First race of the season in the 24H Series with Drivex entering its Audi R8 LMS ultra driven by Briton William Paul, Danish René Ogrocki and Argentinean José Luis Talermann
The 2016 GT season officially begins this week for Drivex as the Spanish team will contest the Mugello 12 hours, which counts towards the 24H Series. Drivex will enter its Audi R8 LMS ultra and William Paul, René Ogrocki and José Luis Talermann are listed as drivers.
In the winter months the Alcalá de Henares-team based has worked on the car, which already proved to be extremely competitive on its debut at the 24 hours of Barcelona, running in podium contention for most of the race. Drivex has introduced an engine upgrade, which will play a key factor at the Mugello 12 hours. The Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello (5.245km) has a long main straight of 1.141 meters joining “Bucine” and “San Donato”. Therefore, the new engine will be of prime importance at Mugello.
As far as the driver line-up is concerned, Great Britain´s Paul and Denmark´s Ogrocki already had their first taste of the car at 2015 Barcelona 24 hours. They both were quick to adapt to the Ingolstadt-built car. Regarding Talermann, Mugello will be his first race at the wheel of the V10-powered car. He has experience at 24-hour races such as Dubai or Paul Ricard and replaces Briton Stephen Ritchie. Ritchie was unable to make the start this time but will join Drivex in upcoming events.
First private testing is due to take place on Thursday, with free practice sessions and qualifying taking place on Friday morning. The 12-hour race is scheduled at 14.00 for a first 4-hour heat when cars will go into Parc Fermé immediately after. Then on Saturday at 09.30 the race resumes for the remaining eight hours.
Miguel Ángel de Castro: “It was a long winter as our last race with our Audi was long time ago, but this time wasn´t in vain. We carried out several tests with different drivers and besides we installed several upgrades. I think they shall be pretty useful as Mugello is a pure speed circuit. Surely it isn´t an extremely suitable track for our car, but anyway I feel confident about our chances. We always tried to enter this race and finally in 2016 the necessary conditions have been created. Mugello is split in two heats, first four hours on Friday and then eight on Saturday. I hope we will be able to avoid to run into problems and to achieve a good result”.