Yahoo Autos FE/WEC clash forces van der Linde to miss Spa
FIA WEC LMGT3 team AKKODIS ASP Team Lexus has announced that driver Kelvin van der Linde will miss the race at Spa-Francorchamps next month. The South African has been called up to race with ABT Cupra in the Formula E race in Berlin, which clashes with the Spa round. Though there is no official confirmation yet, the most likely scenario is that Toyota Gazoo Racing reserve driver Ritomo Miyata will take his place.
Miyata, a Super Formula and GT champion, is on-site in Imola for this weekend’s WEC race as part of his TGR role, fresh from winning the ELMS season opener in Barcelona last weekend with Cool Racing.
Van der Linde will take the place of Nico Mueller in the Cupra team for two races. This frees up Mueller to compete with Peugeot in Hypercar.
“Nico is in extremely strong form at the moment, so of course it hurts a bit to be without him for two races. However, we don’t want to put any obstacles in the way of his parallel commitment to the WEC and have therefore given him the official go-ahead,” said ABT CEO and team principal Thomas Biermaier. “With Kelvin, we are in the fortunate position of having a driver who is familiar with Formula E, our team and the current generation of the race car and who has already completed three races for us — we are all looking forward to another weekend together.”
For its part, Peugeot has confirmed to RACER that with Mueller set to prioritize WEC over his Formula E commitments with Cupra, Peugeot has four drivers available and has opted to run at Spa with two drivers in each car.
The Spa clash for Formula E affects several drivers in the FIA WEC Hypercar ranks. Stoffel Vandoorne and Jean-Eric Vergne will both race for DS Penske’s Formula E team in Berlin. It has opted not to utilize its reserve driver, 20-year-old Dane Malthe Jakobsen. Other drivers who compete in Formula E and WEC include Sebastien Buemi, Robin Frijns, Nyck de Vries and Edoardo Mortara.
