Alessandro Guido Latif (born 11 April 1996 in London, England) is a British/Italian

race car driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

. Latif is the youngest race winner of a V de V Proto Endurance Challenge race. In 2014 he competed in the

Blancpain Sprint Series The GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup, officially known as Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS for sponsorship reasons, formerly the FIA GT Series, is a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) ...

driving for Phoenix Racing, the

Daytona 24 Hours The 24 Hours of Daytona, also known as the Rolex 24 At Daytona for sponsorship reasons, is a 24-hour sports car endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is run on the Sports Car Course layout ...

and

Sebring 12 Hours The 12 Hours of Sebring is an annual motorsport endurance race for sports cars held at Sebring International Raceway, on the site of the former Hendricks Army Airfield World War II air base in Sebring, Florida, US. The event is the second rou ...

driving an

Audi R8 LMS The Audi R8 is a mid-engine, 2-seater sports car, which uses Audi's trademark quattro permanent all-wheel drive system. It was introduced by the German car manufacturer Audi AG in 2006. The car is exclusively designed, developed, and manufactu ...

for

Flying Lizard Motorsports The Flying Lizard Motorsports group is a motorsport team from Sonoma, California, formed by Seth Neiman in early 2003. The team competed in the full American Le Mans Series season, as well as the 24 Hours of Daytona, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. T ...

. Latif's early career involved an upbringing in

kart Kart racing or karting is a road racing variant of motorsport with open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on ful ...

s and

Formula Renault Formula Renault are classes of formula racing popular in Europe and elsewhere. Regarded as an entry-level series to motor racing, it was founded in 1971, and was a respected series where drivers can learn advanced racecraft before moving on to hig ...

2.0.

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.

Single Seater's

In 2012 Latif moved to

Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup Formula Renault Eurocup was a Formula Renault motor racing championship. Eurocup raced only on European circuits. It served as a support series to the Formula 3.5 V8, Formula Renault 3.5 Series as part of the World Series by Renault from 2005 to ...

and

Formula Renault 2.0 Alps Formula Renault 2.0 Alps was a category of Formula Renault open-wheel racing, created by the merging of the Formula Renault 2.0 Middle European Championship (formerly known as Formula Renault 2.0 Switzerland) and Formula Renault 2.0 Italia. Ov ...

driving for

Atech Grand Prix Atech Grand Prix was a British motor racing team. It was formed in 2007 as Hitech Junior Team by David Hayle, who had sold his successful British Formula 3 team Hitech Racing to Austrian businessman Walter Grubmuller, Sr. It was renamed Atech ...

completing 8 races.

Sports car racing

Latif signed with Avelon Formula to drive a CN2 (per the

Group CN Group CN is a category of motorsport, introduced by the FIA in the early nineties for sports car racing. Group CN cars are mainly seen in hillclimbing championships or sports racing series. Group CM is a non-FIA class which is closely related to G ...

classification)

Sports prototype A sports prototype, sometimes referred to as simply a prototype, is a type of race car that is used in the highest-level categories of sports car racing. These purpose-built racing cars, unlike street-legal and production-based racing cars, are n ...

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. 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 In everyday use and in kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude of the change of its position over time or the magnitude of the change of its position per unit of time; it is thus a scalar quantity. ...

. Latif won the 6 Hours of

Mugello The Mugello is a historic region and valley in northern Tuscany, in Italy, corresponding to the course of the River Sieve. It is located to the north of the city of Florence and includes the northernmost portion of the Metropolitan City of Flo ...

with teammate Ivan Bellarosa in front of the team's home crowd. They later went on to win the opening rounds of the Speed Euroseries at the

Hungaroring The Hungaroring is a motorsport racetrack in Mogyoród, Pest County, Hungary where the Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix is held. In 1986, it became the location of the first Formula One Grand Prix behind the Iron Curtain. Bernie Ecclestone wan ...

. In 2014 Latif signed with

to race at the

in the number 35

, where they finished 5th in the GTD class. Latif competed in the 2014

12 Hours Sebring The 12 Hours of Sebring is an annual motorsport endurance race for sports cars held at Sebring International Raceway, on the site of the former Hendricks Army Airfield World War II air base in Sebring, Florida, US. The event is the second rou ...

in Florida on 12–15 March, where they finished 8th in the GTD class. Latif also joins with Phoenix Racing for

alongside

Marc Basseng Marc Basseng (born 12 December 1978 in Engelskirchen) is a German racing driver. Career Basseng began his career in karting. In 1997 he began competing in the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany for the UPS Porsche Junior Team, finishing third in the 199 ...

. Latif was set to race a Nissan Zytec in the

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 24 Heures du Mans) is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the town of Le Mans, France. It is the world's oldest active Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance r ...

race on 14–15 June with the

Greaves Motorsport Greaves Motorsport is a British racing team, currently competing in the European Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In 2006, Greaves Motorsport, founded and run by Tim Greaves, entered the Le Mans Series (LMS) for the first time, r ...

Team. 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.

Racing record

US Endurance results

Blancpain Sprint Series results

''Note: classified as Pro for the Nogaro race''

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Pro Mazda Championship

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Latif, Alessandro Living people 1996 births British people of Italian descent British racing drivers Italian racing drivers Italian people of Pakistani descent 24 Hours of Daytona drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers Sportspeople from London People educated at Marlborough College WeatherTech SportsCar Championship drivers Indy Pro 2000 Championship drivers British sportspeople of Pakistani descent Porsche Carrera Cup GB drivers Greaves Motorsport drivers Phoenix Racing drivers