Why Alessio Rovera became a Ferrari factory driver and an endurance title winner

Alessio Rovera is an Italian endurance driver and Ferrari factory driver who has built most of his career with AF Corse. He won the Porsche Carrera Cup Italia title in 2017 and took a class win at Le Mans on his debut there in 2021. World Endurance Championship, European Le Mans Series and GT World Challenge titles followed in the years after.

Where did Rovera's single-seater career start?

His debut single-seater campaign, in 2013, ended with the Formula Abarth title. In 2014 he moved to the Formula Renault 2.0 Alps Championship, finishing sixth with three podiums, and he also started once in Euroformula Open that year.

In 2015 he raced in Euroformula Open with DAV Racing and BVM Racing, winning the season opener at Jerez from 13th on the grid. He added three further podiums and finished sixth overall, despite missing two events.

A Formula Abarth champion who became a Ferrari factory driver after winning his Le Mans class on debut.

How did his Porsche Carrera Cup years develop?

Rovera moved into sportscars in 2016 with Ebimotors in the Porsche Carrera Cup Italia. Two wins and 12 podiums gave him third place in the standings. Those results were his first full season in sportscars, a step up from single-seaters. In 2017 he switched to Tsunami RT and won four races on his way to the title.

The same year he took a win in the French series and a podium in the support event for the Le Mans 24 Hours.

In 2018 he drove both the Italian and French series. He won six races in Italy to finish second overall, and three races in France for third in the standings. That year he also made his Porsche Supercup debut at the Red Bull Ring.

What did the GT3 years with AF Corse bring?

Rovera stepped up to GT3 in 2019, driving for Antonelli Motorsport in the Italian GT series. With Riccardo Agostini he won the Sprint championship, taking podiums in six of the eight races. That first GT3 campaign set up his move to AF Corse the following year.

For 2020 he moved to AF Corse and a Ferrari 488 GT3 in the Italian Endurance series. Alongside Antonio Fuoco and Giorgio Roda he won the endurance title after victories at Imola and in the Monza finale. He and Roda also raced the Sprint series, finishing fourth with a single race win. That was his first season with AF Corse.

That year brought his first European Le Mans Series start, at the final round, in the LMGTE class for AF Corse.

How did Rovera win at Le Mans and take the WEC LMGTE Am title?

In 2021 Rovera drove for AF Corse in the LMGTE Am class of the World Endurance Championship, alongside Nicklas Nielsen and Francois Perrodo. The team won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in that class on Rovera's debut there, and the trio went on to take the LMGTE Am title by 59.5 points.

Spa-Francorchamps was the first win of the year, where Rovera impressed in a middle stint on debut. At Monza the crew fought back from a drop to the rear of the grid after qualifying, and still won. A Bahrain finale win sealed the title. The Le Mans class win gave AF Corse its silver-ranked driver a headline result, and it laid the foundation for the Ferrari contract that followed.

He also raced the European Le Mans Series that year with Perrodo and Emmanuel Collard, winning twice on the way to third in the standings. Those results led Ferrari to sign him as an official factory GT driver.

What happened in the 2022 and 2023 seasons?

In 2022 Rovera moved up to LMP2 for the first time, with AF Corse in the WEC and ELMS. The team won four Pro-Am subclass races in the WEC and took the LMP2 Pro-Am title. He also finished second in the Barcelona endurance finale and at the Abu Dhabi IGTC finale, and set a GT3 record time at Spa.

Perrodo's bronze ranking put the trio into the Pro-Am class in both series. In the ELMS a charging drive by Rovera at Barcelona gave them one subclass win, but the title went to another team.

In 2023 Rovera had moved up to platinum status under the FIA rules. He concentrated on GT racing: in the WEC he lined up with Lilou Wadoux and Luis Perez Companc for the last LMGTE Am season, and in the GTWC he shared with Shwartzman and Nielsen.

The WEC season produced second at Portimao, where Rovera narrowly missed a win, and a victory at Spa-Francorchamps. That Spa result made Wadoux the first female winner in the championship. The team finished eighth in the WEC table. Crashes by Wadoux at Le Mans in torrential rain and by Companc at Fuji had cost the team dearly. In the GTWC Endurance Cup, he scored a pole and a win at the Barcelona finale to finish eighth overall.

How did the 2024 ELMS and WEC titles come together?

In 2024 Rovera returned to the ELMS LMP2 Pro-Am class with Matthieu Vaxiviere and Francois Perrodo, winning the opening round at Barcelona. The team clinched the Pro-Am title with a fourth place at Portimao, after a second place at Imola earlier in the year.

He also moved into the new LMGT3 class in the WEC, sharing with Simon Mann and Francois Heriau. That class was new that year, which made the WEC programme a fresh challenge. The trio finished third in the points, and Rovera won the Bahrain season finale in a late battle with Charlie Eastwood. That year he also collected the Goodyear Wingfoot prize for LMGT3 drivers.

In the GTWC Europe Endurance Cup he finished second at Spa after a pit lane hold-up, then eighth at the Nurburgring and third at Monza, after leading most of the race from pole. A pole at Jeddah gave him the chance to win the title. A slow pit stop cost him the lead, but third place at the flag was enough for the crown with AF Corse.

What did 2025 bring across the Asian, European and world series?

In 2025 Rovera raced the Asian Le Mans Series again with Vaxiviere and Perrodo. The team finished second at Sepang, and at Abu Dhabi he built a 20-second lead behind a safety car and handed over to Vaxiviere for the win. That result earned the trio third in the championship. The two co-drivers were the same pair he had partnered to the 2024 ELMS Pro-Am title.

His WEC season began with fifth in Qatar and a retirement at Imola, where Mann was spun out of a podium place by Valentino Rossi. At Spa, a tyre-saving stint by Heriau let Rovera bring the car home with a 40-second cushion over the car in second.

He qualified second at Le Mans and the team finished second there. Sao Paulo produced 13th, and at Cota a wrong call on wet tyres in drying conditions sent him back to 12th. At Fuji he led the LMGT3 class for much of the race, but an energy miscalculation on the final lap and an earlier five-second penalty dropped him to second.

Career summary at a glance