A New Great Dane! Introducing… Nicklas Nielsen

The rapid Dane has joined forces with Francois Perrodo and Emmanuel Collard this season in the No.83 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE EVO and took a memorable debut victory in the LMGTE Am class at Silverstone. Nielsen was also an ELMS GTE champion with Luzich Racing this season and was awarded “ELMS Rookie of the year".

This has been followed up by a further podium with third at Fuji and then a solid fourth position last time out at the recent 4 Hours of Shanghai. 

The results are currently matching the ambition for the 2018 Ferrari Challenge Europe champion who, like many of his contemporaries, started out in single-seaters in the Formula 4 series.

“I think that we can be very happy with the first races of the season,” summarised Nielsen.

“It is really, really tough out there in LMGTE Am this season but I think that this is good. When your competition is very fast and there are lots of experienced guys around you then it brings out your best skills.

“For me it is a very god platform for the future and I am making sure that I’m really soaking everything up and learning as much as I can.”

Nielsen has some experience of the next venue on the WEC Season 8 calendar – the Bahrain International Circuit.

“I did the GT Nations Cup in Bahrain there last year and we had a good weekend and I got a nice feeling for the track.  I think myself and the team will head there with a lot of confidence,” he says.

“The tyres will be interesting to see how everyone handles the management aspect and the extra hours of driving in the daylight plus the higher temperatures compared to previous years.

“The braking is also critical there and with higher temperatures again there will be more wear for sure.”

So, is there another Great Dane on the horizon? One to follow in the big footsteps of Tom Kristensen, Nicki Thiim, Michael Christensen and Jan Magnussen?

“It is always nice to see the other Danish guys in the paddock and I know Michael which is nice,” he says.

“It is really special that for quite a small country we have a lot of good Danish drivers and they are always popular with the fans too.”

Nielsen will also take part in the upcoming WEC rookie test in Bahrain on Sunday 15 December, more information about the test can be found HERE.