Habsburg concluded an extraordinary 2021 season. He won the Asian Le Mans title, rose to victory in Le Mans 24hrs and claimed the FIA WEC LMP2 title in his first full season in sports cars.
However, the ELMS title is still missing from his tally, so besides his full-season FIA WEC entry with REALTEAM by WRT, the 24-year old Austrian will join Prema Racing for the Italian team’s ELMS debut.
Founded in 1983, Prema Racing became one of the most successful junior single-seater teams in motorsport history. They nurtured the likes of Jacques Villeneuve, Robert Kubica, Valtteri Bottas and Charles Leclerc, amassing 56 championship titles on all levels of the single-seater ladder. For the 2022 season, they join forces with 24H of Spa-winning Italian sports car team Iron Lynx, entering the LMP2 ranks in FIA WEC and ELMS.
Ferdinand reigned supreme with Team WRT in 2021 in the Belgian outfit’s debut season in prototype racing and now joins Prema Racing with the same ambitions.
He will share the #9 Oreca 07 LMP2 car with reigning ELMS champion, Rolex 24 teammate and fellow REMUS Sport Performance Exhausts ambassador Louis Deletraz and American-Ecuadorian junior single-seater talent Juan Manuel Correa.
The six-round championship will visit some of the best tracks in Europe, including Monza and Spa-Francorchamps and the iconic circuit of Imola, where Ferdinand has never raced before.
Ferdinand Habsburg:
“I am grateful to Prema for entrusting me with their new endeavour in endurance racing and trusting that my experience from last year with WRT under similar conditions will help the team succeed in ELMS. I am really looking forward to race alongside two old friends of mine. Big thanks to my partners REMUS Performance Sport Exhaust and AVL Racetech, and to Bullet Sports Management for making it happen.“
The 2022 ELMS season commences on April 11-12 with the Prolouge at the Circuit Paul Ricard in France.
