Simone Faggioli is probably one of the best race car drivers you’ve never heard of. The Italian has racked up seven consecutive championships in the FIA European Hill Climb Championship to add to the one he scored in 2003. Faggioli has raced a number of the light prototypes that make up the CN and Group N classes of sports car racing up hills all over the continent and has almost categorically swept any climb he’s entered. He recently ripped up the prestigious St. Ursanne Les Rangiers hill climb in Switzerland, breaking his own record on the 5.1-kilometer course with an incredible best run of 1:41.118.
In the Norma M20 that he runs and in a number of the open-wheel cars, the middle section of the St. Ursanne climb is taken with the right foot to floor and heart praying to Our Lady of Perpetual Downforce that the grip is there through the winding esses. Nobody, however, drives with quite the fearlessness and commitment as Faggioli, which is evident from this compiled footage of the 2016 St. Ursanne climb where he won by more than 10 seconds over a V8-powered GP2 car in two combined runs. If you’re not familiar, this is what flat-out looks like on the side of a mountain. Faggioli is not bothered by bumps or blind corners; he just keeps his foot down and drives the car.
