From hill climbs to the Temple of Speed. After a season competing with the Wolf GB08 Thunder, Jacopo Dellamaria and Filippo Ferretti will make their circuit racing debut at Monza in the final round of the Italian Sports Prototype Championship.
For the two young drivers, it will also be their first experience at the wheel of the Wolf GB08 Raiden. Both are part of the Wolf Academy programme, which Wolf Racing Cars extended to hill climb racing in 2026, supporting them throughout their season with the Wolf GB08 Thunder. At Monza, both will make their first-ever circuit racing appearance in the CISP.
The opportunity is a reward for the work carried out throughout the season and, above all, represents another step in the Wolf Academy development programme. Wolf Racing Cars’ objective is to create a dedicated pathway for young drivers in hill climb racing as well, supporting their development through a range of technical, sporting and educational experiences.
It is a philosophy that broadens the opportunities associated with the Wolf GB08 Thunder and the Wolf Hill Climb Division programme: not simply a car with which to compete in hill climbs, but an entry point into a project through which young drivers can build their own development pathway in motorsport and, for those with the talent and ambition, work towards a professional career.
“At the beginning of this year, we extended the Wolf Academy project for young drivers to Hill Climb as well,” explains Giovanni Bellarosa. “In this case, the programme is aimed at all young drivers who have competed or will compete in the Italian Supersalita Championship with the Wolf GB08 Thunder. Jacopo Dellamaria has done an excellent job and has progressed throughout the season. We expect to see him fighting for class victories next year, alongside Filippo Ferretti, who has just won the Cronoscalata della Castellana and is the CIVM Nord Champion. For now, we are giving both of them this opportunity, which will certainly be an important learning experience and another valuable step in their development as racing drivers.”
“I’m very happy with the season and, above all, with the work we have done on the car,” says Filippo Ferretti. “We have made significant progress with its development and improved our benchmark times by around two seconds compared with last year. Ivan Bellarosa and Andrea Fravolini have really believed in this project, and the Thunder has proved that it works. We will continue working in this direction. Winning at the Castellana last week, my home event, was a huge satisfaction, and we have been competitive throughout the season. I want to thank Giovanni, Ivan and Maurizio Bellarosa for this new opportunity. Everything will be new for me at Monza: a new circuit, a new car and a completely new experience. It will be my first-ever circuit race and my first time driving the Raiden, a ground-effect car and therefore very different from the Thunder. I’m excited and extremely happy to have this opportunity. We will try to learn as much as possible and, of course, hold our own on track as well.”
For Dellamaria, the Monza experience will come immediately after the conclusion of his hill climb season, with his final event scheduled at Iglesias. It has been a year in which the young driver competed in a sports prototype for the first time, showing consistent progress throughout the championship.
“This season has made me very happy,” says Jacopo Dellamaria. “We have developed the car and, at the same time, I have grown a lot as a driver. Race after race, I have managed to reduce the gap to my rivals, and it is precisely this development within the Wolf Academy that gives me even more satisfaction than the results themselves. I have really enjoyed working with the team and with the Thunder, which was my first experience in a sports prototype. Now I have this fantastic opportunity at Monza, which I see as the culmination of all the work we have done in the Academy this year. It will be my first experience on a circuit and I’m incredibly excited. Above all, I want to approach it as a learning experience. The result is not the priority; the objective is to learn something new from circuit racing that I can then take back into hill climb competition. Monza is every driver’s dream, even though my heart remains in hill climb racing.”
The step from the Thunder to the Raiden, and from hill climbs to circuit racing, will therefore provide a new challenge for both drivers. Two very different cars and two very different disciplines, brought together by the same development philosophy: to give young Wolf drivers the tools and experience they need to broaden their technical knowledge and build their own path in motorsport, step by step.
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