ALBUQUERQUE!
The only man that we know of within the sportscar world that has his very own jingle, thanks to the Radio Le Mans team, is now preparing to go to the forthcoming race at Spa in just two weeks’ time for his LMP1 debut with Audi Sport. Portuguese ace Filipe Albuquerque has now started along the journey that will one day lead to being a fully-fledged member of the Ingolstadt warriors that go into battle in the WEC.
It was also his first weekend of getting used to the way the prototype machines of the endurance world really handle in race conditions, as the former Team Rosberg DTM driver also got his European Le Mans Series campaign underway with JOTA Sport alongside Harry Tincknell and Simon Dolan in the Zytek Z11SN-Nissan. He also has followed fellow former DTM driver Oliver Jarvis into the endurance realm and partners the Brit and Italy’s Marco Bonanomi for his partial WEC run this year.
He will be replaced by fellow Audi Sport driver Marc Gene, who will fill in the for 2010 Race of Champions winner, for the Spa and Le Mans rounds this year, but will still compete to gain further experience. E Racing’s Alex Goldschmidt caught up with the “new guy” in the team, as he talked about the changes he has had to make, as well as how he found the full experience the first time he drove an LMP1 car.