ever score a podium in the history of SUPER GT and its predecessor series, the JGTC, and the first since 1995.

Having previously finished no higher than sixth this year, Cozzolino expressed no regrets about losing the chance of victory at Sugo, instead taking encouragement from the No. 45 Ferrari’s pace even after the track had dried out.

“It has been difficult for us this year, so we felt like underdogs, a bit under the radar,” Cozzolino told Sportscar365. “The 296 GT3 is fast, as you can see in other series like GT World Challenge and WEC, but the problem has been the tires.

“We developed the tires last winter when it was cold, but the extreme heat in Japan kind of put us off the rails. Sugo was the moment we had been waiting for with low track temperatures and especially the rain.

“Our wet tire uses the same tread pattern that the NISMO GT500 cars used last year, and they are out of this world. In the race, you could see that the three Michelin cars were the fastest [in the rain]. If there had been no safety car, I think it would have been an easy 1-2 finish with us and the [Team Studie] BMW [that also uses Michelins].

“Even in the second stint, when Lilou went on to slicks, her pace wasn’t that bad compared to the Bridgestone cars, so I think we clearly saw our car and tire functioned better in cooler conditions. That really excites us for the last part of the season.”

The first safety car was called on lap 25 when the Tsuchiya Engineering Toyota GR Supra became stranded following a three-way collision with the K-tunes Racing Lexus RC F GT3 and the Gainer Nissan Z exiting SP Out.

With a lead of over 20 seconds wiped away, Cozzolino admitted he knew a victory would be impossible given the track was drying out, but praised Wadoux for the way she soaked up the pressure of Shinohara’s Mercedes-AMG after the last restart.

“We lost the race on sheer dry performance, but despite that fact, Lilou handled herself well,” said Cozzolino. “I thought she would be overtaken immediately.

“It was a really tough and stressful situation for her, also because some parts of the track were still wet. She had to hold herself back and not make any mistakes. But even once she was overtaken, she even improved her speed.

“When I saw that, I realized we weren’t so far back on dry performance compared to the mid-summer races. That we were so close to the victory makes us more optimistic.”

Second place at Sugo has elevated Cozzolino and Wadoux to tenth place in the GT300 drivers’ standings with three races to go, albeit a daunting 42 points behind LEON Mercedes-AMG pair Gamou and Shinohara.

But Cozzolino believes with cooler conditions likely to prevail in the remaining races, including the rescheduled Suzuka finale, the PONOS Ferrari will be in a good position to pick up more podium finishes and close the gap to the leaders.

“We still haven’t given up on the championship,” said Cozzolino. “After that race, honestly, if we can keep finishing on the podium, and maybe get a victory, we won’t be so far away.

“SUPER GT can be such a cruel championship. If you don’t have the right materials, there’s no chance and it’s really easy to start doubting yourself. But one good race can really turn things around, and this was one of those.

“The mood in the team is really positive and everyone is feeling more motivated now.”