Louis joins GPX Racing’s GT World Challenge Europe line-up
Louis has expanded his 2020 racing programme after being recruited to join GPX Racing’s driver line-up for the third round of the GT World Challenge Europe series on 29-30 May.
He will drive the team’s factory-supported Porsche 911 GT3-R for the Endurance Cup round at Circuit Paul Ricard in France and will be team-mate to fellow PRO drivers Romain Dumas and Thomas Preining.
Louis is a member of the GPX Academy and his career has been enthusiastically supported by GP Extreme from when he started karting as a youngster, right up to taking part in his first F1 test with Haas F1 Team.
When GPX Racing, the winners of the 2019 24 Hours of Spa, realised regular driver Dennis Olsen wouldn’t be available for the Paul Ricard race, the squad immediately identified Louis as an able replacement.
“I was really pleased when the team called me up and I’m super grateful to GPX and Frédéric Fatien for putting their trust in me,” Louis said. “This is a great opportunity for me to race in a factory-supported car and I’m determined to help the guys as much as I can.”
Louis got his first taste of the team’s Porsche 911 GT3-R during the GT World Challenge Europe pre-season test at Paul Ricard on Thursday and Friday last week. The 22-year-old completed 40 laps and the car was classified fourth fastest after two days of running.
“It’s been a long time since I drove a GT3 car so it was important to get some good laps in,” Louis explained. “It took a little bit of time to adjust after driving F2 most recently but I thought the test went very well and I was pretty happy with my performance in the end.”
Pierre-Brice Mena, GPX team manager, said: “Bringing Louis into the team makes sense because he has been the first member of the GPX Academy and we’re very proud to welcome him. Frédéric Fatien spotted Louis when he was in karting and has supported his career right up to his Formula 1 test.
“GT racing is not Louis’ priority right now but he is very motivated by this challenge. We’ve wanted to do this project for a long time with Louis but we were waiting to give him the right opportunity in the right car.
“At the Paul Ricard race he will be driving in the right conditions; in a PRO line-up supported by Porsche. As we saw, Louis was very fast straight away at the test. We can’t wait to go back to Paul Ricard and see him race with us.”
After adding a GT World Challenge Europe outing to his programme, Louis will now race across four consecutive weekends in May and June.
As soon as his F2 race in Monaco is finished, he’ll head straight to Paul Ricard for his GPX Racing debut. He’ll then travel to Le Mans for the official pre-24 Hours of Le Mans test, before Baku becomes his next destination for another pair of F2 races. The following weekend he’ll be back in France for his 24 Hours of Le Mans race debut with the Rebellion Racing LMP1 squad.
