Audi Sport has revealed its finalised list of factory drivers for the 2023 customer racing season. The German brand, which will continue to support customers in GT2, GT3, GT4 and TCR competition in 2023, is relying on a mix of experience and youth.
In addition to the 12 established drivers from Audi Sport’s stable named, the brand’s factory roster also includes two new faces, Simon Gachet and Max Hofer.
29-year-old Simon Gachet has been driving the Audi R8 LMS as a customer since 2017. His biggest successes include winning the Silver classification of the 2020 GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup. Last year, the Frenchman won a gold medal for his country at the FIA Motorsport Games.
Max Hofer meanwhile, is also a familiar face at Audi Sport. The 23-year-old Austrian has already shown his talent in the Audi Sport TT Cup and drove an RS 3 LMS in the ADAC TCR Germany. In 2019, he won the junior class in the ADAC GT Masters in an Audi R8 LMS. Last year, he also clinched the title in the GTC Race series with Audi’s GT3 challenger.
While Gachet and Hofer join Audi’s group of works talent, two names are stepping away from their roles with the brand in 2023. Nathanaël Berthon and Kelvin van der Linde no longer part of the team, adding to the list of recent departures from Audi that have coincided with the brand’s LMDh plans being shelved in favour of an F1 programme.
“A big thank you also goes to the two drivers who are no longer part of our squad this year,” says Audi Sport boss Chris Reinke. “Nathanaël Berthon achieved victories for us in the WTCR FIA World Touring Car Cup and made a major contribution to the development of the Audi RS 3 LMS. Kelvin van der Linde has clinched championship titles, 24-hour race victories and many other successes with Audi. Even though he is giving his career a new impetus, we would be happy to see him in the cockpit of an Audi R8 LMS again in the near future for individual programmes or races.”
Beyond that, the 12 returning names on the roster for 2023 are Mattia Drudi, Luca Engstler, Ricardo Feller, Christopher Haase, Pierre Kaffer, Gilles Magnus, Dennis Marschall, Christopher Mies, Patric Niederhauser, Frank Stippler, Frédéric Vervisch and Markus Winkelhock.
“With this driver line-up, we are well positioned for the 2023 season and can support customers with the individual strengths of our drivers in a wide variety of programs,” adds Reinke. “A warm welcome to Simon and Max, who have known our products for a long time. We’ve been watching them for years and are happy to be able to give them these opportunities.”
