18-year-old Alessandro Latif is set to race for Greaves Motorsport at Le Mans following a first half to a season full of steps forward for the London based driver.
Latif, who races in the Blancpain Sprint Series alongside Marc Basseng for Phoenix Racing, will race the team’s Zytek-Nissan alongside Michael Munneman and James Winslow.
“Greaves Motorsport has consistently been one of the leading teams in the LM P2 class and has a bundle of experience,” commented Latif who will drive the Zytek for the first time at the Le Mans test day.
“I was close to racing for them at the end of last year in Bahrain but didn’t compete due to financial reasons. I’m desperately hoping that I can attract some funding and support for my maiden Le Mans campaign – it would be nice to think that a British company wants to support a young British driver on the world sportscar ‘stage’.”
This puts the cap on a strong few months for the driver who seems to be becoming something of an Audi specialist. In November he was asked to test the manufacturer’s A4 DTM, and he competed in the first two rounds of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship at Daytona and Sebring for Flying Lizards Motorsport – he finished eighth and fifth at both races respectively.
Latif stated: “Le Mans marks my second 24 hour race after Daytona. My experience is limited but at least I know what to expect in a race of such duration although Le Mans is like no other race – that much I do know!
“This is my biggest race to date and actually the biggest race possible I could ever compete in. Daytona and Sebring were pretty big and special as well but Le Mans is Le Mans – there is literally nothing else like it in the world and it has always been my dream to race there.
“I can remember watching Steve McQueen’s Le Mans film over and over. I’m over the moon to be racing in such a historic race this year.”
