Kei Cozzolino

Kei Francesco Cozzolino
Born	(1987-11-09) 9 November 1987
Nationality	Japan
Occupation	Racing driver
FIA World Endurance Championship
Racing licence	FIA Gold
Years active	2019 – 2023
Teams	AF Corse
Championship titles
GT World Challenge Asia Asian Le Mans Series Lamborghini Super Trofeo Esso Formula Toyota
Awards
2022GT World Challenge Asia Overall Champion 2018 Asian Le Mans GT Champion 2017 Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia Champion 2007 Esso Formula Toyota Champion

Kei Francesco Cozzolino (born in Shinjuku, Tokyo, November 9, 1987) is a Japanese-Italian professional racing driver from Shinjuku, Tokyo. He competes in motorsport championships including the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), 24 Hours of Le Mans, Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, and the Asian Le Mans Series with AF Corse. Cozzolino joined the 2024 Super GT series, driving a Ferrari 296 GT3 for PONOS RACING.

Early life

Cozzolino was born in Ichigaya, Shinjuku by Japanese mother and Italian father. He grew up in Japan and had his first experience with racing at 8 years old, thanks to his dad's passion for cars. When Cozzolino turned 14, they moved to Florence, Italy, where he will study at an international school.

Racing career

Karting

Cozzolino started karting at the age of 9. He competed and won in various competitions in classes in Japan and around the world. His karting career ended in 2005 when he switched to racing cars.

Junior Formula

In 2006, Cozzolino made his debut in auto racing, in the Formula Toyota series, during the second round of the championship at Sendai Hi-Land Raceway. Cozzolino finished tenth out of eleven finishers. In 2007, he competed in the Formula Challenge Japan and the Formula Toyota classes. In the Formula Challenge Japan, supported by Nissan, Toyota and Honda, Cozzolino won one race. All the drivers who entered both the Formula Toyota and Formula Challenge Japan series were supported by Toyota. This was to promote the Formula Challenge Japan as a replacement of the Formula Toyota after the series disbandment. In the final season of the Formula Toyota, Cozzolino won the title. Cozzolino was strong all season long, but Keisuke Kunimoto had the lead before the final round of the season. At the final round of the season at Fuji International Speedway Cozzolino qualified second and Kunimoto sixth. After a strong race Cozzolino won the race, KyoYu did not finish the race, thus the championship was decided in Cozzolino's favour.

Formula 3

After his 2007 Formula Toyota championship the young driver graduated to the All-Japan Formula Three Championship driving Now Motor Sport in a Dallara F308. As a result of winning the championship Cozzolino tested for the Toyota Tom's Formula Nippon factory team. In his debut year in Formula 3 the young Italian achieved four podium finishes and a ninth place in the championship. He also participated in the 2008 Macau Grand Prix Formula Three where he finished fifteenth. For the 2009 season, Cozzolino switched to the only Honda powered entry Toda Racing. He achieved his first win in Formula Three during the round at Twin Ring Motegi. But with the Toyota Tom's team dominating the championship Cozzolino was best of the rest finishing fourth.

Formula Nippon (Super Formula)

For the 2010 season, Cozzolino graduated to the Formula Nippon, the highest racing class in Japan. Cozzolino participated in a Toyota powered Swift FN09 entered by Team LeMans. His best finish was a fourth place at Autopolis. During the non-championship Fuji Sprint Cup he achieved his first pole-position and eventually finished tenth in the standings.

World Touring Car Championship

After more than a year without racing Cozzolino was announced as a replacement of Alberto Cerqui for the Guia Race of Macau. 29 drivers attempted to qualify for the event of which 23 could start the race, Cozzolino qualified 22nd. In the first race he had an accident after seven laps but he was qualified 20th. In the second race he was the last running driver in 19th place 2 laps behind the winning driver.

Asian Le Mans Series

In 2018–2019, the Ferrari 488 GT3 of the privately run CAR GUY team, with fellow team mates Takeshi Kimura and James Calado, win all four legs of the 2018–19 Asian Le Mans Series. The team achieves an auto-invitation to enter into the 2019 24 hours of Le Mans. Cozzolino returns to the series with AF Corse teaming up with Emmanuel Collard and Charlie Samani.

24 hours of Le Mans

Cozzolino has made 3 appearances in Le Mans (2019, 2020 and 2023). In 2019, he finishes 5th in class. At his second attempt in 2020, the Ferrari 488 GTE EVO of the MR Racing team, suffers a mechanical problem early on the race and forced to be 7 laps behind the leader. In the end the team retires due to a gearbox failure on lap 172. In the 2023 edition, with the Kessel Racing's Ferrari 488 GTE EVO number 74 finishing 9th in class.

FIA World Endurance Championship

Following his remarkable achievement in 2019, Cozzolino secured a contract to compete for the MR Racing team during the FIA WEC 2019-2020 season. He teamed up with Olivier Beretta and Motoaki Ishikawa, and their best performance came in the form of a 3rd place finish in the opening round at Silverstone. Unfortunately, as the season progressed, MR Racing was forced to withdraw from the series due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.Cozzolino made a return to the series for the final round in Bahrain, this time with Red River Sport.

In 2023, he joined forces with Kessel Racing for the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Monza events. Subsequently, he made a comeback with AF Corse to participate in the Fuji and Bahrain rounds.

Super GT

In 2016, Cozzolino made his debut in the Super GT series upon being promoted to the prestigious position of a Lamborghini Young Driver. During that year, he participated in only two rounds, driving the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 as a member of the Direction Racing team.

