Gustavo Menezes flew straight from the Macau Grand Prix to Bahrain to take his place in the #36 Signatech Alpine for day 1 of the four day Dunlop tyre test at Bahrain International Circuit.
The young Californian has been a regular points scorer in the past two seasons of FIA F3 but has become the latest man to take a look at options in sportscar racing.
“The weekend in Macau didn’t go too well.” Gustavo told DSC this evening, “but I flew in this morning to be in the car for the day today.”
“I’ve driven LMPC cars in the US before so the basic chassis is pretty familiar to me but of course the LMP2 car is more refined, more powerful, and with more downforce. The Dunlops are fantastic, a world ahead of the Continentals used in LMPC.
“It’s actually not too far away from my F3 car, of course it’s physically larger and heavier but the performance parameters aren’t too far away so the switch over was fairly straightforward.
“I’m happy with the times so far, and very happy with the team and the car too so now it’s a matter of adding this to a short list of future possibilities.
“It’s clear that the FIA WEC is one of the major success stories in the sport at the moment, I have friends in this paddock who are really happy with the Championship and it is clearly one of my prime options for 2016.”
We’ll hear confirmation of Signatech Alpine’s 2016 plans before the end of the year, believed to involve a return to the FIA WEC with an Oreca 05 Coupe.
