Francesco Pizzi
Pizzi driving theDallara F3 2019 during the2022 Spielberg Formula 3 round.
Nationality	Italian
Born	Francesco Raffaele Pizzi (2004-11-12)12 November 2004 (age 21) Rome, Italy
USF Pro 2000 Championship career
Debut season	2023 USF Pro 2000 Championship
Current team	TJ Speed Motorsports
Racing licence	FIA Silver
Car number	27
Starts	19
Wins	0
Podiums	1
Poles	1
Fastest laps	2
Best finish	5th in2023
Previous series
2022 2021 2020 2020	FIA Formula 3 Championship Formula Regional European Championship Italian F4 Championship Formula 4 UAE Championship
Championship titles
2023 2020	24 Hours of Daytona LMP2 class Formula 4 UAE Championship

Francesco Raffaele Pizzi (Italian pronunciation:[franˈt͡ʃe.skoraf.faˈɛ.leˈpit.t͡si]; born 12 November 2004) is anItalian racing driver who last raced in the2024 USF Pro 2000 Championship with TJ Speed Motorsports.^[1][2]

He was the runner-up of the2020 Italian F4 Championship behindGabriele Mini and raced in the2022 FIA Formula 3 Championship forCharouz Racing System. Pizzi is also the third youngest class winner of the24 Hours of Daytona, winning in the LMP2 class with teamProton Competition in2023.^[3]

In 2013, at the age of eight, Pizzi claimed his maiden win under the rain in the race 2 in Lonato of formula 60 Italian championship.Pizzi made his international karting debut in the Mini ROK International Final in 2014, where he finished ninth. He raced in the 60 Mini class for three years, winning the South Garda Winter Cup in 2016 and becoming vice-champion in theWSK Super Master Series andWSK Champions Cup respectively that same year.^[4] The Italian then moved up to drive in theOKJ-category, placing third in the Italian Championship in 2017. He competed in karts until 2019.

In January 2020, Pizzi made his single-seater debut with Xcel Motorsport in theFormula 4 UAE Championship.^[5] He had a perfect opening round, winning all three races at the first weekend inDubai. He scored five more victories and won the championship, 26 points ahead of his nearest competitorLorenzo Fluxá.^[6]

Pizzi then signed withVan Amersfoort Racing to compete in theItalian F4 Championship, as the team's sole full-time entrant.^[7] He started the campaign strongly, taking three podiums, including a win, at the first round inMisano,^[8] however, his next win would only come at the fifth round inMonza.^[9] Despite two wins at that weekend Pizzi had already lost too much ground to his title rivalGabriele Minì, and in the end finished second, with seven podiums and 208 points to his name.^[10]

In December 2020, Pizzi took part in the post-season rookie test for theFormula Regional European Championship forART Grand Prix alongside his F4 title rivalGabriele Minì andGrégoire Saucy.^[11] After a second test later that month, where Pizzi returned toVan Amersfoort Racing and set the third-fastest laptime of the day, the Dutch team confirmed Pizzi to be one of their drivers for the2021 season.^[12][13] He scored his first points of the season at theCircuit Zandvoort, finishing fifth in the second race. Another points finish at theRed Bull Ring helped Pizzi to finish twentieth in the standings. Following the conclusion to the season Pizzi announced his departure from VAR and took part in winter testing withArden in Barcelona ,R-ace GP in Paul Ricard and Monza,MP Motorsport in the second Barcelona test andFA Racing in Mugello.