Cozzolino's return to the series took place in 2020 when he stepped in to replace Nicki Thiim for the Pacific - D'station Racing team, driving the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 alongside the team's star driver, Tomonobu Fujii.

In the year 2021, Cozzolino embarked on a new venture, debuting the Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo with the PACIFIC NAC CARGUY Racing Team, forming a partnership with the 2012 Super GT 300 Champion, Naoki Yokomizo.

Looking ahead to 2024, Cozzolino is set to rejoin the series as part of the PONOS Racing team, piloting the Ferrari 296 GT3. He will be teaming up with Ferrari Factory Driver, Lilou Wadoux, in this exciting new chapter of his Super GT career.

Racing record

Formula Toyota results

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Driver's Championship	Points
2007	Le Beausset Motorsports	FUJ 5	SUZ 2	MOT 3	SEN1 2	SEN2 1	SUG 1	FUJ 1	1st	103

Japanese Formula 3 results

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Driver's Championship	Points
2008	Now Motorsports	FUJ 3	FUJ 5	AUT 2	AUT 4	SUZ 6	SUZ 3	MOT 8	MOT 4	OKA 7	OKA 7	SUZ 5	SUZ DNF	MOT 6	MOT 6	FUJ 3	FUJ 4	SUG 6	SUG DNF	6th	133
2009	Toda Racing	FUJ 4	FUJ 4	OKA 4	OKA 4	SUZ 5	SUZ 5	FUJ 5	FUJ DNF	OKA 9	OKA 7	MOT 2	MOT 1	AUT 4	AUT 3	SUG 4	SUG 4			4th	66

Formula Nippon results

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Pos.	Points
2010	Team LeMans	SUZ Ret	MOT 10	FUJ 8	MOT 13	SUG 7	AUT 4	SUZ1 13	SUZ2 14	10th	8

Complete Blancpain GT Series Asia & GT World Challenge Asia results

Year	Team	Car	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pos.	Points
Blancpain GT Series Asia
2018	Car Guy Racing	Lamborghini Huracán GT3	Silver	SEP 1	SEP 2	BUR 1	BUR 2	SUZ 1	SUZ 2	FUJ 1 1	FUJ 2 15	SHA 1	SHA 2	ZHE 1	ZHE 2	20th	25
2018	Car Guy Racing	Lamborghini Huracán GT3	Pro-Am	SEP 1	SEP 2	BUR 1	BUR 2	SUZ 1 16	SUZ 2 12	FUJ 1 30	FUJ 2 18	SHA 1	SHA 2	NIN 1	NIN 2	NC	0
GT World Challenge Asia
2022	Car Guy Racing	Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020	Pro-Am	SEP 1	SEP 2	SUZ 1 1	SUZ 2 5	FUJ 1 1	FUJ 2 3	SUG 1 2	SUG 2 3	OKA 1 2	OKA 2 12			1st	126
2023	Car Guy Racing	Ferrari 296 GT3	Pro-Am	BUR 1	BUR 2	FUJ 1 12	FUJ 2 9	SUZ 1	SUZ 2	MOT 1 7	MOT 2 24	OKA 1 6	OKA 2 16	SEP 1	SEP 2	27th	16

^* Season still in progress.

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

Year	Entrant	Class	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Pos.	Points
2019-20	MR Racing	LMGTE Am	Ferrari 488 GTE Evo	SIL 3	FUJ 4	SHA 7	BHR 7	COA 10	SPA	LMS Ret		14th	45
	Red River Sport										BHR 10
2023	Kessel Racing	LMGTE Am	Ferrari 488 GTE Evo	SEB	POR	SPA	LMS 9	MNZ Ret				28th	0
	AF Corse								FUJ 12	BHR 11

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2019	Car Guy Racing	Takeshi Kimura Côme Ledogar	Ferrari 488 GTE	GTE Am	332	35th	5th
2020	MR Racing	Vincent Abril Takeshi Kimura	Ferrari 488 GTE Evo	GTE Am	172	DNF	DNF
2023	Kessel Racing	Yorikatsu Tsujiko Naoki Yokomizo	Ferrari 488 GTE Evo	GTE Am	303	38th	9th

Super GT results

Year	Team	Car	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	DC	Points
2016	Lamborghini Team Direction Shift	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	GT300	OKA 16	FUJ 17	SUG	FUJ	SUZ	CHA	MOT	MOT	NC	0
2018	CarGuy Racing	Honda NSX GT3	GT300	OKA	FUJ 26	SUZ	BUR	FUJ	SUG	AUT	MOT	NC	0
2020	Pacific - D'station Racing AMR	Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3	GT300	FUJ1 10	FUJ2 19	SUZ1 10	MOT1 18	FUJ3 24	SUZ2 24	MOT2 25	FUJ4	28th	2
2021	Pacific - Car Guy Racing	Ferrari 488 GT3 EVO 2020	GT300	OKA 23	FUJ1 25	SUZ 6	MOT1 4	SUG 15	AUT 9	MOT2 19	FUJ2 13	14th	17
2024	PONOS Racing	Ferrari 296 GT3	GT300	OKA 11	FUJ 9	SUZ 6	FUJ 11	SUG 2	AUT 24	MOT 15	SUZ 21	12th	22

^* Season still in progress.

Complete IMSA SportsCar Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Class	Make	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Rank	Points
2024	AF Corse	GTD	Ferrari 296 GT3	Ferrari 3.0 L Turbo V6	DAY	SEB	LBH	LGA	WGL	MOS	ELK	VIR	IMS	PET

External links

• Official website
• Kei Cozzolino career summary at DriverDB.com