Метка: Felipe Drugovich

Drugovich joins Action Express Cadillac line-up for Le Mans 24 Hours

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


The Brazilian will fill the vacancy at the factory Action Express Racing team for the French enduro on 15-16 June and join Pipo Derani and Jack Aitken, the team’s full-season drivers in the IMSA SportsCar Championship, in the #311 Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh.

Drugovich has landed a factory drive in the Hypercar class after taking his first steps in sportscar racing this year in the European Le Mans Series.

He joined the Vector Sport LMP2 squad for his first race campaign since winning the 2022 Formula 2 Championship, but it was made clear from the outset that he wouldn’t be racing the British team’s ORECA-Gibson 07 at Le Mans.

Action Express team manager Gary Nelson revealed that Drugovich had been “on our radar for a couple of years”.

“After watching him race a sportscar in the ELMS recently, we finally got a chance to meet him and work with him in some simulator testing,” he explained.

“We were impressed by his maturity, discipline and knowledge. Next, we took Felipe to a track test, where he shared our car with Pipo and Jack.

“We are very excited to take the next obvious step and enter Felipe alongside Pipo and Jack at Le Mans. His record speaks volumes.”

#311 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Pipo Derani, Alexander Sims, Jack Aitken

#311 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Pipo Derani, Alexander Sims, Jack Aitken

Photo by: Marc Fleury

Drugovich described the chance to race for Cadillac and Action Express at Le Mans as “the most important opportunity in my racing career up to now”.

“The Le Mans 24 Hours is impossible to define in words, such is its magic and importance for cars in general and motor racing in particular,” said the 23-year-old, who is a two-time winner of the Le Mans Virtual Esports event.

“I barely touched the magic of Le Mans twice winning the virtual editions — now I am going to plunge into it for real. What a privilege having another dream come true.”

Drugovich takes a berth filled by Tom Blomqvist in the IMSA series: he is the Action Express team’s endurance driver for the long-distance races at Daytona, Sebring, Watkins Glen, Indianapolis and Road Atlanta.

Cadillac has now filled its full driver line-up for its three-car Le Mans assault made up of its regular solo WEC V-Series.R and its two IMSA entries.

Current IndyCar champion Alex Palou is joining Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn in the #2 Ganassi-run Cadillac Racing WEC car, while Scott Dixon teams up again with Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande in the team’s IMSA entry, #3.

Read Also:



Source link

Aston reserve Drugovich to make race return in European Le Mans Series

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


The Brazilian-Italian, who has not competed since the conclusion of his title-winning season in the 2022 Formula 2 Championship, will contest the full six-round ELMS in the British team’s LMP2 ORECA-Gibson 07. 

Drugovich will share the car with Stephane Richelmi and Ryan Cullen in place of Gabriel Aubry, who had been scheduled to continue driving for the team with which he raced in LMP2 in the World Endurance Championship in 2023.

“It’s good to know that I will be back in action in real races, bringing together my experience and my fondness for endurance racing,” said 23-year-old Drugovich, who took part in two Friday free practice sessions with Aston last year in his first year in the reserve role. 

“My job as substitute and reserve driver with Aston Martin in F1 continues with its full schedule; I will just be keeping busy on my weekends which up until now have been free.

“I have met the team and was impressed with what I saw: I am sure that together with them and my fellow drivers we can write a successful chapter with the #10 ORECA.”

Vector team principal Gary Holland described himself as a “big fan of Felipe’s”.

“The opportunity to have someone like him in the car doesn’t happen very often, so we had to grab it with both hands,” he told Motorsport.com.

“This programme only really came up in the last week or so, but we’d already been talking for a while, more about the longer term.

“Felipe has been out of competition for a year, so he wants to stay sharp. 

“It’s been a bit hectic getting it done, but I have high hopes for what we think is a very balanced line-up.”

#10 Vector Sport Oreca 07 - Gibson: Ryan Cullen, Matthias Kaiser, Gabriel Aubry

#10 Vector Sport Oreca 07 — Gibson: Ryan Cullen, Matthias Kaiser, Gabriel Aubry

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Drugovich will get his first experience of the Vector ORECA at Paul Ricard this week when he joins Richelmi and Cullen in a two-day test on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

Four of the six rounds of the ELMS, which kicks off at Barcelona on 14 April, clash with F1 races. 

But Stoffel Vandoorne, with whom Drugovich shares the reserve role at Aston, does not have conflicts for those weekends with his programmes driving for Peugeot in the WEC and DS Penske in Formula E. 

Drugovich’s deal with Vector does not currently cover the Le Mans 24 Hours WEC round in June for which Vector has an entry.  

Holland suggested that Aubry could remain with the team for the French enduro on 15/16 June. 

“We’d like to keep Gabby in the fold,” he explained.

“We have bigger and better programmes coming, so we are going to have to increase our portfolio of drivers anyway.” 

Teams do not have to nominate their full driver line-ups for Le Mans until early May. 

Vector was formed ahead of its maiden LMP2 assault on the 2022 WEC and has moved into the ELMS after the secondary prototype class was axed from the world championship for this season. 

It had been due to graduate to the Hypercar class of the WEC in parallel with its entry into the ELMS in partnership with the Italian Isotta Fraschini brand before the breakdown of its deal. 

Isotta eventually entered WEC in association with Duqueine Engineering.

Read Also:



Source link