Filipe Albuquerque

Filipe Albuquerque
Albuquerque in 2020
Nationality	Portuguese
Born	(1985-06-13) 13 June 1985 (age 39) Coimbra, Portugal
FIA World Endurance Championship career
Debut season	2014
Current team	United Autosports
Racing licence	FIA Platinum
Car number	22
Former teams	Audi Sport Team Joest, Morand Racing, Rebellion Racing
Starts	37
Wins	9
Poles	10
Fastest laps	2
Best finish	1st in 2019–20
Previous series
2011–2013 2009–2010 2007–2009 2007–2008 2007 2006 2005–06 2005 2005	DTM Superstars Series A1 Grand Prix Formula Renault 3.5 Series GP2 Series Formula Renault NEC Formula Renault Eurocup Formula Renault Germany Spanish F3 Championship
Championship titles
2019–20 2020 2017 2006 2006	FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP2 Drivers European Le Mans Series North American Endurance Cup Formula Renault Eurocup Formula Renault NEC
Awards
2006	Red Bull Junior of the Year

Filipe Miguel Delgadinho Albuquerque (born 13 June 1985) is a Portuguese professional racing driver, currently driving an Acura ARX-06 in the IMSA SportsCar Championship for Wayne Taylor Racing, and an Oreca 07 in the FIA World Endurance Championship for United Autosports.^[1] He has claimed a LMP2 class title at the 2019–20 FIA World Endurance Championship, an LMP2 class win at the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans, and overall wins at the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2018 and 2021.

Filipe Albuquerque started his motor racing career in karting in 1993, "I started karting as a joke, but it quickly became more and more serious" Albuquerque recalled, "It's really hard to get sponsorship to go racing. Without Red Bull I would probably be at home studying" he added.^[2] The young Portuguese driver went on to win two national karting titles before moving up to Spanish Formula Three with the help of Red Bull. But later, Albuquerque was moved up to the Formula Renault, "a driver was fired from Red Bull" The Portuguese commented, "and I was told I would do the Renault 2.0-litre race in Zolder."^[2] Albuquerque was the fastest driver for the team during the race and so became the permanent replacement and was also called into the Formula Renault German series.

Albuquerque finished sixth in the Spanish Formula Three championship, fifth in the Formula Renault Eurocup and third in the Formula Renault Germany series, finishing as a highest positioned rookie in all three championships.^[2] In 2006, Albuquerque raced in two championships, the Formula Renault Eurocup championship and the North European Formula Renault championship, where he won the Drivers' title in both series.

For 2007, Albuquerque entered the Formula Renault 3.5 Series championship with the Epsilon Euskadi team, and finished fourth in the drivers' championship. He was also chosen as replacement of Ernesto Viso in the Silverstone round of GP2 Series, following the Venezuelan's accident at Magny-Cours. Albuquerque remained in Formula Renault 3.5 for 2008, but only competed in four races, as he focussed on the A1 Grand Prix series.

Albuquerque made his A1 GP début in the 2007–08 season, replacing João Urbano at A1 Team Portugal mid-season. He finished every race he started in the points, including three podium finishes, and the team finished eleventh in that year's championship. He returned for the 2008–09 season as the team's sole driver, and finished third overall after a campaign which saw him take Portugal's first series win, in China. He was retained for the 2009–10 season, but the series ran into financial trouble and the new season was cancelled before it began.

With his single-seater career prospects looking bleak, Albuquerque moved to Italian GT racing when it became apparent that the A1 GP series had died. He moved to the Italian GT3 Championship for part of the 2009 season, driving an Audi R8 LMS. He also made an appearance at one of the race meetings for the 2009 Superstars Series season, a touring car championship, and finished second in both races, driving an Audi RS4. For 2010, he competed in the Italian GT3 Championship full-time, finishing as joint-runner up in the series with his Audi R8 LMS co-driver Marco Bonanomi, behind champion Gianluca Roda in a Porsche 997 GT3. He also made another Superstars guest appearance for Audi, winning one of the races at his home event, held at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve.

Albuquerque competed in the 2010 Race of Champions event at Düsseldorf. He was partnered with Portuguese countryman Álvaro Parente in the Cup of Nations, where they were knocked out in the group stage. In the individual Champion of Champions competition, however, Albuquerque scored a surprise victory, defeating Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel in the semi-final and multiple World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb in the final.

In 2011, Albuquerque competed in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, driving a 2008-spec Audi A4, also entering the Blancpain Endurance Series in an Audi R8 entered by Belgian team WRT, which finished second overall on the final standings.

