Andrea Piccini is to step into the
FIA GT Championship for the eighth round of the year this weekend at Nogaro after being called into the CR Scuderia line-up for the French event.
Piccini, who raced for the team in the Spa 24 Hours, will partner Tim Mullen in the #55
Ferrari with team principal Chris Niarchos away on business and unable to take part. Niarchos will also miss the following race at Zolder where he will be replaced by one of the team's British GT Championship racers James Sutton.
"I would love to race at Nogaro and Zolder myself but I will be away on business," Niarchos said. "However this presents CRS with a fantastic opportunity to fight even harder for second place in the teams' championship.
"Andrea and James will definitely increase our chances of catching BMS in the points tables. Andrea's performance at Spa was exceptional so he was an obvious choice for the Nogaro race. We are especially excited about James, who was the ultimate professional at Spa, as we want to include him in more of CRS' activities in the future."
Rob Bell will be back at the wheel of the #56 car alongside Andrew Kirkaldy as the pair seek to repeat their podium finish from last season and the Le Mans Series GT2 title winner said he saw no reason why the pair can't be strong again this time around.
"Last year was my first time at Nogaro and also the first time I raced with Andrew," he said. "We had to start from the pit lane but we had a good run, we were both quick, and we got a podium finish. It's a tight, compact circuit and it has its own challenges. There's no reason why we can't go and get a good result there."
