A sense of perpetual progress emanates from the Prema Racing factory in Grisignano di Zocco. With a new building housing its endurance racing collaboration with Iron Lynx and Lamborghini nearing completion, a simulator being installed, and freshly delivered parts of the new-for-2024 Formula 2 car waiting for assembly, it’s clear that this is a team constantly searching for success.
But the occasion for this visit is a poignant look back to the past, celebrating the team’s 40th anniversary. With 39 drivers’ titles and 25 teams’ championships under its belt, Prema is undeniably one of the junior series’ most successful operations, and a byword for prestige in the paddock among drivers and teams alike. Founded by Angelo Rosin in 1983, it initially opted for a foray into prototype racing, before quickly moving into Formula 3. It was in 1990 when it first tasted title success, with Roberto Colciago’s Italian F3 crown the first of many championships to come.
Rosin’s son Rene is now team principal. Naturally, he’s been around Prema since he was a child, and officially joined in 2005 to run its World Series by Renault programme before taking over its F3 operations in 2010.
The family atmosphere, he says, is “one of the points that we need to continue pushing. Even if we are now growing up, we've reached more than 150 people working within the group. We have different entities, different teams inside ourselves. But still we want to consider ourselves like a big family. I know it’s difficult, I know it’s more challenging especially with bigger programmes, especially with these 150 people working altogether. That’s one of the keys for us, it’s fundamental.”
Rosin says continuing to set targets to improve is crucial to the team’s success, and adds: “You never rely on previous years’ results, you need always to look forward. If you don’t look forward and you don’t continue to improve, of course the success will not arrive. Then there is a big combination about drivers, teams, mechanics, engineers, everybody working really for the best goal as possible.
“You can have the best drivers, you can have the best engineers, you can have the best mechanics, but if none of those three parties are working together in the best way possible, you will never achieve anything, so this is fundamental. Make sure that everybody is bonded together, trying to achieve the best results as possible.”
Source: Autosport