Fabio Scherer: Praise after great premiere 🎥
ON THE HILL World championship winners Sébastien Buemi and Neel Jani have already been world endurance champions. Fabio Scherer is aiming to do the same in the LMP2 class in 2021. He received praise for his winning spot car debut in Belgium. Compared to the "old" foxes Buemi and Jani, Fabio Scherer is a greenhorn - at least on the endurance track. At the season opener of the WEC (World Endurance Championship) [...]
Compared to the "old" foxes Buemi and Jani, Fabio Scherer is a greenhorn - at least on the endurance track. But at the season opener of the WEC (World Endurance Championship) at Spa-Francorchamps, the sports car rookie, like the two LMP1 world champions and Le Mans winners, already got the maximum out of the race with first place in the LMP2 class.
Having always had a car to himself in the past (Formula 4, Formula 3 and DTM), the Lucerne native only had to share it with two team partners. Filipe Albuquerque, Phil Hanson and Scherer dominated the 6-hour race on the 7.004km Ardennes Circuit at will.
Everything done right
This gave United Autosports the perfect start to its mission to defend the world championship title. The opponents in the largest class included eleven other teams with a total of 14 Auris, Oreca and Ligier cars, some of which also had strong drivers, with standard Gibson V8 racing engines.
Fabio Scherer: "It's incredible, we did everything right. The joy about this victory is huge. It was already a good feeling in free practice to lead the rankings. But I couldn't believe at that moment that we would be so fast."
Heart palpitations at the driver change
The 21-year-old Swiss took over the cockpit of the Oreca LMP2 in first place after two double stints from his teammates. Scherer then steadily extended his lead over the competition. In retrospect, he admits to having been a bit nervous during the driver change.
Fabio Scherer: "After all, it was my first time and I definitely didn't want to make a mistake. My teammates had done a great job of preparation. It's really fun to work with them. After a few laps, the nervousness faded and I found a good rhythm. I'm really proud of what we achieved."
For Fabio's United Autosports team from the UK, it was the fifth consecutive victory at Spa-Francorchamps. From 2018 to 2020, the Brits won the three ELMS races in Belgium. Last year and now last Saturday they triumphed in the World Endurance Championship.
If you want to know more about the race of the three LMP2 winners and understand English well, you can find out everything from the LMP2 winners' press conference at Spa. Fabio Scherer speaks from 3:30 minutes.
Satisfied team owners
Team co-owner Zak Brown, who also has a say in Formula 1 at McLaren, was not only satisfied with the optimal start to defending the title. He was also particularly pleased with his new Swiss arrival.
Zak Brown: "Fabio had a great weekend, that was really impressive. And Phil and Filipe - what a team! I'm very proud of everyone's performance."
The team boss and co-owner was also full of praise.
Richard Dean: "This was a dream start to the new season. We have a new driver lineup with Fabio, who showed a flawless performance in his first race. I'm convinced he will get even stronger, which will make us even better as a team as the season goes on. This was an impressive performance in every session. I couldn't be more pleased!"
The race continues for Scherer and the other Swiss drivers involved in the 2021 WEC from June 11 to 13 in Portimão (P), where the race will be run over the unusual distance of eight hours.
