# Audi Sport Shakes Up Driver Teams for 2010 Le Mans Bid



## [email protected] (Apr 9, 2004)

The UK's AutoSport Magazine is reporting today that Audi Sport has made a significant driver change for 2010's two-car 24 Hours of Le Mans campaign. 
Back in December, the squad announced its 2010 plans, centered around a bid for Le Mans and the new Le Mans Intercontinental Cup. Though just two cars are planned for the cup, three new factory R15 TDIs will be on the grid at Le Mans.
According to the AutoSport story, Audi factory drivers Marco Werner, Lucas Luhr and Alexandre Premat will not race for the Audi factory squad this year and Premat is said to be 'focusing on the DTM' where he will continue to race for Audi.
The three will be replaced by Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer. Fassler raced twice for Audi in an R10 TDI back in 2008 and raced for Chevrolet in a Corvette last season. Treluyer was featured on the Pescarolo-run Peugeot last year before a co-driver spectacularly crashed out of the race during the night and Lotterer was one of the rookie drivers at the wheel of a Kolles R10 TDI last year.
How this effects the driver teams remains to be seen. We're guessing Audi's alpha team of Capello, Kristensen and McNish will go unchanged as the trio have great chemistry, nearly unrivaled skill and results to match. 
As per last year's groupings this would leave Mike Rockenfeller and two open seats in one of the other cars and one open seat with the on-loan from Porsche pairing of Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas. Audi could move Rocky over to join Bernhard and Dumas as they've all had history as Porsche works drivers and likely have good chemistry or they could keep some of their R15 Le Mans veterans as anchors on teams with the new additions. We could see an argument for French born Treluyer going with fellow countryman Dumas' car as well for a mostly French lineup.
Lotterer's Team Kolles will also return to Le Mans and contest the Le Mans Intercontinental Cup this year again with two updated Audi R10 TDIs.
More including quotes from the new drivers after the jump.
* Full Story *


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## receptionfades (Aug 19, 2007)

Sad to see Marco Werner & Lucas Luhr and go. Any word on where they will end up?
I wonder what the driver line-up will look like?
Car 1: Capello, Kristensen and McNish
Car 2: Fassler, Lotterer and Treluyer
Car 3: Rockenfeller, Bernhard, and Dumas



_Modified by receptionfades at 11:49 AM 1/28/2010_


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## [email protected] (Apr 9, 2004)

*Re: (receptionfades)*

Looking at the press release that came out, it would seem Rocky will join Timo and Romain and then these three will run together as you've listed.
I wonder too what's up with the other guys.


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## chernaudi (Oct 6, 2006)

*Re: ([email protected])*

Marco and Lucas may've been dropped due to the fact that they're too many drivers for too few cars. Werner and Luhr will likely do testing for Audi, drive R8s in European based series, and will likely serve as reserve drivers for LM/LMIC and any additonal ALMS/LMS races that Audi chooses to do(Audi still may have to do a few more LMS or ALMS events to be classified in the LMIC this year).
Audi also seems to want to bring in some new drivers to supplement and maybe ultimately replace the older drivers on the team when that time comes, so some drivers were gonna have to step aside for this year. Remember, Audi may want to do Le Mans, ALMS, LMIC and maybe LMS in 2011 if the economy is strong enough, and they'll need some new drivers for that, especially if Roman and Timo find work at Porsche.


_Modified by chernaudi at 2:23 PM 1-29-2010_


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## [email protected] (Apr 9, 2004)

*Re: (chernaudi)*

Interesting points. If Porsche were to deliver a P1 under the new rules then there'd be more cars from the group. It'd be interesting to see Porsche+Audi round 2, with Porsche bodywork and a petrol or petrol hybrid engine mounted in an R15 evolution chassis to take advantage of the new corporate family lines. Who knows though.
I've heard two rumors about Lucas from a source in the motorsport field and not associated directly with Audi. One says he wasn't on pace last year and not as fast as he'd been in the past. Another says he was restless and wants to race more and Audi had a very limited schedule last season. We'll see.


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## chernaudi (Oct 6, 2006)

*Re: ([email protected])*

This is interesting-Marshall Pruett from Speed TV.com has made some suggestions why Lucas and Marco have been left out of the LM program as full-fleged drivers(serving as test and reserve drivers) while Rocky has been kept in the program, with the reasoning why Mike has been retained under the Daytona 24 winners' article, while the shuffling of the R15 driver lineups(and maybe a preview of the new guys' performance during the Sebring test and how they stood up against Allan, Dindo, and Rocky) are in it's own article on the same page-and that money may be a minor part of the reason:
http://auto-racing.speedtv.com...9//P2/
I also think that this may also answer the drivers for PLM/LMIC question-expect a McNish/Capello and a Kristensen/Rockenfeller line up if they use two drivers per car.



_Modified by chernaudi at 3:03 AM 2-10-2010_


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## [email protected] (Apr 9, 2004)

*Re: (chernaudi)*

Nice find and good insight. I will run this in our news blog today too.


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## sunjiangyao2011 (Mar 6, 2010)

*Re: Audi Sport Shakes Up Driver Teams for 2010 Le Mans Bid ([email protected])*

I like this car


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