Spanish driver David Vidales will be back behind the wheel of his AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 this weekend for the second round of the Italian Endurance GT Championship at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza north of Milan.
The three-hour race on Sunday will be the second of four appointments this year for MIM-contracted Vidales who, together with his teammates Ibrahim Badawi from Egypt and Italian Leonardo Colavita finished fifth overall and third in the GT3 Pro-Am category in the opening round at Misano World Circuit over one month ago.
Once again the aim of the multi-national trio of official AF Corse drivers will be to get into the fight for the top positions amongst the 41-strong entry with their chief rivals, round 1 winners Mazzola/Rauer/Cazzaniga (Audi R8 LMS), the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2s and the BMW Italia M4 GT3s.
Vidales declares himself to be optimistic about the potential of the Ferrari 296 GT3 around the legendary Temple of Speed circuit, albeit admitting that one handicap could be the Italian car’s top speed deficit against the opposition.
“I can’t wait to jump into the car on Friday, it’s been a while since the last time so I’m looking forward to it,” declared David. “Monza is actually the only track from the calendar I’ve raced before in the GT car so for sure some of the information from last year will be useful, and also for my teammates, the settings with the car, the race in itself, so I think it’s going to be a good weekend. Monza is also a track that I know already from Formula Regional and F3 and last year and I enjoy driving there as well. And I’m also expecting a lot of people and crowds, usually the environment is special, so it’s always nice to go there with the fans and the racing as well. Let’s see how it goes, because usually in high-speed tracks with a lot of straights we struggle a bit more because our top speed is not our strongest point so it’s going to be interesting to see our Ferrari compared to the Lamborghini, BMW and other brands. Hopefully we can fight for the category win and I think we have the package and the potential to fight for the overall win as well. Let’s do our best and keep pushing!”
The weekend schedule sees two Free Practice sessions for the GT cars on Friday, with Qualifying at 1600 on Saturday, The three-hour endurance race gets the green light at 1430 on Sunday.
