Photo: Klaas Norg / Dutch Photo Agency
Motorsport Games Formula 4 Cup gold medallist Andrea Rosso has announced he is ending his motorsport career.
The 18-year-old Italian drove for FA Racing in Formula Regional European Championship last year, but had not announced any plans for 2022.
His last on-track appearance was in February this year as he tested a Honda NSX GT3 Evo 22 car from Italian GT at the Tazio Nuvolari circuit in Italy.
“It’s time, time to change lifestyle. I never thought and wanted to find myself writing these words but unfortunately the time has come. Today, 14 years after I first jumped onto a go-kart, it’s time to step aside and hang up my helmet,” Rosso said in an Instagram post announcing his retirement.
“It’s not easy. Nobody really knows how I feel and how difficult the last few months have been for me.
“It started as a hobby but immediately the passion for this sport literally overwhelmed me and led me to do things that I never imagined. I can proudly affirm that I have always given my all, never gave up an inch and always believed in it ‘till the end.”
Rosso’s first contact with motorsport was in 2007, aged four, when his father bought him a go-kart. However, he would wait several years to participate in his maiden race.
On OK-Junior karts, Rosso won Trofeo Andrea Margutti and the WSK Super Master Series, and in 2018 he stepped up to OK karts and won Trofeo Andrea Margutti again.
For 2019 he remained in karting as a factory Birel ART driver but also debuted in single-seaters, signing with Antonelli Motorsport to race in Italian F4. He took part in four rounds, achieving a best result of ninth.
In November that yeae, Rosso represented his country in the inaugural Motorsport Games F4 Cup on home soil. He qualified third, finished second in the qualification race, then won the medal-awarding main race.
He kept the momentum going into 2020, moving to Cram Motorsport in Italian F4. He rivalled title contenders Gabriele Mini (Prema) and Francesco Pizzi (Van Amersfoort Racing) in the season’s first half with three wins and a pole, but only one further podium after that meant he sank to seventh in the final standings.
He showed good pace on his 2021 step up to FREC, but only twice scored points – his best finish being fifth at Paul Ricard – and described it being “extremely tough” towards the end of the season.
“Sport is a matter of talent and a pinch of luck, perhaps the second was not with us in the most important moments but at the end of it, we took home some good satisfactions.
“It was a beautiful, unforgettable journey and in tears I just have to say thank you,” Rosso concluded.
He is the third to ‘retire’ from junior single-seaters this year, following Formula 2 racer Guilherme Samaia, who cited “the bureaucracy and financial part” of motorsport having a greater influence than results, and USF2000 race-winner Prescott Campbell who is focusing on his engineering career.