For 2022, Pizzi progressed to theFIA Formula 3 Championship, partneringLászló Tóth andAyrton Simmons atCharouz Racing System.^[14] Talking about his sudden move to F3 after just two years of car racing, Pizzi stated that "it's going to be tough, but that's why we race".^[15] Pizzi scored his first and only points of the year, having finished in tenth place during theImola sprint race.^[16] InSpa-Francorchamps, Pizzi qualified an astonishing third.^[17] During the feature race, Pizzi was pushed wide at the side, and laterKush Maini spun him round which dropped him to the back and left Pizzi to finish 21st.^[18] Overall, Pizzi was the only driver in Charouz to score a point for the team that year, having scored his only top-ten finish at Imola, having finished 27th in the standings, the last placed driver to have scored points.^[19]

At the end of the 2022 season, Pizzi partook in the post-season testing withCampos Racing during the first and last day respectively.^[20]

At the end of October 2022, Pizzi took part in aUSF Pro 2000 Championship test at theIndianapolis Motor Speedway with Jay Howard Driver Development.^[21] At the start of January the following year, Pizzi confirmed that he would leave Formula 3 and join the2023 USF Pro 2000 Championship with TJ Speed Motorsports.^[1]He debuted in St. Petersburg claiming two front row starts, a pole position and a fastest lap on his first time driving the tricky street circuit, he couldn't finish on the podium in any of the races claiming a fourth and a fifth place. He went on to qualify in the top-three again in Sebring earning is first podium in race 1 and after a chaotic race 2 he managed to scramble to a seventh place finish. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway weekend was led by controversy after race direction called out a red flag in race 1 for track conditions when the Italian and championship contenderMyles Rowe were setting the fastest lap of the race. This forced everyone to put rain tyres on a dry track and he dropped back to eleventh. More controversy would lead into race 2 after Pizzi took the lead on lap 1 and led until lap 5, at the end of a FCY procedure he waited to pick the pace back up and the race direction in a for sure debatable situation threw the green causing him and the current top-five to drop back to around tenth place, he still managed to recover to seventh before the checkered. He later went on to finish in fourth on his debut oval race and grabbed another top-five finish in Road America at the half way mark of the championship earning him second place in the standings despite an underachieving start.

Pizzi returned in a cameo appearance with TJ Speed Motorsports at theLucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, deputising forHunter Yeany who was hit with budget issues.^[22]

In the coverage from Peacock on the eighth round of the2023 Indy NXT at Iowa Speedway, it was rumoured that Pizzi would joinAbel Motorsports at Nashville, but neither team neither the driver had confirmed it by then.^{[citation needed]}

Pizzi made hisendurance racing debut at the2023 24 Hours of Daytona, teaming up withProton Competition in theLMP2 category.^[23]He ended up winning the race by sixteen thousands of a second on his debut becoming the third youngest ever class winner in the race.The win came after an impressive comeback from him and his teammates after qualifying in last following a wreck, they were able to claim the race lead after a quarter of the race had been gone but found themselves three laps down with four hours to go, thanks to FCY procedures they made it back to the lead lap with Pizzi on the car who then left the car in the hand of his teammate James Allen for the last hour.

Year	Team	Car	Quali Heats	Main race
2017	Fusion Motorsport	OKJ	24th	26th

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position; races initalics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

^† Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as they completed more than 90% of the race distance.

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position; results initalics indicate fastest lap)

^† Points only counted towards the Michelin Endurance Cup, and not the overall LMP2 Championship.

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap) (Races with * indicate most race laps led)

• Official website
• Francesco Pizzi career summary at DriverDB.com

• 2004 births
• Living people
• Racing drivers from Rome
• Italian racing drivers
• Italian F4 Championship drivers
• ADAC Formula 4 drivers
• Formula Regional European Championship drivers
• FIA Formula 3 Championship drivers
• Van Amersfoort Racing drivers
• Charouz Racing System drivers
• Karting World Championship drivers
• UAE F4 Championship drivers
• WeatherTech SportsCar Championship drivers
• Indy NXT drivers
• Indy Pro 2000 Championship drivers
• Proton Competition drivers
• 21st-century Italian sportsmen
• Abel Motorsports drivers
• 24 Hours of Daytona drivers

• CS1 Italian-language sources (it)
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from December 2022
• Pages with Italian IPA
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from September 2025
• Official website not in Wikidata