Pirelli will remain the exclusive tyre supplier of the BOSS GP in 2024.
The Italian tyre manufacturer offers a unique product for the participants of the BOSS GP: Formula 1 technology combined with easier handling when warming up the tyres. Together with the Hollerweger tyre service, this partnership guarantees a reliable supply of the “black gold” throughout the season.
Photo: Angelo Poletto/BOSS GP
Harald Schlegelmilch takes his ninth win of the season with a lap record. Simone Colombo manages to win the FORMULA title with a second place. Victory for Alexander Geier in the SUPER LIGHTS category.
While the Cinturato rain tyres were fitted in the morning, there was no more talk of this before the first race. It dried up just in time. So everything was set for a high-speed festival at the Pirelli Grande Finale 2022 at the World Circuit Marco Simoncelli in Misano. After all, there was still a championship title at stake.
BOSS GP OPEN Class
But first all eyes were on the lap times of Harald Schlegelmilch (LVA, HS Engineering) in his Dallara World Series. The V8 car completed the lap of the Italian circuit near the Adriatic Sea as fast as no other car had ever done before. Schlegelmilch not only took his ninth win of the season in the OPEN classification, but also made history with a new sensational lap record of 1:21.822. The previous lap record, set in a Euroseries 3000 race, was a time of 1:25.380 by Clivio Piccione. On the technically demanding and rather twisty MotoGP circuit, this meant an average speed of 186 kph for Schlegelmilch.
BOSS GP FORMULA Class
Marco Ghiotto (ITA, Scuderia Palladio) once again did everything in his control to keep his title chance alive. But the race win in the first heat was not enough. A second place was sufficient for Simone Colombo (ITA, MM International) to win the title early. This means that Ghiotto has to vacate his “throne” after three titles in a row. For Colombo it was the crowning of only his second BOSS GP season. Luca Martucci (ITA, MM International) completed the Italian celebrations with third place. Martucci was slow to get going, but the longer the race went on he overtook rival after rival and was subsequently delighted with his first podium of the year.
Giancarlo Pedetti (ITA, Nannini Racing) also claimed his best finish of the season with fourth place. Walter Steding (GER, Scuderia Palladio) made up further points on Zdenek Chovanec-Lopez (PRT, MM International) in the championship with fifth place. In the last race of the season, he has a good chance of moving up to fourth position overall.
BOSS GP SUPER LIGHTS Class
After a surprising fourth place in a wet qualifying session, Alexander Geier (AUT, Geier Racing) was in the front of the field, but Geier, in the underpowered 6-cylinder World Series, held his own in the race and was even in fourth place overall for a long time. Only Martucci was able to overtake him in the closing stages. With fifth place among the GP2 cars, the 16-year-old once again showed his talent. The class win in the SUPER LIGHTS was an easy matter, Walter Colacino (ITA, Walter Colacino Racing) in the older Formula 3000 finished second behind Geier.
Tomorrow Sunday the V8 and V6 engines will be fired up one more time this BOSS GP season. The race start for the twelfth race of the season is at 11:05 am local time. Admission is free.
Photo: Angelo Poletto/BOSS GP
Schlegelmilch takes pole position in the wet. Colombo with best starting position in FORMULA class and big surprise by Alexander Geier.
Harald Schlegelmilch (LVA, HS Engineering) secured the best starting position for the Pirelli Grande Finale in qualifying on Saturday morning. In damp conditions, the OPEN class driver was in a class of his own in his World Series car. In the absence of the BOSS GP F1 Class, he set by far the fastest lap time of the final BOSS GP qualifying session of the year with 1:35.159.
With second place overall in qualifying, Simone Colombo (ITA, MM International) took an important step towards the FORMULA class title. Although his main rival, Marco Ghiotto (ITA, Scuderia Palladio), came close to him towards the end of the half-hour session, Colombo defended himself with another improvement of his lap time.
