Stefano Gai has another Italian GT Championship (CIGT) title to his name, but the story behind his partnership with Fabrizio Fontana goes back further than their success at Monza. Speaking to GT REPORT, the Ferrari driver shares how a dare between friends brought them into the same car, why he enjoys being both teammate and coach and how their success keeps delaying his retirement plans.
Victory in the final Sprint race at Monza secured the title for the #69 Spirit of Racing crew by just one point over Emanuel Colombini and Emanuele Zonzini. It followed their GT Cup Division 1 Pro-Am championship in the 2025 Italian GT Championship Endurance series, making their first season together in GT3 another successful one.
“Fabrizio, my teammate, has been my friend for many, many years,” Gai starts. “In the past, he was my partner, my sponsor when I was racing in the Pro category, and he was racing in rally championships. He asked me many times if I could go and do some rallying with him. I said: ‘I can do some rallying with you only when you start racing with me on track.’ And he said: ‘Yes, why not? Let me try the car.’”
‘He put everything into racing on track’
That first test gave Gai enough reason to encourage Fontana to make the switch. What had started as a condition for joining his friend on a rally became a serious proposal. “We organised a test. He was doing very, very well. He was running fast,” Gai recalls. “So I said: ‘Maybe you can change your mind. You can move to circuit racing instead of rallying’,” he laughs. “He decided to finish his career in rallying and put all the spirit, all the emotion, everything into racing on track. And this is the result.”
Gai helped Fontana as a coach in Ferrari Challenge before the pair began sharing a car in the Campionato Italiano Gran Turismo. Their title-winning GT Cup campaign gave Fontana experience in the Ferrari 296 Challenge, with the move to the 296 GT3 Evo following this season.
“When we decided to race together, he was coming from Ferrari Challenge with the 488. So we planned to do the season with the 296 Challenge because it was much easier for him to learn the tracks and the car,” Gai explains. “After we won the championship together in GT Cup, I said: ‘Now we have to go to GT3.’ For me, it was going back to a GT3 car. For him, it was the first season.”
Fontana quickly found something to like about the new Ferrari: “When he drove the GT3 for the first time, he said: ‘This is a real race car!’” Gai remembers. “The Challenge car is a very, very fast car because we have an incredible engine, but the setup you can find with the GT3 is another thing.”
Fontana and Gai are unstoppable together
Gai’s role involves both racing and helping Fontana improve. Their friendship makes that relationship easy, while the time spent together away from the car is just as important for them. Asked about the magic of their collaboration, Gai doesn’t have to think long: “First of all, there is a very good friendship between us,” he says. “I’m here doing a double job: coaching and driving. With him, it’s perfect because the whole weekend is fantastic. We have a very good time with the family, going to dinner together.
“We have a lot of fun with the mechanics, without too much stress like in the Pro category. For me, it’s perfect. Now I’m 40 years old, so I’m also starting to change my career towards working with gentlemen drivers in motorsport. It’s the best combination when you have a teammate like him.”
That also means adjusting his own approach to give Fontana what he needs. At Mugello, for example, where Gai already knows his way around, he can hand over more practice time to his teammate. “Mugello is a special track for me. We always go fast here and the feeling I have here is fantastic every time,” he explains. “It’s good because I don’t need to drive too much, and Fabrizio can drive more in free practice. The only problem is that I cannot always have the perfect setup I like because I have to give the car to Fabrizio as well. Fabrizio needs a car a little bit softer than what I want.”
Gai points out that there have been difficult moments too. Fontana suffered a heavy accident during the Mugello Sprint weekend in July, and Gai was still helping him rebuild his confidence when they returned for the Endurance finale. “In July, in the Sprint race here at Mugello, he had a heavy, heavy crash,” Gai says. “Now, he’s driving very, very well. So maybe we can do something more next year as well.”
Two more titles before stopping?
The next step remains open. Gai would like to explore racing elsewhere in Europe, although another season in Italy could give Fontana valuable additional experience. “We are planning maybe to do something more European, but maybe we stay here in Italy because he needs to drive more and more,” he says. “He has to do some kilometres in the car, so maybe we stay in Italy for another year. I don’t know yet.”
Whatever they decide, Gai intends to keep racing. After two decades spent almost exclusively in Ferraris, he has already had to revise the target he once set for retirement. “I’ve been racing with Ferrari for more than 20 years and never drove anything different, except for a few races with Maserati. At that time, it was the same family,” he says.
“My plan is to continue racing. I always said: ‘When I reach five titles, I’ll stop racing.’ Now we’re at eight, and I’ve moved my plan to stopping after ten championships! So I have to win another two titles, and after that we’ll see what I can do next.”
