Farfus, Gomes Join Dalla Lana’s Aston Martin GTE-Am Entry

Augusto Farfus and Marcos Gomes will join Paul Dalla Lana for the Canadian’s GTE-Am program with Aston Martin in the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship season.

It marks the second core lineup change for the No. 98 Aston Martin Vantage GTE in as many seasons, after Ross Gunn and Darren Turner replaced Dalla Lana’s long-time teammates Mathias Lauda and Pedro Lamy at the start of 2019-20.

Reigning Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli champion Farfus swapped in for Turner at the Spa and 24 Hours of Le Mans rounds last year and is now set for his first full term in the WEC’s pro-am GT category.

Farfus previously represented BMW Team MTEK during the 2018-19 campaign in GTE-Pro before making his Aston Martin debut during the following season.

Stock Car Brasil ace Gomes is set for his first race experience in the Aston Martin GTE but drove a GTE-spec Ferrari for Hub Auto Racing in the most recent Le Mans edition.

That entry was directly linked to the Taiwanese outfit’s 2019-20 Asian Le Mans Series GT class title which had Gomes as the full-season driver.

Dalla Lana’s GTE-Am entry is set to continue receiving technical support from Prodrive, which ran the factory Aston Martin Racing GTE-Pro squad until the end of last season.

It will compete under the NorthWest AMR banner, referring to Aston Martin Racing and the Canadian firm NorthWest Healthcare Properties of which Dalla Lana is the CEO.

“I’ve had great success with Aston Martin Racing over the past nine years and winning the title in 2017 in Bahrain was undoubtedly the highlight,” said Dalla Lana.

“However, I still have unfinished business at Le Mans and I believe we now have the best package of car, team and drivers to emulate 2017 and to secure our first Le Mans title.”

Farfus added that the NorthWest AMR crew is expecting a tough fight in the GTE-Am division, which has expanded to 13 entries for the upcoming season starting on May 1.

“The FIA World Endurance Championship is the pinnacle of sports car racing and a full season is a goal for any driver,” said the double Rolex 24 at Daytona GTLM class winner.

“I really enjoyed driving the Vantage with Paul last year at Spa and Le Mans. Paul is a great teammate, with an absolute passion for his racing and a desire to win, while Marcus has proven just how quick he is.

“The GTE-Am Class this year is going to be the most competitive in the championship and we are going to have to fight for every point.”