Alexander Geier (AUT, Geier Racing) caused a sensation. The six-cylinder driver from the SUPER LIGHTS class qualified in fourth place overall and thus topped his previous best performance by far. With dry conditions forecast, can he defend himself against the armada of GP2 cars in the race?
Geier’s compatriot Michael Aberer (MA Motorsport) will start the race from row 3 together with Luca Martucci (ITA, MM International). Giancarlo Pedetti (ITA, Nannini Racing) and Paul O’Connell (IRE, HS Engineering) will start from row 4. As a rain specialist, O’Connell had expected a lot in the wet conditions. But the Irishman lost valuable track time after a spin and was only able to return to qualifying late in the session.
The eleventh race of the season with a distance of 20 minutes starts today at 14:35.
Photo: Angelo Poletto/BOSS GP
In the fight for victory in the FORMULA classification, the action came to a head on the last lap. Class wins for Gerstl, Schlegelmilch, Colombo and Hasler.
BOSS GP rookie Zdenek Chovanec-Lopez (CZE, MM International) set an incredible pace for almost twenty minutes and already looked like the secure winner when his tyres started to degrade badly. Chovanec-Lopez’s GP2 car clearly started to drift more and more. In a powerslide he still tried to keep the fast-approaching Simone Colombo (ITA, MM International) behind him, but the effort was in vain. Colombo managed his Pirelli P-Zero slicks better and thus took the FORMULA victory in Sunday’s 25-minute race.
Marco Ghiotto (ITA, Scuderia Palladio) was again able to collect a trophy at the podium ceremony, he finished third. Luca Martucci (ITA, MM International) crossed the finish line in an unthankful fourth place. The experienced Italian defeated Michael Aberer (AUT, MA Motorsport), who kept Martucci busy at the beginning of the race. Today, Aberer was able to score a good result after his retirement yesterday.
Paul O’Connell (IRE, HS Engineering) finished sixth in class, ahead of Giancarlo Pedetti, who put in a clean performance as he did yesterday in his BOSS GP debut race. The best German was Walter Steding (Scuderia Palladio) in eighth place. Despite a collision at the start of the race, Alexander Seibold (GER, Scuderia Palladio) was also able to finish the race. Much to the delight of many fans, because Seibold started with a special helmet design as a tribute to the unforgotten Swiss Formula 1 and sports car racer Jo Siffert.
The other classes:
The OPEN category of the Formula 1 cars was again a straightforward affair for Ingo Gerstl (AUT, Top Speed) in the first car of Scuderia Toro Rosso (now Alpha Tauri). Despite an early technical knockout, Phil Stratford (USA, Penn Elcom Racing) and Ulf Ehninger (GER, ESBA Racing) were able to score second and third respectively.
Harald Schlegelmilch (LVA, HS Engineering) in the yellow-and-black World Series V8 machine performed as he did in Race 1 and, starting from last place on the grid, managed to overtake most of the field in the opening laps. The Latvian left all FORMULA cars behind and won the new classification of the modified BOSS GP cars.
After Andreas Hasler (AUT, Hasler Motorsport) could not take part in the race yesterday, the Austrian was eager to get through today. He succeeded and even more: Hasler claimed victory in the SUPER LIGHTS six-cylinder classification.
The two races in the Bosch Hockenheim Historic can be watched in replay at www.hockenheim-historic.de/en/live
The next two races of the BOSS GP Racing Series will follow in four weeks’ time (3-5 June 2022) as part of the Rundstreckentrophy at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg.
Note: The overall standings are currently still unofficial, as the modified FORMULA car class is only just being added to the regulations.
Pictures: Angelo Poletto/BOSS GP
The clouds over the Red Bull Ring opened their floodgates on Saturday morning and provided an exciting qualifying session. Gerstl on pole position, Schlegelmilch fastest FORMULA driver at BOSS GP debut.
