Alessandro Latif

Alessandro Guido Latif (born 11 April 1996 in London, England) is a British-Italian race car driver. Latif is the youngest race winner of a V de V Proto Endurance Challenge race.^[1] In 2014 he competed in the Blancpain Sprint Series driving for Phoenix Racing, the Daytona 24 Hours and Sebring 12 Hours driving an Audi R8 LMS for Flying Lizard Motorsports.^[2] Latif's early career involved an upbringing in karts and Formula Renault 2.0.^{[citation needed]}

Alessandro Guido Latif
Nationality	British Italian
Born	(1996-04-11) 11 April 1996 (age 28) London, England
Blancpain Sprint Series career
Current team	Phoenix Racing, Flying Lizard Motorsports
Car number	5
Former teams	Avelon Formula, Atech Grand Prix
Previous series
V de V Proto Endurance Challenge, SPEED Euroseries, Formula Renault Eurocup, Formula Renault 2.0 Alps

Early life

Latif was born on 11 April 1996 in London, England. His father is Pakistani born and mother is Italian, both whom currently reside in London, England. Latif started in karting at aged 11.

Racing career

Karts

Latif's karting career began in 2007 where he rose up the ranks to race in the international scene. As well as developing his race craft he achieved notable success in British and European events, as well as in World Karting.^[3]

Single Seater's

In 2012 Latif moved to Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup and Formula Renault 2.0 Alps driving for Atech Grand Prix completing 8 races.^{[citation needed]}

Sports car racing

Latif signed with Avelon Formula to drive a CN2 (per the Group CN classification) Sports prototype in the V de V Proto Endurance Challenge for the remainder of the 2012 season, where he won his inaugural race in the 4 Heures du Castellet.^[4]

In 2013, Latif remained with Avelon Formula in the V de V Proto Endurance Challenge, while also competing in the opening rounds of the SPEED Euroseries. Latif won the 6 Hours of Mugello with teammate Ivan Bellarosa in front of the team's home crowd.^[5] They later went on to win the opening rounds of the Speed Euroseries at the Hungaroring.^[6]

In 2014 Latif signed with Flying Lizard Motorsports to race at the Daytona 24 Hours in the number 35 Audi R8 LMS, where they finished 5th in the GTD class.^[7]

Latif competed in the 2014 12 Hours Sebring in Florida on 12–15 March, where they finished 8th in the GTD class.^[8]

Latif also joins with Phoenix Racing for Blancpain Sprint Series alongside Marc Basseng.^{[9][unreliable source?][10]}

Latif was set to race a Nissan Zytec in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race on 14–15 June with the Greaves Motorsport Team.^[11] However, after starting 26th on the 54-car grid, the team achieved a top 10 position before their efforts were thwarted after a blameless collision by a co-driver on lap 31 ended the race for them.^[12]

Racing record

Complete Formula Renault 2.0 Alps Series results

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

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Pos	Points
2012	Atech Reid GP	MNZ 1 20	MNZ 2 24	PAU 1	PAU 2	IMO 1	IMO 2	SPA 1	SPA 2	RBR 1	RBR 2	MUG 1	MUG 2	CAT 1	CAT 2	43rd	0

US Endurance results

Year	Race	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Pos.	Class Pos.
2014	Daytona 24 Hours	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Seth Neiman Dion von Moltke Filipe Albuquerque	Audi R8 LMS	GTD	22nd	5th
2014	Sebring 12 Hours	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Nelson Canache Jr. Spencer Pumpelly Markus Winkelhock	Audi R8 LMS	GTD	33rd	8th
2014	Petit Le Mans	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Seth Neiman Dion von Moltke	Audi R8 LMS	GTD	36th	12th

Blancpain Sprint Series results

Year	Race	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Pro Am Qual. Race Pos.	Pro Am Main Race Pos.	Overall Qual. Race Pos.	Overall Main Race Pos.
2014	Blancpain Sprint Series at Nogaro (Circuit Paul Armagnac)	Phoenix Racing	Marc Basseng	Audi R8 LMS	GT3	n/a	n/a	11th	9th
2014	Blancpain Sprint Series at Brands Hatch (Brands Hatch)	Phoenix Racing	Marc Basseng	Audi R8 LMS	GT3	1st	1st	10th	11th
2014	Blancpain Sprint Series at Zandvoort (Zandvoort)	Phoenix Racing	Marc Basseng	Audi R8 LMS	GT3	2nd	2nd	10th	13th
2014	Blancpain Sprint Series at Slovakia Ring (Automotodróm Slovakia Ring)	Phoenix Racing	Marc Basseng	Audi R8 LMS	GT3	1st	1st	8th	7th
2014	Blancpain Sprint Series at Portimao (Portimao Circuit)	Phoenix Racing	Marc Basseng	Audi R8 LMS	GT3	1st	1st	11th	8th

Note: classified as Pro for the Nogaro race

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2014	Greaves Motorsport	Michael Munemann James Winslow	Zytek Z11SN-Nissan	LMP2	31	DNF	DNF

Pro Mazda Championship

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Rank	Points
2015	World Speed Motorsports	STP 9	STP 17	LOU 10	LOU C	BAR 12	BAR 12	IMS 13	IMS 14	IMS 14	LOR 10	TOR 9	TOR 13	IOW 13	MOH 14	MOH 11	LAG 12	LAG 15	13th	140

References

1. "Ivan Bellarosa : Une grande satisfaction au Paul Ricard". endurance-info.com. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
2. "Flying Lizard Announces Rolex 24 Lineup". IMSA. Archived from the original on 21 February 2014. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
3. "Alessandro takes clean sweep at Genk". Archived from the original on 21 February 2014. Retrieved 3 February 2014.
4. "Wolf GBO8 victory 4hrs du Castellet". wolfracingcars.com. Archived from the original on 21 February 2014. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
5. "Mugello Protos : Wolf (Bellarosa/Latif)". endurance-info.com. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
6. "Latif-Bellarosa win in Hungary". speedeuroseries.com. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
7. "Flying Lizard Completes Rolex 24 at Daytona". Lizardms.com. Archived from the original on 21 February 2014. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
8. "Marlborough College student Alessandro Latif an honourable 8th in 12 Hours of Sebring". Wilts & Gloucestershire Standard. 16 March 2014. Retrieved 17 March 2014.
9. "@AlessandroLatif". twitter.com.
10. "Latif to contest Blancpain "Sprint" series in Phoenix Racing Audi". boxscorenews.com. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
11. Morshead, Sam (26 May 2014). "Student Latif handed Le Mans chance". This is Wiltshire. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
12. "Latif's Le Mans dream stalls after accident". Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard. 15 June 2014. Retrieved 15 June 2014.

External links

• Official website
• Alessandro Latif career summary at DriverDB.com