Ronnie Quintarelli (born 9 August 1979) is an Italian racecar driver competing in

Super GT Super GT (stylized as SUPER GT) is a sports car racing series that began in 1993. Launched as the , generally referred to as the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC), the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It is the top level of ...

from 2005 through 2024. A four-time champion, he holds the all-time record for the most drivers' championship titles won in the GT500 class of Super GT.

Biography

Quintarelli first encountered motorsports at age 6 when his father gave him a small go-kart. After starting his

karting Kart racing or karting is a motorsport discipline using open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on full-size motor ...

career in 1990, he scored two second place finishes in the World Formula Super A championship and a European Formula C title. He made his

single seaters An open-wheel car is a car with the wheels outside the car's main body, and usually having only one seat. Open-wheel cars contrast with street cars, Sports car racing, sports cars, Stock car racing, stock cars, and Touring car racing, touring car ...

debut in 1999 when he drove in 5 rounds of the Formula Opel Cup in

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

. He finished 2nd in the standings, behind his teammate Antony Bertocchi, who competed in every round. In 2000, he entered the

Italian Formula Renault Championship Formula Renault 2.0 Italia was a Formula Renault 2.0 racing series that is based in Italy. The series raced mostly on Italian races but it had regular races at Belgium's Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps and in Spain. Several Formula One drivers ra ...

and ended up third with

Prema Powerteam Prema Racing, previously known as Prema Powerteam, is an Italian motorsport team, owned and operated through the ''DC Racing Solutions'' parent company. Founded in 1983, the team is based in Grisignano di Zocco and currently operates out of Ita ...

. He also entered the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, the

German Formula Three Championship The German Formula Three Championship was the national Formula Three championship of Germany, and the former West Germany, from 1950 to 2002, then as Formel 3 until 2014. In 2003, the series had merged with the French Formula Three Championship ...

and the Formula Volkswagen Germany. In 2005, he scored his maiden GT win in the

1000 km Suzuka The Suzuka 1000km, also known as the Suzuka Summer Endurance Race, is an annual Sports car racing, sports car Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance race that has been held at the Suzuka Circuit in Mie Prefecture, Japan since 1966. After a five ...

race with

André Couto André Bragança Macedo e Couto ( zh, t=安德烈·高度; born 14 December 1976) is a Macau, Macanese

and Hayanari Shimoda and later made his way to the

. After spending two seasons under the

Lexus is the luxury vehicle division of the Japanese automaker Toyota, Toyota Motor Corporation. The Lexus brand is marketed in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide and is Japan's largest-selling make of premium cars. It has ranked amon ...

banner, Quintarelli moved to the

Nissan is a Japanese multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the ''Nissan'' and ''Infiniti'' brands, and formerly the ''Datsun'' brand, with in-house ...

camp, securing multiple victories. Driving for the Mola team, he won two consecutive titles in

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

and

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

partnered by

Masataka Yanagida Masataka Yanagida (born 4 June 1979, in Tokyo) is a Japanese racing driver. Career The son of successful racing driver Haruhito Yanagida, a runner-up in the Japanese Touring Car Championship, Masataka began his career in karting in 1993. In 1997 ...

. He later joined the

Nismo , abbreviated as Nismo, is a division of Nissan Motorsports & Customizing focused in motorsport and performance-oriented car models for Nissan. Nismo was initially a company, , formed in 1984 as a result of a merger of two motorsport departmen ...

Official Team alongside

Tsugio Matsuda is a Japanese professional racing driver for Nissan and Kondo Racing in the Super GT Series, and a team ambassador for KCMG (auto racing team), KCMG in the Super Formula Championship, Super Formula Championship. He is the Super GT Series' all- ...

. The pairing cruised to two more titles in

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

and

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

which made Quintarelli the most titled driver in the history of the series. While still fighting for the title in 2016 with a third place, the

teams struggled at the beginning of the following year but Quintarelli and Matsuda rallied to finish the season in second place. In 2018, they were again steadily at the front of the Nissan roster, and managed to snatch a win at

Fuji Speedway is a motorsport race track standing in the foothills of Mount Fuji, in Oyama, Shizuoka, Oyama, Suntō District, Shizuoka, Suntō District, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. It was built in the early 1960s. In the 1980s, Fuji Speedway was used for the ...

