Young Driver AMR ready for 2014 FIA WEC season

Twelve month ago, the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season opener at Silverstone in England marked the start of a new era for Young Driver AMR as the team entered it’s first season in the WEC as partner team of Aston Martin Racing. The debut of Young Driver AMR was brilliant, as the team scored a victory on their maiden outing in the World Championship. One year later and with a season of experience under it’s belt, in which the Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin Vantage GTE was the quickest car in the GTE-Am class, Young Driver AMR starts into the second season in the FIA WEC at this weekends opening round at Silverstone.

The machinery in the GTE-Am-class might look unchanged for the 2014 season, but on a second look, many details are new. The Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin GTE has been upgraded during the off-season to the latest specification and is now in the same spec to works cars in the Pro-class. Furthermore, due to a rule change, compositions of the three-faced driver crews have to be different this season. Thus, Young Driver AMR starts with a slightly different line up then in the previous season. At Silverstone, reining Porsche Supercup Champion Nicki Thiim will share the Aston Martin sporting number #95 with fellow Dane Kristian Poulsen and David Heinemeier Hansson, who is new to the team.

For the first world championship round, Young Driver AMR has a doubled it’s chances for a victory. Young Driver Christoffer Nygaard will race in a sister Aston Martin Vantage GTE in the GTE-Am class alongside Pedro Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana.

Quotes before the first race of the season:

Jan Struve, team principal Young Driver AMR: „I expect this season to be much more difficult then the previous one. We clearly had the speed last year, but we missed to score points on several occasions. The competition is stronger this season, therefore it will be even more important to score points in every round. We start with a little bit different approach this year, as we learnt a lot from last season. Our goal this season is to be constant, quick and don’t make any mistakes. And if it happens that we will come out on top of the podium, we will certainly be very happy. For the Silverstone round, we lent your Young Driver Christoffer Nygaard to our sister Aston Martin, this will make things even more exciting for us.”

Nicki Thiim: „The first race of the season is always very exciting as there are always a lot of unknowns. I think we have a very competitive package, but the competition will be much fiercer then last season. At some times during the 2013 season, the Aston Martin Vantage was dominating the class. But this season, the competition will be much harder. Due to upgraded cars in the class and new rules about the drivers, is very hard to make a prediction.”

Kristian Poulsen: „Silverstone will be really interesting, I’m very much looking forward to that race. Before the first race there are always a lot of unknowns. During the official test we saw a very strong competition. Ferrari is always very quick and Porsche comes with an all-new car. There are new drivers in the class and we also have some new team members and a new engineer. The race at Silverstone last year showed that we have a very good package for that circuit, so I’m quite optimistic for the first round.”

David Heinemeier Hansson: “It’s been a couple of years since I’ve driven GT cars in top sportscar competition, so my personal goal is simply to reacclimatise with the format. I started racing in GT cars, so it’ll be a welcome back. Just have to get into the swing of things again, and of course, look in the mirror more often then in the LMP2 car that I raced in previous season. But thankfully I’ve already had a chance to test a fair bit in the wonderful Aston Martin Vantage GTE, so I know what to expect, and that the pace is there. Competition in GTE-AM class seems a lot stiffer this year. More cars, great line-ups. This will not be a walk in the park.”

Young Driver AMR