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! 

4 HOURS OF BARCELONA - BACK 2 SCHOOL, BACK 2 THE WIN

After the summer break, we finally are back on the track! This time the ELMS circus travelled to the sunny and cozy Barcelona, where the 4 Hours of Barcelona was held. And this “back 2 school” weekend couldn’t have been better for Lou, Ferdinand and Lorenzo. Yes, they won.

In the first stint, Ferdinand started P6 and managed to take the lead of the race before giving the seat to Lorenzo, who raced in the second stint and saved the fuel wisely. Finally, Lou raced in the last stint and made a fantastic, perfect job taking the Prema LMP2 car to the win. Congratulation to this fantastic guys, who showed once again their closeness!

And the next adventure? Well, it will be for WEC, and will take place in a country I really love. I let you guess which one is it!

6 HOURS OF MONZA - A NOT-SO-SERIOUS REPORTAGE FROM THE FIELD

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Monza for the WEC 6 Hours! Oh, well, it took place yesterday, but I came back home at around 7:30 PM and I was too tired to write the review. It was my first time attending a WEC race, and I can say it was an unforgettable experience. But let’s start from the beginning.

My dad and me left our house at 7:45 AM and arrived to Monza Circuit at 9:00 AM. I bought the VIP ticket, so I was allowed to enter the paddock, while my dad remained on the tribunes. In the paddock I met some of my friends from Instagram who are into motorsport too, such as Lisa and her husband Davide, Silvia, Jasmine and Deborah. There also were many people from all over the world: Mexican, Polish, Japanese, French, American and many others. It was like travelling all around the world in an only place! 

Then the pit walk with the autograph session started: the most “sieged” drivers were RobKub and Fisico, but there were many other former Formula One drivers such as Paul DiResta, JEV, Kamui Kobayashi, Séb Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Kazuki Nakajima. Lou was very nice and available towards the fans; despite I was wearing a face mask (Covid, here you are again) he recognized me at the first sight and made a big smile. My friends and me succeeded to get many autographs and gadgets!

I watched the race both from the stands with my dad and from the FanZone with my friends. It was full of crashes and yellow flags; the most scary one was when, during the second racing hour, Henrique Chaves lost his Aston Martin’s control and ended up upside down, luckily he was not hurt. Prema Orlen Team ended the race in 9th overall position and 6th in LMP2; Lou had an excellent first stint, he also managed to get the lead of the race after battling with William Owen.

Fun fact: a few minutes before the end of the race, my friends and me managed to shake our hands with Jim Glickenhaus, a movie producer which created an endurance racing team. He’s such a character, he always wears a cowboy hat, you should get to know him 🤠 

The winners of the race were Alpine for the overall classification and Corvette for GT class; my friends and me went under the podium to attend the ceremony, it was fantastic to sing national anthems of France and United States as well as funny (and refreshing!) to be sprayed by champagne.

My first ever WEC experience didn’t disappoint me at all I definitely need to be back next year!

Before saying you goodbye, I post you two of the many pics I took yesterday:

Despite the crowd, I managed to take a pic of Lou’s car 😊

Vicky with Lou himself! He looks surprised, isn’t he?

So, now definitely I have to say you goodbye! 👋🏻 See you at the next post 😉