FIA GT Championship

Wendlinger and Sharp to race Saleen in FIA GT

© FIA GT

Karl Wendlinger will pursue the 2009 FIA GT Championship title from the wheel of a Ford Saleen! The new project was presented in the luxurious Hilton Prague hotel today.

A quick look at the facts: Wendlinger’s new “provider” is the team of “KplusK Motorsport” based in the Czech Republic, his new “piece of equipment” is a Ford Saleen. The Austrian can however fall back on long-standing relationships too: He will share the cockpit with Scotland’s Ryan Sharp – like he has been doing over the past two years – while Switzerland’s Othmar Welti will remain Karl’s race engineer.

“I really had some very good offers”, Wendlinger says, “but eventually I decided to commit to KplusK Motorsport – because I believe that the environment there is very good and that it suits me ideally. The team is highly motivated and well set-up. That’s why I’m convinced that – even though KplusK is a new FIA GT team – we can be successful immediately.”

Karl is also satisfied with the choice of car: “I always had very high opinion of the Ford Saleen. Our new car is state of the art and certainly competitive.”

The first test sessions in Spain two weeks ago were by all means satisfactory. Karl Wendlinger: “The car proved to be very balanced right away. Moreover we’ve already begun to tweak the setup – to find out how the car reacts to various things.”

Further test days are scheduled before the start of the season in Silverstone at the beginning of May: “The two official FIA GT test days in April at Le Castellet and in Portugal are already set, but we also want to fit in a test in March, although the circuit hasn’t been decided on yet”, Othmar Welti explains.

As far as the championship is concerned Wendlinger is sure that “there will again be a high-quality entry list this year. There are many rumours about new teams and new drivers. That’s why it will again be very important to perform well from the start of the season in order to be able to run up front consistently and avoid non-finishes.”

Besides Wendlinger and Sharp, KplusK Motorsport will enter a second Ford Saleen. The drivers? Adam Lacko (CZE) has already been signed, several drivers are in line for the second spot – but these negotiations are still ongoing.

(FIAGT.com)