. Unfortunately, they would not hit the top-5 again, eventually taking eighth place in the championship. In

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, the

pairing completed the championship in third position with four podium finishes and three pole positions scored by Quintarelli himself. In

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

, they remained in contention for the title until the very last race by taking two wins in the two rounds held at Suzuka. The final event of the season at

(the track hosted four events to simplify logistics during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

) saw a record 11 teams in contention for the title with tight margins. Quintarelli moved from sixth place to the lead in the opening lap, although tyre issues cost him track position later. He and Matsuda would eventually end up ninth in the race and sixth in the championships. They returned to the

team for

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

Ronnie Quintarelli 2014 Super GT Suzuka Q2

The

season started with a double retirement as contact involving team-mate

Okayama is the prefectural capital, capital Cities of Japan, city of Okayama Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of Japan. The Okayama metropolitan area, centered around the city, has the largest urban employment zone in the Chugoku region of western J ...

and a broken engine at

impacted the rest of the season. The number 23

car still secured one win at Suzuka and a third place at

Autopolis is a international racing circuit located near Kamitsue, Ōita, Kamitsue village in Ōita Prefecture, Japan on the northeast of Kumamoto. Nippon Autopolis">F1 News - Grandprix.com > GP Encyclopedia > Circuits > Nippon Autopolis/ref> Tsurumaki ...

, but the Quintarelli-Matsuda pairing had to settle for ninth in points. For the

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

season, all the

teams debuted the new Z GT500 model. However, the

team suffered the tragic loss of its Director Yutaka Suzuki, who prematurely died during the winter. Despite the positive start at

with a third place, contact and a mechanical issue jeopardized the following two events. A brilliant second place in wet conditions at Sugo put Quintarelli and

Matsuda Matsuda (written: lit. "pine ricefield") is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: *, Japanese badminton athlete * Aoko Matsuda (松田青子, born 1979), Japanese writer and translator * Eiji Matsuda (1894–1978), Mexican ...

back in title contention. Unfortunately, two more technical problems in the two final events at

and Motegi forced the pairing to seventh place in the standings. Finishing in 3rd in

Okayama International Circuit Okayama International Circuit (岡山国際サーキット), formerly known as TI Circuit Aida (TIサーキット英田) before 2005, is a private motorsport race track in Mimasaka, Okayama Prefecture, Japan Japan is an island country ...

in the first race of the

, the Italian driver extended his all-time record streak in

to 15th consecutive year at least 1 podium/season as a non-Japanese driver.

Personal life

Based in

Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...

Kanagawa is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-dens ...

. Quintarelli speaks Japanese fluently and serves as a TV color commentator for the

Super Formula The Japanese Super Formula Championship is a formula racing series held primarily in Japan. It is considered to be the pinnacle of single-seater racing in Japan or Asia as a whole, making it one of the top motorsport series in the region. The s ...

series. In recent years, he devoted his efforts towards the people affected by earthquakes, raising awareness and providing support to the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami On 11 March 2011, at 14:46:24 Japan Standard Time, JST (05:46:24 UTC), a 9.0–9.1 Submarine earthquake, undersea megathrust earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region. It lasted approx ...

relief. Together with fellow

regular

Andrea Caldarelli Andrea Caldarelli (born 14 February 1990) is an Italian racing driver who currently competes in IMSA in the GTP class for Lamborghini- Iron Lynx in the Lamborghini SC63 Hypercar alongside Matteo Cairoli and former Formula One driver Romain Gro ...

, he led a fundraising campaign in favour of the populations impacted by the 2016–2017 Central Italy earthquakes. His cross-border charity efforts, together with his sporting results, earned him the title of Officer of the

Order of the Star of Italy The Order of the Star of Italy ( ) is an Italian order of chivalry that was founded in 2011. The order was reformed from the 1947 Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity by the 11th President of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano. The emphasis of the ...

. Onorificenze
/ref>

Awards

5th Class/Officer: ''

'': 2015

Racing record

Career summary

^† As Quintarelli was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score championship points.

Complete Japanese Formula 3 results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete Formula Nippon results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) ^‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed.

Complete Super GT results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) ^‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed.

Records

All-time Super GT records

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Quintarelli, Ronnie 1979 births Living people Italian racing drivers Italian Formula Renault 2.0 drivers Formula Nippon drivers Japanese Formula 3 Championship drivers Super GT drivers Karting World Championship drivers Grand Champion Series drivers Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters drivers Formula Renault Eurocup drivers Prema Powerteam drivers Cram Competition drivers Kondō Racing drivers Nismo drivers