Alex Fontana is ready to begin another GT World Challenge Europe season, the most competitive and prestigious series for GT cars in the world. The weekend of 17-18 April will see the opening round at Monza, the Temple of Speed which for the Swiss driver is something of a second home. Fontana will be driving the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo entered by the Swiss team Emil Frey Racing, marking his return to the outfit following the Silver Cup conquered in the 2018 Endurance trophy.
Alex is very familiar with the GT World Challenge in which he first competed back in 2016 when it was still called the Blancpain GT Series after the title sponsor, but the 2021 edition will be particularly significant and perhaps even more important: for the first time he will be competing in both the Endurance trophy, which includes the legendary Spa 24 Hours, and in the Sprint trophy, in which the weekend events will feature two 60-minute heats.
This year Monza will be reprising its traditional role as the season opener, presenting the first round of the Endurance series with the 3 Hour race scheduled for Sunday afternoon: the versatile Swiss driver will be challenging for the Silver Cup once again, forming with Ricardo Feller and Rolf Ineichen and all-Swiss team ready compete in a field of no less than 44 cars.
The official tests conducted in recent weeks on the Brianza track, at Spa and then at Le Castellet proved to be very productive for Fontana as together with his teammates and the Emil Frey Racing engineers he searched for a base set-up for the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo.
The Monza round will see free practice sessions and pre-qualifying take place on the Saturday, while the qualifying session that will define the grid for the race starting at 3:00 PM will be held at 9:00 AM. Fontana’s weekend will be made all the busier by his participation in the first round of the Fanatec Esports GT Pro Series, the new virtual tournament that will accompany the Endurance events in the GT World Challenge. Alex has been chosen by the Emil Frey Racing team as its go-to driver for the hour-long race scheduled for 6:55 PM following a brief qualifying session.
This is an innovative experiment for motorsport at the international level: the points on offer at the end of the season will be added to the team standings in the Silver Cup. It therefore represents a further opportunity to reach the objectives established at the beginning of the year.
Alex Fontana
"I can’t wait to get started on the GT World Challenge Europe season, for so many reasons: for the first time I’ll be tackling the full programme in the Endurance and Sprint challenges and I’ll be back with the Emil Frey Racing team which I consider to be family. In 2018, against all the odds we won the Silver Cup title together with the old Jaguar XK. Now I’ll be driving one of the most competitive GT3 cars, the Lamborghini Huracán, with which I felt at home from the very first test sessions. A great understanding has also been created with my teammates Ricardo and Rolf, and the fact that this is an all-Swiss outfit is further incentive for us to do well. We’re starting out at Monza, the closest track to home and where we hope to get off on the right foot with a good result. The same is true of the virtual challenge on the Saturday, as we’ll have the opportunity to gain extra points for the real championship. This is a discipline in which I’ve decided to be involved on the front line through the AIDA Pro e-sports project and doing well would be further grounds for satisfaction.”