Alpine endurance reserve driver Jules Gounon will replace Ferdinand Habsburg for the FIA World Endurance Championship’s 6 Hours of Imola, the French team has confirmed.
Habsburg sustained injuries to his back, specifically fractured lumbar vertebrae in testing at Aragon, and while he’s expected to make a full recovery, he is clearly not yet fit to race the Alpine A424 at Imola this coming weekend. Alpine have not disclosed the reason for the crash.
Gounon is known for his exploits in GT racing. He won the 2017 and 2022 Spa 24 Hours, plus the 2020, 2022 and 2023 Bathurst 12 Hour, and the GTD Pro class of the 2023 Daytona 24 Hours. He’s also a two-time GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup title winner, but Imola will mark his debut in prototype machinery.
The French racer will drive alongside countrymen Paul-Loup Chatin and Charlies Milesi in the #35 Alpine A424. With Habsburg, Chatin and Milesi finished seventh, scoring points on the car’s debut.
Alpine Endurance team principal, Philippe Sinault, said: “Ferdinand will be on our minds. It is a hard blow, but that is part of the life of a team, and everything is in place to ensure that he is with us thanks to modern communication methods.
“We’ve decided to replace him with Jules at Imola. It’s never easy to make your debut in such a context, but Jules was identified, selected and signed to fill this role, even though we never imagined it would happen so early like this.
“He’s fundamentally ready but still has much to learn, even if he has already demonstrated his mastery of several aspects, given his track record in GT. We honed his preparation during our latest tests with his six teammates and then in the simulator to prepare him for all our processes.
“This weekend promises to be extraordinarily instructive for the whole team.”
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