DragonSpeed will replace full season FIA World Endurance Championship driver Renger van der Zande with Pietro Fittipaldi for the two rounds that clash with the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
After it was announced that Fernando Alonso would be joining Toyota Gazoo Racing for the full WEC 2018/19 ‘Super Season’, organisers moved the 6 Hours of Fuji so that the Spaniard would not miss the race that clashed with the United States Grand Prix.
The Fuji date move put the WEC race back on the same weekend as the IMSA’s Petit Le Mans, meaning that some drivers would be forced to miss the penultimate round of the 2018 season.
There was already a scheduled clash at the opening round of the WEC ‘Super Season’ to contend with, leaving teams with the task of filling a race seat on two weekends.
DragonSpeed have confirmed that Fittipaldi will take the third seat in their car for these two rounds of the WEC, as their recently confirmed full-season driver Van der Zande has to oblige to IMSA commitments.
Fittipaldi won the World Series Formula V8 3.5 championship in its final year last year and earned himself a day of testing in the Porsche LMP1 Team 919 Hybrid at the rookie test after the 2017 6 Hours of Bahrain.
He will share driving duties with DragonSpeed’s two full season drivers Henrik Hedman and Ben Hanley.
