AF Corse has been toying with the option of having a third Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo on the DTM grid in 2022. after achieving the team title and the drivers’ sub-championship last year. A possibility that beyond the sports implications has always been linked to certain marketing interests, since the main idea was to have a junior driver from Red Bull. An option that has not finished curdling, so AF Corse will compete with two GT3s that will be driven by Nick Cassidy and Felipe Fraga.
Nevertheless, AF Corse continues to consider different options, among other things because Cassidy will miss two or three appointments due to his commitments in Formula E -Portimao collides with the Monaco ePrix and Norisring with the Vancouver ePrix- and in the WEC -Spa coincides with the 6 Hours of Fuji-. In this point, the figure of Sébastien Loeb has emerged as a possibility. In fact, the nine-time WRC championhas participated in a private AF Corse test in Spa in which the team has rolled with three Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo.
A unit painted white under the command of Sébastien Loeb has joined the two Ferraris with the colors of Red Bull and AlphaTauri. The main problem in squaring the circle is that the DTM weekend in Spa also coincides with the Extreme E test in Chile, although yes it would be possible to see Loeb in the events of Portimao and Norisring. Despite his busy schedule with his various programs in the WRC (M-Sport), in Extreme E (X44) and in the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (Prodrive), he could fit in.
The long-term link between Red Bull and Sébastien Loeb makes this option carry more weight, even if the brand has refused to comment on Loeb’s surprise appearance at this AF Corse test in Spa. It also plays in favor of this possibility AF Corse’s goal of having a world-class driver in the project given the impossibility of having any of the Red Bull junior drivers due to the high volume of date clashes between the DTM and the Formula 2 and Formula 3 calendar.
From the promoter of the DTM they will also be very attentive to this movementsince ITR with Gerhard Berger in the lead always try to ‘fish’ for high-level drivers to give the event a greater impact. Sébastien Ogier already competed with Mercedes-AMG in the DTM in 2018while Berger has already dropped that I would be delighted to have Valentino Rossi as a ‘wild card’ this very season now that the Italian has refocused his career on GT3 racing.
Photos: DTM