Fredo Mestolio

Frederico "Fredo" Mestolio (born October 23, 1990, Bari, Italy) is an Italian racing driver who currently competes in the Formula 1 Rejects World Race Series for Castrol Jones Ford Team. Despite being christened Frederico the Italian has always used his nickname Fredo since he began racing at an early age.

F1RWRS career
Mestolio was drafted into the CR Motorsport team during the 2013 F1RWRS season, replacing fellow Italian Andrea Massini after just four races. Fredo was given the seat due to his significant personal sponsorship arrangements with Mastercard as the CR team struggled with a very poor car and limited cash flow. The deal saw the team re-named as Mastercard CR-Life. Mestolio's arrival failed to stem the wave of DNPQs however as CR became one of four teams which failed to qualify for a single race all year.

The front-running DGNgineering team however saw potential in Mestolio and signed him as their test driver for the 2014 F1RWRS season with team boss Chris Dagnall becoming Fredo's manager in the process. Mastercard had left the CR team when it was taken over and became Tropico Grand Prix and with Mestolio seemingly out of a main drive for 2014, they ended their support of the Italian driver. He was still in demand though and sourced additional sponsorship through a network of family businesses and local companies and this portfolio was enough to attract fellow strugglers Trueba into offering Mestolio a race seat. With the blessing of Dagnall and DGNgineering, Fredo signed for Trueba.

Attempting to qualify was just as hard at Trueba as it had been at CR in 2013 so when Mestolio brought the team it's only finish of the year with 8th place in Brazil there were scenes of jubilation at the little Italian team. Fredo himself was delighted as it marked not only his first ever race finish, but also his first ever start too. Prior to the French GP though Trueba was bought by the Il Barone Rampante organisation and became their flagship Scuderia Alitalia team. With a change of owners Mestolio found himself without a drive but was handed a another chance at staying in a race seat by American Racing Conglomerate who had just fired Collin Pratchett. At ARC, the problem wasn't qualifying for the races, but rather finishing them - the ARC 1-14 suffered from abysmal reliability and after his heroic 8th place for Trueba, Fredo only finished one more race all year with a 9th place at the final round in Japan.

For the 2015 F1RWRS season Mestolio signed a contract with Pemberton Prospec Racing, enticed away from ARC by the notion of driving for one of the most successful teams in F1RWRS history. It would mark the first time that Mestolio would complete a full season at one team and in anticipation of this he left his test driver role at DGNgineering. The year was one of frustration though as Prospec failed to arrest it's decline in form. Mestolio however scored his first ever championship points and the only ones for Prospec all year when he finished in a fine fifth place amidst the carnage of the German GP. Four successive DNPQs at the end of the season pointed ominously to Prospec's form for 2016 though.

In an attempt to recapture the success of past seasons, for 2016 Prospec began manufacturing their own engines again for the first time since 2012 with Mestolio and Ashley Watkinson leading the team's charge. The car though was very poor and one of the slowest on the grid, failing to qualify in all of the first six races of the year. It was at this point that Fredo was contacted by Sammy Jones, the team boss of the Castrol Jones Ford Team as a potential replacement for fellow Italian Rosco Vantini who had fallen out of favour at the British team. Mestolio attended a secret test at Silverstone alongside Danny van Rijkens and Connor O'Heagan to determine who would get the drive and having set an impressive overall time, Fredo sealed the deal that would take him to one of the top teams in the championship.

Having travelled with the Prospec team to California for the US South GP, Mestolio deserted them on the eve of the race, with it unclear where exactly he was heading. Following an announcement from Jones himself though, Fredo was revealed as the second driver for his team alongside Rhys Davies. Mestolio was employed on a race-by-race contract dependent on results, but in a competitive car at last, Fredo was able to demonstrate what he could do, finishing ahead of Davies in his first two races for the team with a third place and then a superb debut win at Road America.

Complete F1RWRS Results

 * * Indicates a season in progress.