In 2013, Albuquerque made his debut in the 24 Hours of Daytona driving an Audi R8 Grand-Am for Alex Job Racing in the GT class. He won the class as part of an Audi 1-2 finish.

In 2014, Albuquerque was no longer racing in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters. He raced in the European Le Mans Series in the LMP2 category and finished as runner up on the drivers' standings. He was also a part of Audi's official team for the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Albuquerque nearly won the 2017 24 Hours of Daytona, leading the final stages of the race before contact with Ricky Taylor caused him to spin out with seven minutes to go; Albuquerque subsequently ran down Taylor on the last lap of the race but was unable to make the pass, losing by 0.671 seconds.^[3]

• FIA WEC (LMP2): Champion (2019–20)
• 24 Hours of Le Mans: LMP2 Winner (2020)
• European Le Mans Series: Champion (2020)
• Race of Champions: Winner (2010)
• Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0: Champion (2006)
• Formula Renault 2.0 NEC: Champion (2006)
• 24 Hours of Daytona: Overall winner (2018 and 2021), GTD Winner (2013)
• Italian GT Championship - GT3: 3rd (2010)
• Blancpain Endurance Series - GT3 Pro Cup : 3rd (2011)
• North American Endurance Cup: Champion (2017)

^† As Albuquerque was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points.

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Co-drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class pos.
2013	Audi Sport Customer Racing/AJR	Oliver Jarvis Edoardo Mortara Dion von Moltke	Audi R8 LMS	GT	678	9th	1st
2014	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Seth Neiman Dion von Moltke Alessandro Latif	Audi R8 LMS	GTD	661	22nd	5th
2015	Starworks Motorsport	Renger van der Zande Mirco Schultis Mike Hedlund Alex Popow	Oreca FLM09-Chevrolet	PC	299	DNF	DNF
2016	Action Express Racing	Christian Fittipaldi João Barbosa Scott Pruett	Chevrolet Corvette DP	P	731	4th	4th
2017	Mustang Sampling Racing	João Barbosa Christian Fittipaldi	Cadillac DPi-V.R	P	659	2nd	2nd
2018	Mustang Sampling Racing	João Barbosa Christian Fittipaldi	Cadillac DPi-V.R	P	808	1st	1st
2019	Mustang Sampling Racing	João Barbosa Christian Fittipaldi	Cadillac DPi-V.R	DPi	573	9th	7th
2020	Whelen Engineering Racing	Mike Conway Pipo Derani Felipe Nasr	Cadillac DPi-V.R	DPi	822	8th	8th
2021	Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05	Ricky Taylor Hélio Castroneves Alexander Rossi	Acura ARX-05	DPi	807	1st	1st
2022	Konica Minolta Acura	Alexander Rossi Will Stevens Ricky Taylor	Acura ARX-05	DPi	761	2nd	2nd
2023	Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport	Louis Delétraz Brendon Hartley Ricky Taylor	Acura ARX-06	GTP	783	2nd	2nd
Source:[4]

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2014	Audi Sport Team Joest	Marco Bonanomi Oliver Jarvis	Audi R18 e-tron quattro	LMP1-H	25	DNF	DNF
2015	Audi Sport Team Joest	Marco Bonanomi René Rast	Audi R18 e-tron quattro	LMP1	387	7th	7th
2016	RGR Sport by Morand	Ricardo González Bruno Senna	Ligier JS P2-Nissan	LMP2	344	14th	10th
2017	United Autosports	Will Owen Hugo de Sadeleer	Ligier JS P217-Gibson	LMP2	362	5th	4th
2018	United Autosports	Phil Hanson Paul di Resta	Ligier JS P217-Gibson	LMP2	288	DNF	DNF
2019	United Autosports	Phil Hanson Paul di Resta	Ligier JS P217-Gibson	LMP2	365	9th	4th
2020	United Autosports	Phil Hanson Paul di Resta	Oreca 07-Gibson	LMP2	370	5th	1st
2021	United Autosports USA	Phil Hanson Fabio Scherer	Oreca 07-Gibson	LMP2	328	40th	18th
2022	United Autosports USA	Phil Hanson Will Owen	Oreca 07-Gibson	LMP2	366	14th	10th
2023	United Autosports	Phil Hanson Frederick Lubin	Oreca 07-Gibson	LMP2	321	21st	11th
2024	United Autosports USA	Ben Hanley Ben Keating	Oreca 07-Gibson	LMP2	272	42nd	13th
				LMP2 Pro-Am			6th
Source:[4][7]

(key)(Races in bold indicate pole position)

^‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Filipe Albuquerque.

• Official website
• Filipe Albuquerque career summary at DriverDB.com