6 HOURS OF BAHRAIN - END OF MANY CHAPTERS

In a sunny and windy November afternoon, the day after coming back from a beautiful family holiday to Parma, I’m writing this review of Lou’s final race of the year, which crowned him King of LMP2, obviously along with RobKub and Rui Andrade. By the way, did you know that next year WRT will switch to Hypercar? 

The overall WEC Champions, once again, are Séb Buemi, Brendon the Pop Singer and Ryo Hirakawa, whom I sent my dearest congratulations to! And I’m also happy for the Iron Dames who gained P1 in the LMGTE class, which unfortunately had its last appearance in WEC. I will miss that beautiful GT cars next year.

Finally, I say a big THANK YOU to all the drivers who entertained us on track, as well as team managers, mechanics and all the staff who worked to this amazing WEC season. Because it’s not only about drivers, motorsport is the fruit of the hard work of several different figures. 

What will be Lou’s future challenges? In 2024 he’ll race full time in the US with Acura, I can’t wait for this new adventure and I will always support him. I’m a bit sorry he won’t come to Monza, but maybe I’ll try to attend some overseas races (everything can happen!)

4 HOURS OF PORTIMÃO - DOUBLE RACE IN ELMS, IS THAT POSSIBLE?

Good morning! Sorry if I found myself to write the weekend review later than usual, but yesterday I was quite busy with work at home! However, I hope you’ll forgive me, or not?

Anyway, last weekend Lou attended the last ELMS race weekend of the season, in which he was crowned third-classified in both LMP2 and overall! Congratulations, Lou, you did all your best!

This weekend was quite different from traditional ones, as there were two races, with a different qualification session for each other. In the first one Lou and his teammates crossed the finish line in P13; the rainy weather influenced the race, in which there were many crashes, such as one involving an Inter Europol Competition prototype which was engulfed by flames; even Salih Yoluc, Lou’s teammate, ended up in the gravel.

In the second race, unfortunately, Salih Yoluc ran over a mechanic in the pit lane (luckily he didn’t have physical consequences) and Charlie Eastwood was hit by a Ferrari; Lou had to save the honour of Racing Team Turkey ending P4 in their class and P7 overall.

And now, see you in November for the last WEC act! 

4 HOURS OF SPA - UP & DOWN, FROM POLE, TO P4, TO P3

Good afternoon! How did you spend your weekend? Mine was great, on Sunday I attended the races of TCR Europe and GT Open in Monza. Thanks to Matilde, Miloš Pavlović’s wife, I managed to obtain a pass for the paddock and I had the pleasure to follow GT Open race from the box of Bonaldi Motorsport. But this doesn’t mean I forgot about Lou’s ELMS race in Spa, and here I am to tell you a few words about it. 

Thanks to Salih Yoluc, Racing Team Turkey obtained the pole position. Unfortunately, at the beginning of the race, Manuel Maldonado (yes, Pastor’s cousin, you surely remember him on Pastor’s shoulders during the 2012 fire in Barcelona, right after the Venezuelan driver’s maiden win) caused a crash with another car, and safety car made its entrance on track. Lou and his crew ended the race P4, but, after the race, Alessio Rovera, Mathieu Vaxiviere and François Perrodo (AF Corse) got a penalty for accelerating too early at the restart after the end of the yellow flag, making Racing Team Turkey switch to P3.

The next (and final!) ELMS race will be on October 21st and 22nd in Portimao. Who will become the champion? You will discover it on these pages!

6 HOURS OF FUJI - BIG IN JAPAN!

Konnichi-wa 🙏🏻 Welcome to Japan, one of my favourite countries ever! I may have already written about it on this blog, but I love Japan for its millenary culture and traditions, its delicious and healthy food and the kindness and politeness of people! And yes, it’s okay to admit it, I love Japanese car manufacturers and racing drivers too. And you can easily imagine how happy I am for the win of the FIA WEC championship Toyota obtained on the Fuji Speedway, after a tumultuous race fighting with a Porsche. Japanese fans were amazed, they have a great love for their cars and drivers as well as a big respect for “rivals”, which is a quality I admire a lot.

Lou had a good time in the days before the race, strolling around Tokyo with Nobu Matsushita (his former Formula 2 teammate) and visiting hedgehog cafés. And, along with his teammates RobKub and Rui, he won in the LMP2 classification, incrementing the chances to seize the LMP2 title! 

WEC will be back on November 4th in Sakhir, for the final act of the 2023 season! See you 👋🏻 

4 HOURS OF ALCANIZ - TROUBLES FOR LOU

Good Sunday evening! Did you spend good summer holidays? I hope you enjoyed them, so, let’s head back into racing!

This weekend, Lou was committed in the Alcaniz ELMS round, which unfortunately was not a lucky one for the Racing Team Turkey. 

Lou was first in his class, but unfortunately he was overtaken by Matthieu Vaxiviere; then, due to electrical troubles on his Oreca, he had to spend a long time at the box and ended the race P20.

As a Japanophile and big fan of Japanese drivers, I’m proud of Marino Sato who, along with Oliver Jarvis and Philip Hanson, won the race from the pole position! Do you remember when I met Marino in Monza, back in 2019?

Plus, this gives me the assist to announce that Lou’s next race will be the Fuji round of WEC! May some of you give me a ticket to Japan, please? 😉 

4 HOURS OF PAUL RICARD - MIRACLES HAPPEN!

Good evening!

After the Monza WEC round of last weekend, Lou is back to his racing duties in ELMS. This time he raced in Paul Ricard, where he made such a miracle: he had a unfortunate front left tire puncture with 12 laps to go, but, according to what he wrote on his Insta, “drove his heart out” to make it to the first step of the podium, at least for his class. In fact, he actually ended the overall race P3.

Also big congratulations to Algarve Pro Racing for their first overall win!

See you for the next adventure 👋🏻😘 

MONZA 6 HOURS - A WEEKEND ON THE FIELD

Good evening!

If you follow me on Instagram, you know for sure that on Saturday I attended the qualifications of FIA WEC in Monza. Due to a mistake I bought tickets for the qualifications and not for the race, but this doesn’t mean I made the wrong thing: Ferrari won Le Mans, and this means that paddock tickets for Sunday were sold out.

I caught up with friends of mine I use to meet in Monza, and we had good fun together, apart from the pit walk which unfortunately this year, and I’m sorry to say that, was very badly organized. I met some drivers I had never met before, such as Daniil Kvyat and Andre Lotterer. Lou was the first driver I met in the morning, and we had a 360º chat: I asked him something about his racing duties and he asked me how is my life going. You’re always so nice and kind, Lou! Never change, please, you’re perfect as you are!

And the qualification session of his team was perfect too: RobKub gained LMP2 pole position (the first one for a Polish driver in WEC!) with a breathtaking lap.

The 6 Hours of Monza saw another Toyota win in Hypercar, so I send my congratulations to Kamui, Mike and José Maria; JOTA won LMP2 and Dempsey-Proton conquered GTE AM. 

And what about the WRT car with the number 41? During the race they oscillated between P6 and P8 in their class, and they ended up P13 for the general classification and P3 for LMP2.

I sadly have to tell you this will be the last Italian WEC race in Monza, as from next year the 6 Hours will be held in Imola. However, I’m happy because the next one will be in Fuji! I wish I could attend it too, but it will be difficult.

Here you are my selfie with Lou and the photo of his car.