Gounon to Stand In for Habsburg at Imola

Jules Gounon will make his FIA World Endurance Championship debut with Alpine in this weekend’s 6 Hours of Imola, standing in for the injured Ferdinand Habsburg.

The Andorran GT3 star will pilot the No. 35 Alpine A424 at the second round of the championship, teaming up with Charles Milesi and Paul-Loup Chatin.

Gounon, Alpine’s official reserve driver, has been called up to replace Habsburg after the Austrian suffered fractured lumbar vertebrae in a crash in testing at Motorland Aragon in March.

It will be Gounon’s first competitive outing in a prototype, having built up an extensive track record in GT3 competition as a Mercedes-AMG factory driver.

The 29-year-old was originally set to drive for Climax Racing in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS season opener in Sepang, but it was confirmed on Monday that he will be replaced by Ralf Aron.

“Ferdinand will be on our minds,” said Alpine team principal Philippe Sinault.

“It is a hard blow, but that is part of the life of a team, and everything is in place to ensure that he is with us thanks to modern communication methods.

“We’ve decided to replace him with Jules at Imola. It’s never easy to make your debut in such a context, but Jules was identified, selected and signed to fill this role, even though we never imagined it would happen so early like this.

“He’s fundamentally ready but still has much to learn, even if he has already demonstrated his mastery of several aspects, given his track record in GT.

“We honed his preparation during our latest tests with his six teammates and then in the simulator to prepare him for all our processes.

“This weekend promises to be extraordinarily instructive for the whole team.”