Ever wondered what our FIA WEC drivers do between races? These top racers are busy people and rarely sit around with nothing to do. Aside from training, preparation work with their teams for the 6 Hours of Bahrain on 30th November plus family time, here’s a taste of what some of them have been up since Shanghai.
Audi Sport Team Joest’s André Lotterer flew to Argentina the week following the Chinese WEC round to take part in the historic 1000 Millas Sport rally in his privately-run Audi Sport quattro. “I had the feeling that such a car is in this country for the first time. This model has an incredibly large number of fans,” said the two-time Le Mans winner in amazement. “The roads take you through fantastic, untouched landscapes and it’s simply mind-blowing to experience this route in the Sport quattro.”
Anthony Davidson, who suffered the huge disappointment of suspension failure in his Toyota Racing TS030 Hybrid at Shanghai, is another driver who has been collecting huge amounts of air miles. In addition to his commitments for Toyota Racing, when his calendar allows, he is also a commentator and analyst for Sky Sports UK’s Formula One TV broadcasts. In addition to Fuji, Shanghai and Bahrain, Anthony has also fitted in visits to India, Abu Dhabi, and a return to Austin and Sao Paulo in this second half of the season. Oh, and in between all this, he is also a Mercedes F1 official simulator driver…he’s had a total of 2 days at home since heading out to Fuji!
Helping Aston Martin and Ferrari prepare for North American racing in 2014, Darren Turner, Gianmaria Bruni, Giancarlo Fisichella and Toni Vilander have this week been testing in Florida. As official factory drivers, they work closely with their own manufacturer’s customer competition department to develop the GTE and GT3 cars of tomorrow and often find themselves travelling all over the world to help customer teams.
Fiona Miller
