After another title in FIA-GT2, AF Corse will be up for a new challenge this weekend when they participate in the 24 Hours of Dubai. The transalpine team will enter a Ferrari F430 (the chassis which ran at Le Mans in 2009) for a quality lineup of five drivers. Although the presence of Rui Aguas and Niki Cadei are to be expected, the other three come straight from NASCAR, with Michael Waltrip, Marcos Ambrose and Robert Kaufmann. Amato Ferrari spoke a bit more about this unique lineup : “I’m happy to be here. We are starting our season earlier than in previous years, with three drivers who will be discovering a new atmosphere. I’m good friends with Robert and the deal was made in a short amount of time, during a few conversations. He drove the car during the 6 Hours of Vallelunga and Michael tested it on the same track. Everything is open for them to run with us again in the future but we’ll have to see with the NASCAR calendar.”
For the 2010 program of the AF Corse team, Amato Ferrari has not set anything in stone quite yet : “What I can confirm, is that we will have two Ferraris in Le Mans Series, one for Melo/Bruni and the second for Perez-Companc/Russo.” The decision to have Jean Alesi behind the wheel of one of the cars will be made soon : “Jean tested the car in Fiorano and we would be very pleased to have him join us this year. The decision should be made in the coming days. If it’s a yes, then we will have a third car and Jean will have Toni Vilander as teammate.”
Champions in FIA-GT, AF Corse has an official invite to Le Mans, and it will be used : “Of course, we will be present in la Sarthe and we have asked for a second entry. As for our presence in FIA-GT, nothing is done yet. We hope to be part of it, but the classification of the drivers could cause a problem. This championship has been good to us and it would be a shame not to be there. It’s also possible that we will have two cars in International GT Open, but again this is not confirmed yet.”
As for the 2010 version of the F430, it showed very well at the last two rounds of the FIA-GT seaon last year. “We’ve had a few adjustments on the car since the last race in Zolder and we’ve been involved in numerous tests with Michelotto,” concludes Amato Ferrari.
Rainier Ehrhardt (with Laurent Mercier)