Ferdinand Habsburg will not be able to be at the start for the 6h of Imola which will be held next weekend and Jules Gounon will take his place on the Alpine for the second seasonal event of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
The Austrian was injured in an accident during a test with the A424 and despite good will, his recovery is still underway. With his vertebrae still in bad shape, he will therefore be forced to remain in the pits, with the Frenchman having had the green light from Mercedes AMG-Motorsport with which he should have been at the start of the GT World Challenge Asia stage scheduled in Sepang (having a priority contractual for Alpine, in any case).
Gounon will therefore share the wheel of the French LMDh #35 together with Charles Milesi and Paul-Loup Chatin, continuing the work already begun in the development tests in which he took part in the winter together with the trio of the #36, Schumacher/Lapierre/ Vaxivière, being able to count on the many information collected also in the opening race held in Lusail just over a month ago.
Jules Gounon, Alpine Endurance Team
Photo by: Alpine
“Ferdinand will be in our thoughts. It's a hard blow, but it's part of the life of a team, and everything is ready to guarantee his presence equally thanks to modern communication methods,” said Team Principal, Philippe Sinault.
“We decided to replace him with Jules at Imola. It's never easy to make your debut in such a context, but he was identified, selected and hired to fill this role, even if we never imagined it could happen so soon.”
“He is basically ready, but he still has a lot to learn, even if he has already shown that he has mastered several aspects, given his history in GT.”
“We refined his preparation during the last tests with his six teammates and then in the simulator to prepare him for all our processes.”
#35 Alpine Endurance Team Alpine A424: Paul-Loup Chatin, Ferdinand Habsburg-Lothringen, Charles Milesi
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Sinault then focused on the commitment that awaits the transalpine team on the banks of the Santerno, an atypical track that will still serve to grow a lot.
“Qatar certainly went well and we started well, but our goal at the 6h of Imola is to continue our learning process to be increasingly ready and gain ground in view of the next races.”
“We will discover a very different circuit to the one we have experienced since our first outings with the A424. Our experience will be rather relative on this atypical track, as the cars and the environment have changed a lot compared to our last race in Imola.”
“Traffic will be a crucial factor, but we also know that the curbs are quite aggressive and will affect the set-up so we can deal with them correctly and make the most of them.”
“This weekend promises to be extraordinarily educational for the whole team.”
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