Bertolini to Make Final Competitive Outing at Monza

Andrea Bertolini will make his final competitive race outing in this weekend’s Monza round of the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup, Ferrari has announced.

The 51-year-old Italian will share the No. 52 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 with Louis and Jef Machiels as he brings down the curtain on a career that has seen him rack up many successes in GT machinery with the Italian marque.

Bertolini began his association with Ferrari aged 19 as a tester of the Maranello marque’s road cars, and began his car racing career in 2001 in the FIA GT Championship after stepping up from karting.

After two years racing the Ferrari 360 Modena for JMB Racing in 2002-03, he moved on to sister marque Maserati in 2004 to develop the MC12, at the same time taking up a role as an official Scuderia Ferrari test driver.

Bertolini went on to win the 2006, ’08 and ’09 FIA GT titles at the wheel of the MC12 together with Michael Bartels at Vitaphone Racing Team, and the duo won the inaugural FIA GT1 World Championship in 2010 with the same team.

He also won the 24 Hours of Spa in 2006 and 2008 with Vitaphone.

Following Maserati’s FIA GT1 exit, Bertolini turned his attentions to the Superstars Series, winning the International title at the wheel of a Quattroporte, before returning to Ferrari for the dawn of the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2012.

Another world title came in 2015 when he and Russian duo Viktor Shaytar and Aleksey Basov clinched the GTE-Am title in an SMP Racing-entered Ferrari 458 Italia GT2, winning their class in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the process.

That followed title success in the European Le Mans Series with the same team the previous year, and the 2013 Asian Le Mans Series title with AF Corse.

In recent years, Bertolini’s main focus has been on the GTWC Europe, winning the overall Pro-Am Cup together with Louis Machiels in 2019 and then the same class in the Endurance Cup in 2022 with Machiels and Stefano Costantini.