Saturday arrived and the expected weather worsened, which did not dampen the driving in qualifying. The BOSS GP drivers showed their class as 19 drivers out of the 20 entered went out on track in their Big Open Single Seaters even in these poor conditions – with four freshly fitted Pirelli Cinturato rain tyres, of course. Qualifying was not divided into Q1 and Q2 due to the rain, so there was only one 30-minute session in which all cars hit the track.
At the beginning Marco Ghiotto (ITA, Scuderia Palladlo) set top times and was able to take the lead. The lead did not last long, because the sensation of the qualifying, Harald Schlegelmilch (LVA, HS Engineering), promptly took over first place. The Latvian makes his debut in the BOSS GP this weekend and is involved right from the start. The former Formula 3 and Lamborghini Super Trofeo driver is piloting a World Series by Renault bolide of the Austrian team HS Engineering this weekend. Just as all the cars were on fast laps, Phil Stratford (USA, Penn Elcom Racing) in the Benetton B197 slid into the run-off area with a spin at the final corner. Stratford was able to resume driving after returning to the pits, but Andreas Fiedler (DEU, Fiedler Racing) and Riccardo Ponzio (ITA, Adriatica Competition) in the Jaguar suffered a different fate. They found the end of their qualifying in the gravel at the same time. Neither car was damaged, however, and nothing should stand in the way of a start in the race.
After the red flag had been waved, all available drivers went out on the track again. Ingo Gerstl (AUT, Top Speed) put his Toro Rosso STR1 on pole. Schlegelmilch and Ghiotto completed the top 3. Simone Colombo (ITA, MM International), who had already shown a good performance in the rain at the opening round in Mugello, also started the race from row 2. Florian Schnitzenbaumer (GER, Top Speed) and Walter Steding (GER, Scuderia Palladio) were surprisingly strong after a long break from racing, finishing 5th and 6th respectively. But now it is the race pace that counts, the first race starts today at 11:35 am local time.
Photo: Angelo Poletto/BOSS GP
Award ceremony and official test on 21 and 22 November in Italy.
As part of the Pirelli Season Finale, BOSS GP offers two official test days with free practice at the upgraded Adria International Raceway. The track near Venice has recently been significantly expanded and is now around four kilometres long. The mixture of fast passages and tight corners as well as large run-off areas offers ideal conditions for improving set-up and driving skills.
Registered BOSS GP pilots have a designated slot. Newcomers and re-entrants can request further information via race@bossgp.com if they are interested in participating.
The successful drivers of the BOSS GP Racing Series 2020 will also be honoured on site. The race track in Adria offers a large and covered paddock and therefore optimal conditions for an award ceremony under the current circumstances.
The organisers of the BOSS GP Racing Series are in regular contact with the operators of the race track and are aware of the changing situation regarding travel and event restrictions. Should there be any changes to the event, the participants will be informed immediately.
FORMULA: Martucci beats Ghiotto, Gerstl ahead of Ehninger in the OPEN class
The BOSS GP drivers have a lot to tell after this race. Of all things, it started to rain at the start of the warm-up lap on the 5.4-kilometre-long Mugello Circuit. To ensure a safe start to the race and to give the teams time to change to rain tyres, the race was stopped once again and started a few minutes later behind the Fanatec Safety Car. But not everyone switched from slicks to the Pirelli Cinturato rain tyres during the break. Nicolas Matile (MCO, Zig-Zag), Salvatore de Plano (ITA, Coloni) and Bruno Jarach (EST, Eesti Motorsport) took the risk, but their tyre choice turned out to be a mistake as soon as the race was started. At various points around the track it began to rain more heavily again. The changing conditions subsequently made it incredibly difficult for the drivers to find the right pace. But the BOSS GP drivers did an outstanding job and managed to keep their powerful Formula 1, Formula 2 and Auto GP cars on track.
