Varrone Was ‘Missing’ Endurance Racing Prior to WEC Return

Nico Varrone admitted he was “missing” endurance racing prior to his return to sports cars for this weekend’s Sao Paulo round of the FIA World Endurance Championship when he will make his first outing in a Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R in four months.

Varrone made the surprise switch to FIA Formula 2 this year as his main focus amid renewed interest in single-seaters in his native Argentina following Franco Colapinto’s return to Formula 1.

Alongside his F2 campaign, Varrone did contest the opening two Endurance Cup events of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in a Corvette and is now making a WEC comeback in place of Nicky Catsburg at the wheel of the No. 33 TF Sport Corvette as Catsburg is instead in WeatherTech Championship action at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

The one-off outing means Varrone will reunite with Ben Keating with whom he triumphed in the GTE-Am class of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2023 and has “really good memories and relationship” with.

“Honestly, I was really excited since the first moment [he found out he would be replacing Catsburg] because I love this race track, for me it’s like a home race next to Argentina and we don’t get to race here often, so it was one of the best rounds to be coming in,” Varrone told Sportscar365.

“I was watching Le Mans and was like, ‘Something feels weird, I should be there.'”

Varrone admitted it was strange initially getting to grips with the Corvette again in first practice at Interlagos but was soon back on the pace and is determined to help TF’s LMGT3 title bid.

He added that he is uncertain of his plans moving forward and whether he will get a second season in F2 in order to put everything he has learned into practice, having last competed in single-seaters in BRDC British F3 in 2020 prior to his signing with Van Amersfoort Racing.

“We need to start getting some results now, we’ve had an up and down season and we will see if we continue single-seaters in the future or not but it’s been an awesome experience and I’m learning a lot,” said Varrone.

“It’s really tough, tougher than I thought. The driving side is different, the weekend format is so different and not doing FIA F3 or any of the ladder really hurts.”

Regardless of whether he does spend another season in single-seaters, Varrone reaffirmed that sports car racing is “number one in my heart.”

“I love sports cars — that’s why you see it on my face, I’m really smiling being back here, I’m really enjoying it,” he concluded.

Catsburg’s absence means that Jonny Edgar is now the only driver to have entered each WEC round so far this year in the No. 33 Corvette, after a elbow injury forced Keating onto the sidelines for the opening two events.

Edgar said he was pleased that TF was able to call upon another proven driver to take Catsburg’s place.

“Nico races the car in IMSA and the engineer he works with in IMSA, Tyler [Neff], works on our car here so it’s the same engineer,” Edgar told Sportscar365. “We even use the same seat as his car in IMSA.

“I haven’t had to worry, which is nice. Nico’s been great and his first lap in FP1 he was straight up to speed.

“He hasn’t driven this car since Sebring and he’s obviously been doing all his F2 stuff, which is a very different car, but you wouldn’t know he hadn’t driven it for four months.

“It’s nice to have teammates that you never worry when they jump in, you know they’re going to do a good job.”

Varrone’s best lap across the first two practice sessions at Interlagos was a 1:35.749 in FP2, which was fractionally faster than the time Edgar managed in FP1.