ROAL Motorsport (previously known as Ravaglia Motorsport) is an Italian

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

team, which operated the BMW Team Italy-Spain team in the

World Touring Car Championship The FIA World Touring Car Championship was an international touring car championship promoted by Eurosport Events and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It has had several different incarnations, including a sing ...

, and currently competes as BMW Team Italia in the

Italian GT Championship The Italian GT Championship (''Campionato Italiano Gran Turismo'') is an Italian sports car series founded in 2003 and organized by the Automobile Club d'Italia (ACI) and the Commissione Sportiva Automobilistica Italiana (CSAI). It replaced a ...

. It was founded in 2001 by 1987 World Touring Car champion

Roberto Ravaglia Roberto Ravaglia (born 26 May 1957) is an Italian former racing driver, who currently runs ROAL Motorsport, who operate a Chevrolet operation in the World Touring Car Championship. Before retiring in 1997, he was one of the most successful tourin ...

and Aldo Preo (Roberto + Aldo = ROAL). Team History at roal-motorsport.com

History

Ravaglia Motorsport began competing in the Superproduction class of the European Super Touring Championship in 2001 as BMW Team Germany with

Peter Kox Petrus Dionysius Lambertus Theodorus Kox (born 23 February 1964 in Eindhoven) is a racing driver from the Netherlands. Kox began racing in karts in 1978, winning five titles until 1982. In 1983 he moved to automobiles, winning the Marlboro For ...

and Norman Simon as drivers, with Kox winning the class. In 2002, they competed in the

European Touring Car Championship The European Touring Car Championship was an international touring car racing series organised by the FIA. It had two incarnations, the first one between 1963 and 1988, and the second between 2000 and 2004. In 2005 it was superseded by the World ...

(ETCC) as BMW Team Spain with Jordi Gené and Fabrizio de Simone as drivers. In 2003, they became BMW Team Italy-Spain and had Antonio García and

Fabrizio Giovanardi Fabrizio Giovanardi (born 14 December 1966 in Sassuolo) is an Italian racing driver. During his career he has won ten touring car racing, touring car titles, including European and British crowns making him the most successful touring car driver ...

as drivers, with

Alex Zanardi Alessandro "Alex" Zanardi (; born 23 October 1966) is an Italian professional racing driver and paracyclist. He won the CART championship in 1997 and 1998, and took 15 wins in the series. He also raced in Formula One from 1991 to 1994 and again ...

driving a third car at the season finale in

Monza Monza (, ; ; , locally ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the Lambro, River Lambro, a tributary of the Po (river), River Po, in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capital of the province of Mo ...

, using special controls following his serious accident in 2001 in which he lost both his legs. Zanardi replaced Giovanardi full-time in 2004. In 2005, the ETCC became the

(WTCC) and Ravaglia Motorsport changed their name to ROAL Motorsport. Zanardi also won the Italian Superturismo Championship in 2005 for the team, and finished third in the first edition of the

European Touring Car Cup The FIA European Touring Car Cup was an annual touring car racing event, which had been held at various locations across Europe from 2005 to 2017. Unlike in previous years where it was a one-off event, in 2010 the series was a three-round event. ...

. Garcia left the team at the end of 2005 to pursue a career in

sports car racing Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing that uses sports cars with two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be either purpose-built Sports prototype, sports prototypes, which are the highest level in sports car racing; or grand to ...

, and was replaced by fellow Spaniard Marcel Costa. Costa was disappointing though and was replaced by Duncan Huisman during the season. The team gave

GP2 Series The GP2 Series was a form of open wheel motor racing introduced in 2005 following the discontinuation of the long-term Formula One feeder series, Formula 3000. The GP2 format was conceived by Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore, while Ecc ...

racer

Félix Porteiro Félix Porteiro Pérez (born 26 August 1983 in Castellón, Spain) is a Spanish racing driver. He competed in GP2 Series in 2006, his best finish was 6th (was second on the road at Silverstone, but a steering rack irregularity caused him to be dis ...

a drive in the ETC Cup and he impressed enough to get a drive in the WTCC for 2007. In 2008, ROAL Motorsport began development of a competition M3 E90 for the

Superstars Series The Superstars International Series was a production-based touring car racing championship held between 2004 and 2013. It was managed by the "Superstars World of Racing SpA", SWR, a company of FG Group with headquarters in Rome and sanctioned by ...

, with Luca Rangoni as driver. For 2009, Porteiro was replaced by 2008 Independent's champion Sergio Hernández in the team, while in the Superstars Series, Rangoni was replaced by reigning Champion

Gianni Morbidelli Gianni Morbidelli (born 13 January 1968) is an Italian racing driver. He participated in 70 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 11 March 1990. He achieved one podium, and scored a total of 8.5 championship points. He most recently competed in ...

. After leaving the WTCC in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, ROAL returned to WTCC in 2011 with

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

driver

Tom Coronel Tom Romeo Coronel (born 5 April 1972) is a Dutch professional racing driver. Tom's twin brother Tim Coronel, Tim is also a racer, just like their father Tom Coronel Sr. His most important results are winning the Masters of Formula 3, Marlboro Mast ...

who last drove for BMW in the

, until 2017 season, which WTCC folded and merged into

2018 World Touring Car Cup The 2018 FIA World Touring Car Cup (known as the FIA WTCR presented by Oscaro for sponsorship reasons) was the inaugural season of the World Touring Car Cup (WTCR). It took over from the World Touring Car Championship and adopted the TCR techn ...

Since 2015, ROAL Motorsport has regularly competed in the

, initially with the BMW Z4 GT3 until switching to the BMW M6 GT3 in 2016. 2016 also saw ROAL compete under the BMW Team Italia name. In 2019, the running of the team was taken over by Ceccato Motorsport.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Roal Motorsport Italian auto racing teams Auto racing teams established in 2001 2001 establishments in Italy World Touring Car Championship teams GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup teams Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters teams BMW in motorsport