Behind the Austrian Ingo Gerstl (winner of the OPEN class) in the Toro Rosso F1, Luca Martucci (ITA, MM International) and Marco Ghiotto (ITA, Scuderia Palladio) fought an epic battle for the victory in the FORMULA class. In lap 1 Ghiotto first passed Martucci. At mid-race, the action came to a head: After a few tentative attempts, Martucci made the decisive manoeuvre at over 300 km/h on the start-finish straight. Nearly there was contact. But the duel was not over yet, because now Luca had to be up front in difficult track conditions. Marco followed only a few metres behind and tried to pass Martucci once again. To show how close it was between Martucci and Ghiotto: The best lap time of the two was only 0.003 seconds separated (in favour of Ghiotto). But it was no longer enough for the championship leader, instead Martucci’s team had reason to cheer this time. It was the first victory ever for the tall Italian in the BOSS GP Racing Series, and what a victory that was!
Marc Faggionato (MCO, Zig-Zag) was able to follow the two Italians in their home race for a couple of laps. He finished in a strong third place. Andreas Fiedler (GER, Fiedler Racing) also delivered a surprisingly good race. The third in the championship in 2019 has bought a new Dallara GP2 and is using this season’s races as a test. Because his team had no rain tyres at hand, the German had to drive to his tent in the paddock and then start from pit lane. Relatively quickly he moved up to fifth place in his class, but the gap to the front was already large. Until the halfway point of the race, Walter Steding (GER, Scuderia Palladio) was on a good way to a fourth-place finish. But Steding lost ground in the second half of the race, and his position to compatriot Fiedler.
Armando Mangini (ITA, MM International) also drove impeccably, finishing sixth in his class behind Steding. Last year Mangini had announced his retirement. Today he proved that this was probably premature. Probably the hardest race had Salvatore de Plano (ITA, Coloni). He was the only one who stayed on dry tyres until the end of the race and therefore had no chance. It is probably only thanks to his driving qualities that he was able to finish the race safely.
A ten-minute warm-up will be held tomorrow morning from 10.20 a.m. The second race of the weekend start 14.30. Rain showers are predicted.
Photo: Roberto Piccinini/Actualfoto
Exclusively for drivers and teams of Europe’s most exciting racing series.
Pirelli presents a new dry tyre for the 2020 season in the BOSS GP series. This tyre is designed to help experienced drivers achieve faster lap times and make it easier for less experienced drivers to handle the “black gold”. Pirelli’s series consultant Thomas Hummer explains: “In order not to increase costs unnecessarily, we only use one tyre compound. This tyre has to work at five degrees in Hockenheim, but also at 38 degrees in Monza.”
The new slick tyre has been developed with the aim of maximising the temperature window where the tyre performs best. The P Zero 2020 absorbs the temperature faster and stores it longer than the previous tyre compound. This is to reduce the risk of spins when the tyres cool down, for example after safety car periods.
Unique: violet colour marking
The new P Zero BOSS GP can be identified from the outside by two indicators: One is the purple sidewall, the other the imprinted label “BGP”. As before, the Pirelli tyre works on Formula 1 cars as well as on Formula 2 cars (formerly GP2) and WSbR cars. The dimension 245/660 R13 is used at the front, at the rear axle 325/660 R13. The rain tyre Cinturato remains unchanged.
Support like in F1
The new tyre is exclusively for registered teams and drivers for races in the BOSS GP series. “Motorsports is in Pirelli’s DNA. Wherever we see passion, wherever we experience emotion, we must be at home – and we feel that in BOSS GP!”, says Hummer. The fitting will comply with Formula 1 standards and Pirelli engineers will be on site at all BOSS GP events. They advise the teams on the correct use of the tyres. Tyres can be ordered from BOSS GP partner “Reifen Hollerweger”.
All BOSS GP tyres are produced at the Pirelli Formula 1 factory in Romania. The Italian tyre manufacturer can draw on a wealth of experience in developing tyres to meet the high demands of motorsport: Pirelli is currently the supplier of the Formula 1 World Championship, the GT3 World Challenge and, from 2021, the World Rally Championship.
