Filipe Albuquerque: “I got a call from the Portuguese President congratulating me!”
The latest episode of WEC Talk is here and this week we explore the highs and the lows of one the most highly-anticipated events in the global motorsport calendar: the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Listen to the full podcast on Spotify HERE or on Apple Podcasts HERE.
The 12th instalment of the official FIA World Endurance Championship podcast starts with a three-way interview with Le Mans’ LMGTE Pro category winners: Aston Martin Racing’s Alex Lynn, Harry Tincknell and Maxime Martin. We also hear from LMP2 category winner Filipe Albuquerque and finish with an interview from Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Technical Director, Pascal Vasselon.
Highlighting the typical busy schedule of a racing driver, Tincknell spoke moments before he boarded a flight at Heathrow while Martin chatted with WEC Talk’s host Martin Haven direct from the Nurburgring.
Lynn credited the reliability and performance of the Aston Martin Vantage AMR in helping the trio triumph at Le Mans. The Briton took up the story: “One thing I really want to stress is that we had less power than what we were given pre-qualifying last year and so the improvement from the car in only 12 months is staggering. That is thanks to a lot of hard work and intelligence from the AMR and Prodrive team. It was an intense race, I can assure you and we drove it to the limit on every lap.”
Next, Haven spoke to United Autosports’ driver Filipe Albuquerque who entered the record books last weekend as the first Portuguese driver to win at Le Mans.
Albuquerque explained: “As a Portuguese driver, winning [Le Mans] is a huge thing. On Monday evening, I even got a call from the Portuguese President congratulating me! He congratulated me for the great success and for winning a trophy Portugal has never won before. It’s just huge for me and for the country... Actually, I can’t understand how Tom Kristensen won it nine times - it’s just so hard!”
In the third and final part of this week’s WEC Talk, Toyota’s Technical Director Pascal Vasselon chatted about the Japanese squad’s third consecutive win at Le Mans and gave an interesting insight into the team’s preparation ahead of next season including updates about the team’s brand-new Hypercar…
Don’t forget to listen HERE and check back in one month’s time (Friday 23 October) when WEC Talk will have more exclusive interviews from drivers and key names from the world of endurance racing.
About WEC Talk
Available on various platforms including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, AudioBoom and Google Podcasts, the WEC’s official podcast promises fans a unique insight into the exhilarating world of sportscars.
With exclusive interviews from drivers, team members, management and legendary figures involved in endurance racing, fans across the world can get their regular sportscars fix by tuning into WEC Talk.
