24h Le Mans
This will be Christina Nielsen’s first Le Mans. She will be sharing the Ferrari 458 Italia with Johnny Laursen and Mikkel Mac for Formula Racing. As vice-champion in the GTD class of the American Sportscar Championship in 2015, the 24-year-old Dane knows the ropes in endurance racing and is looking forward to being a Le Mans rookie.
Nielsen comes from a motorsports family. Her father raced at Le Mans, Daytona, Sebring and Nürburgring and she is following in his footsteps.
I think one of the major differences is that there are only going to be three drivers sharing the car here whereas in America for the 24 Hours of Daytona, there are four. We’ve all been working hard to be ready for it and I’m aware that that’s going to be one of the challenges. Physically, it’s tougher. But the good thing about Le Mans is that you have the long straights so you have time to relax. It’s not like Sebring where you’re constantly focussed.
Although Nielsen has never driven the 24 Hours of Le Mans before, she has done her homework and knows what makes it different to other races.
Daytona is a unique circuit for a 24-hour race compared to others because you have a lot of light coming in. Le Mans is going to be dark. But I’ve already raced in the dark at Nürburgring [in 2013 in Farnbacher Racing’s Porsche 991 GT3-R, ed.]. It was definitely a lesson to learn from. It was very wet, very dark and very foggy.
The mandatory ten laps on Test Day weren’t the first that Nielsen had driven on the Circuit de la Sarthe. She took part in the Aston Martin festival in 2015 in the GT3 class and recorded the second fastest lap time (04:04.536). Her best performance on Test Day was 04:03.318. Promising stuff.
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Photo: 24-year-old Christina Nielsen is a Le Mans rookie.