Title picture: Matteo Braga from Pirelli with the 2020 BOSS GP tyre
Credit: Michael Jurtin/BOSS GP
Europe’s most exciting racing series visits six top-class racetracks in the upcoming season – two of them are new on the schedule.
The 26th season of BOSS GP begins with a premiere. The opening race of this spectacular motorsport series will take place at the end of March in Mugello. The MotoGP circuit is one of the most popular tracks in Italy and is owned by Ferrari. In 2020 the location will be back on the BOSS GP schedule after a five-year break. From 27 to 29 March, the comeback of the Big Open Single Seater series will be the highlight of the Peroni Racing Weekend.
From 24 to 26 April, the fastest racing cars on the continent will be guests at the Hockenheimring in Germany. The Bosch Hockenheim Historic is one of the most important classic racing events in Europe and attracts numerous spectators to the Motodrom year after year. In the program of the revival dedicated to Jim Clark, BOSS GP is a perfect headliner.
A completely new racetrack for the BOSS GP pilots will follow in June: The Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli is the venue for races 5 and 6 of the season. The flat track is technically demanding and an ideal playground for BOSS GP racing. The racetrack near Rimini is located directly on the Adriatic coast and can be easily combined with a holiday.
In 2020 the BOSS GP series is again part of the Gamma Race Days in Assen. After the summer break in July, Formula 1, Formula 2 and other spectacular monoposto cars will show their strength from 7 to 9 August in front of an enormous crowd of 100,000 Dutch fans. In addition to BOSS GP, motorcycles, touring cars and superkarts will also be putting the pedal to the metal. Admission is free.
The first weekend of September (4–6) will see the Masaryk Racing Days in Brno on the schedule of the BOSS GP racing series. The biggest Czech circuit will be once again a thrilling location, which has delivered exciting BOSS GP races in the past.
The grand final will take place in Imola like in 2019. After a successful comeback with fantastic races and satisfied drivers, BOSS GP will return to the Emilia-Romagna region on 23, 24 and 25 October. We hope for another exciting title decision as in FORMULA class 2019.
As usual there will be two free practice sessions, one qualifying session and two 20 to 25-minute races on each race weekend. The exact timetables and ticket information will be published on bossgp.com prior to the races.
BOSS GP tyre supplier Pirelli and champagne partner Cuvee Sensorium have invited to the 2019 BOSS GP awards ceremony in the Austrian Alps.
The anniversary season of BOSS GP ended with a festive event where teams and friends from Europe’s fastest racing series celebrated the 25th year of BOSS GP. This year, the prize giving ceremony took place in Maria Alm near Salzburg.
With specially decorated BOSS GP gondolas the guests were taken up to Toms Almhütte at 1166 metres above sea level. In addition to excellent champagne from BOSS GP partner Cuvee Sensorium, excellent Austrian cuisine was offered. After traditional cheese noodles, roast and Kaiserschmarrn, the three best from the two categories OPEN and FORMULA were honoured. The trophies were handed over by star guest and Elvis Tribute artist Rusty.
Ingo Gerstl (Top Speed) from Austria received for the fifth time the champions trophy for winning the OPEN class. For the Frenchman “Piter” (Ray-Ban) it was a premiere at the award ceremony. This year he not only performed brilliantly on the dancefloor, he also took second place in OPEN standings.
Proud champion of the FORMULA category is Marco Ghiotto (ITA, Scuderia Palladio). In a season-long duel with fellow countryman Alessandro Bracalente (Speed Center) he finally won by a narrow margin. Ghiotto announced that he will bring more drivers into the series next year. Andreas Fiedler (DEU, Fiedler Racing) was presented with the trophy for third place.
Furthermore, the champions Gerstl and Ghiotto received custom-made carbon helmets from Bell. All other BOSS GP drivers got a very special present too: The best photo of the year from each pilot was printed on glass, shown during the evening and handed over later.
The new season starts on March 28, 2020 in Mugello. Details on the further schedule will be published soon on bossgp.com