16-Year-Old Lorenzo Patrese to Drive for Tresor Audi Squad

Car Collection Motorsport and Tresor Racing Team have joined forces for a two-car Audi entry in Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS and signed the 16-year-old son of Grand Prix winner Riccardo Patrese to the driving crew.

Tresor by Car Collection will field a pair of Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo IIs in the Endurance and Sprint Cups, with one entry in the Pro class and the other in Silver Cup.

Italian teenager Lorenzo Patrese forms part of the Silver crew and will link up with Axel Blom and Hugo Valente for the five long-distance races including the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa.

Patrese’s father Riccardo drove a Honda NSX GT3 at Spa in 2018, and also has a total of 256 Formula 1 starts to his name from a Grand Prix career that spanned three decades.

Lorenzo Patrese made his car racing debut last year in the Italian F4 Championship.

“I am extremely honored and excited to start this year,” he said.

“It is going to be a challenge as it is my first year in GT, but with the engineers and the team we will be giving the best. Can’t wait to start!”

This latest Audi customer effort, which is racing under the Italian flag, brings together Ferdinando Geri’s Tresor organization and Peter Schmidt’s Car Collection team, which is returning to GTWC Europe for its first multi-race program in the series since 2018.

The German squad also entered a single Audi into last season’s Paul Ricard 1000km.

Car Collection was the first team to race the updated Evo II Audi when it made a pre-homologation appearance in the 24 Hours of Barcelona last September.

The Evo II product is being rolled out to customers for the 2022 racing season.

“I am extremely happy about this project: a shared vision with Peter Schmidt allowed us to create Tresor by Car Collection,” said Geri.

“Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS is a high-level competition where we will find strong rivals ready to show all our sheer determination.

“Since the beginning of this project, we intended to field some young talents next to experienced drivers and this is why I am proud to welcome Lorenzo Patrese, Axel Blom and Hugo Valente to the team.”

All three drivers are set to make their GTWC Europe debuts. Of note, Valente arrives into GT racing off the back of a four-year break following a touring car career that included stints in the FIA World Touring Car Championship and TCR International.

The drivers for the Tresor by Car Collection Pro entry are yet to be announced.