Britain’s rising GT prospect Alessandro Latif will compete in the Blancpain Sprint Series in an Audi R8 LMS ultra sportscar.
Latif, who turns 18 next month, will drive for reigning DTM champions Phoenix Racing in the seven race “Sprint” series.
Alessandro will share the Phoenix Audi with German Marc Basseng, the 2012 FIA GT1 World Champion, in his maiden Blancpain campaign.
Latif said: “I will have an amazing programme with Phoenix Racing, one of the leading Audi customer sport teams in the world, and I can’t wait to get the race season started next month.
“I tested the Phoenix Audi at Nogaro and Paul Ricard earlier this month and immediately gelled with the Phoenix team. They are ultra-professional and I can see why they are so successful.”
Encouraged by the phenomenal success of the Blancpain Endurance Series, which has rapidly become a global reference for GT racing, world-renowned Swiss watch maker Blancpain and the SRO Motorsports Group recently announced that they have reached an agreement to extend their partnership to the Sprint series, previously promoted as the FIA GT Series.
Alessandro added: “I haven’t raced previously on any of the circuits that the Blancpain series visits but with the aid of working on simulators and watching in-car footage from previous races, I see no reason why I cannot rise above this challenge.
“The series is looking incredibly competitive in terms of drivers, teams and cars. It’s going to be a big season for me and one that offers further integration into the Audi ‘family’.”
The Audi R8 LMS is powered by a V10 5.2-litre engine and runs in GT3 specification. Already this season, Latif has posted impressive fifth and eighth place finishes in a Flying Lizard Motorsports Audi R8 LMS in the Daytona 24 Hours and Sebring 12 Hours respectively.
Bernhard Demmer, Phoenix Racing’s GT Team Manager, confirmed: “We are looking forward to working with Alessandro in 2014. He is a very promising young driver who showed his potential a couple of times already in impressive ways.
“The history of Phoenix Racing consists of a lot of young drivers who made their first major steps in racing with our team and developed to higher levels. We are very confident that Alessandro will develop the same way.
“He was very professional at our first tests and recorded competitive lap times on tracks he didn’t know. He also worked well with the team and made no mistakes. Together with Marc Basseng, one of the fastest and most experienced drivers in the R8, we’ll have a great line-up for the season.”
Phoenix Racing is based at the Nürburgring in Germany. The team, founded in 1999 by Ernst Moser, has won the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) with Audi on two occasions and are three-time winners of the Nürburgring 24 Hours (2000, 2003, 2012), two-time winners of the Spa 24 Hours (2007, 2012), European FIA GT Champions (2009), Bathurst 12 Hour winners (2012), Macau Touring Car GP winners (1999) and Belgian GT3 champions (2009).