United Autosports are very fast to announce some of the 2019 programme.
The British-American team will once again enter the European Le Mans, where one of the LMP2 cars will once again be driven by Phil Hanson and Filipe Albuerquerque.
Those two were partners throughout the 2018 season too, and finished off winning the two final rounds at Spa Francorchamps plus the home circuit of Albuerquerque, Portimao in Portugal.
Just like in 2018, there is a small but – that Filipe Albuerquerque can’t be present at the opening round at Paul Ricard, since he has a contract with the Action Express team, and their Mustang Sampling car in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, which trumps all other deals. Hanson was joined by Bruno Senna at the 2018 opening round, but Senna hasn’t been part of the team since spring 2018, while Hanson often has paired up with Paul DI Resta, which he will run together with in the Asian Le Mans Series as well. The team hasn’t announced if it’s going to be the Scott, the Brazilian or a third option joining Hanson, and help him get a good start to the season.
This will be the third season for Albuerquerque at United Autosports, while Phil Hanson will do his only second for the team. He has a third season of experience from the ELMS circuits too, plus the Asian Le Mans Series, where he raced for Tockwith Motorsports in 2017, before signing for the current team ahead of 2018.
Hanson got his Daytona and Le Mans 24 Hours race debuts in 2018, and has often been doing iron man stints in the 2018 ELMS season, driving close to three hours at the time – because, like the team says, he should just get used to it, because that’s what you do at Le Mans…
The European Le Mans Series 2019 starts at Paul Ricard in France on 14 April.