PREMA AND LOU: ETERNAL LOVE

2023 will be a busy year for Lou. During the last weeks, he announced he will race in ELMS for a brand-new Turkish team. He confirmed his partnership with Team Prema also for the WEC season as well as for Le Mans 24 Hours; along with him, Rui Andrade and RobKub are confirmed too. On his Instagram account, Lou said that his one with RobKub is “a long-term relationship”, a joke which tells a lot about Lou’s relationship with Team Prema and his teammates. They’re the perfect balance between youth and experience, Prema is a glorious team with many successes under its belt and I’m sure they will have great satisfactions this year too.

2023 DAYTONA 24 - A WINTER WEEKEND IN FLORIDA

We have to wait until March 5th for the Formula One season to begin, but it doesn’t mean that there aren’t races in this period. For example, the last one was the Daytona weekend! 

Similarly to what happens with Indy 500, qualifications for this race were held on the previous weekend. Lou and his teammates Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque and Brendon Hartley managed to qualify their Wayne Taylor Racing Acura to P3.

After a week of fun in the heat of Florida, going to theme parks and watching NBA matches, it was the time to play serious. And they did so. 

They managed to end the race in P2, with only 4 seconds of distance from the Meyer Shank Racing Acura driven by Tom Blomqvist, Colin Braun, Simon Pagenaud and Hello Castroneves. Congratulations to all the guys as well as to Acura for its 1-2!

But wait, don’t close the page: Lou, while chilling in Miami Beach, announced that he will spend 2023 ELMS season with Racing Team Turkey, his teammates will be Charlie Eastwood and Salih Yoluc. Maybe I will meet him again in Monza, who knows 😉 

6 HOURS OF BAHRAIN - THE CURTAINS ARE DOWN

Good Sunday afternoon, dear readers! Yesterday, in the heat of the night of Bahrain, the 2022 FIA WEC season came to a close, crowning Séb Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa as World Champions. I’m really happy about these guys I met in Monza back in June, and I send them my congratulations!

Lou and his mates RobKub and Lorenzo, thanks to their perfect strategy, even managed to keep their Prema-branded Oreca in the “podium zone”, but in the very last minutes, unfortunately, they ended up to P5. However, I congratulate them for their amazing season as well for their kindness when I met them in Monza.

So, what will Lou do next year? I hope to discover it 😉 I’m sure he will give all his efforts to do his best, as he always did and always will do!

4 HOURS OF PORTIMAO - TWO-TIME CHAMPIONS

Good evening! How did you spend your weekend? Mine was good, and Lou’s one couldn’t have been better. Yes, he became, for the second year in a row, ELMS Champion! 

Surely this season was unforgettable. Lou and his teammates Ferdinand and Juan-Manuel (who was substituted by Lorenzo Colombo while injured) committed themselves seriously and always raced sportively, fairly. In particular this race was difficult due to the wet track; actually Lou managed perfectly to juggle between the frequent Full Course Yellow and was the first to cross the finish line with the Prema-coloured Oreca. 

Again congratulations guys, hope to see you again on the summit of the podium because you deserve it! The next commitment for Lou will be in Bahrain in November. He will do his best one more time!

PETIT LE MANS (IMSA) - LOU, THE HERO OF TWO WORLDS

We usually say that our Italian National Hero, Giuseppe Garibaldi, was “the Hero of Two Worlds” because he was active both in Italy and Latin America. Well, since now we can say the same about our Lou: after the Petit Le Mans in Road Atlanta, he’s IMSA Champion! Not bad, for a rookie 😉 

Tower Motorsport won the race in the LMP2 Class as well as the two titles for Drivers and Constructors: when the end of the race was getting closer and closer, Lou managed to overtake Juan Pablo Montoya and this made him a Champion.

Congratulations to Lou and his teammates in this American adventure, John and Rui, as well as to Tower Motorsport, who made this dream come true. 

4 HOURS OF SPA FRANCORCHAMPS - THE TITLE IS ABOUT TO COME

Good Sunday evening! Have you spent a good weekend? Lou and his teammates Juan Manuel and Ferdinand for sure had a fantastic weekend, they completed a majestic race with P3. 

It was the first ELMS race for Juan Manuel; it’s fantastic to see him back where he belongs, on a race track. I’m happy to see that he’s building back his career after that horrible crash back in 2019. Ferdinand had a superb start and also managed to overtake three cars before JM’s turn, who was perfectly at ease in his first ELMS experience. Lou even tried to reach the Europol Competition car; despite their P3, they’re getting closer and closer to the title.

Big congratulations to the winners of the races, Hanson, Tappy and Gamble of United Autosport! Next stop: Portimao, in 3 weeks!

6 HOURS OF FUJI - FUJIYAMA IS WATCHING YOU

Finally, the moment came. What am I talking about? The 6 Hours of Fuji, held in one of my favourite countries: Japan! 

Lou landed in Tokyo on Monday and had a lot of fun visiting the crazy capital city of the Land of the Rising Sun. According to his Instagram stories, he visited landmarks such as Akihabara and TeamLab Borderless Museum.

Talking about the race, Japanese fans were very happy to see both the Toyota Hypercars on the highest steps of the podium. Our Prema boys gained P6 in their class and P10 in the general classification; in the first 30 minutes, Lou even managed to bring their Prema-branded Oreca up to P3. Robert and Lorenzo did their best to improve the result, but luck wasn’t so generous to them.

WEC will be back on track in 2 months, with the final 2022 act in Bahrain!