Augusto Farfus will replace Darren Turner in Aston Martin’s GTE Am line-up for the remainder of the 2019/20 FIA World Endurance Championship.
Turner will step aside from racing duties for the remainder of the year to focus on development for the Valkyrie hypercar, which will go on sale in 2021.
Farfus steps in to partner Paul Dalla Lana and Ross Gunn for the remaining three rounds of the current WEC campaign, which resumes at Spa-Francorchamps in August.
In order to prepare the team ahead of its return to competition, Aston Martin will enter its #98 Vantage GTE into the opening two rounds of the European Le Mans Series.
Dalla Lana will compete alongside ex-WEC team-mate Mathias Lauda and Ross Gunn for the opening round at Le Castellet, before Gunn makes way for Farfus at the second round at Spa-Francorchamps.
“Like all of us, I’ve really missed competing on the track and getting the opportunity to put in extra competitive miles in the ELMS is really exciting,” said Dalla Lana. “I’ve been friends with Augusto [Farfus] for a long time, and we’ve wanted to race together for a while, but it’s only now that a break in his programme has allowed us to do this.
“The ELMS presents a tough challenge and the races are long enough to test our skills and our systems as we prepare to return to WEC.
“And as we look towards Le Mans and the world championship challenge, I think it gives a good chance to fight at the front. It’s going to be fun!”
“This is the longest break from active motorsport that we have ever had at Aston Martin Racing but we’ve used the time wisely to ensure we’re in the strongest possible position to resume the WEC season,” added Aston Martin Racing managing director John Gaw.
“The ELMS is a strong series where we have historically had good success with our partner teams – in fact, works driver Darren Turner won the series with Beechdean AMR back in 2016 – and it presents exactly the kind of challenge we want to refresh our systems ahead of our WEC return.
“Paul has chosen to recruit Augusto Farfus to race with him and we look forward to welcoming him into the team.”
