Double ELMS Champions United Autosports Take Next Step on Endurance Ladder

The UK based American team made their ELMS debut in 2016 entering two cars in the LMP3 category. Alex Brundle, Christian England and Michael Guasch won the first three races of the year, taking two further podium finishes to secure the 2016 team and driver titles.

In 2017 history repeated itself for United Autosports as the team secured the LMP3 driver and team crowns once again. American pairing Sean Rayhall and John Falb took two wins and three further podiums from six starts. The team also entered the LMP2 category for the first time, with Filipe Albuquerque, Hugo de Sadeleer and Will Owen taking two wins, including victory on the teams ELMS LMP2 debut at Silverstone, to finish second in the championship standings.

While the titles eluded the American team in 2018, they still secured two LMP3 and two LMP2 victories from the six races.

While Filipe Albuquerque is already established as one of endurance racing top star drivers, Phil Hanson has followed the new path in endurance, moving from the Michelin Le Mans Cup, where he made his endurance debut in the GT3 Audi LMS, up to LMP3 and then LMP2. 

At Spa-Francorchamps in September 2018 19-year-old Phil Hanson became the youngest driver ever to take an overall ELMS victory.  He followed this up a month later with victory on Filipe Albuquerque’s home track in Portimão.

Phil Hanson: “I came in to motorsport at a late age compared to many drivers. I karted between 2014-2015 and did nine Dunlop Endurance Championship races before switching to sports-prototypes when I was 17-years-old. Two seasons of ELMS and a couple of IMSA races has been a great way to prepare for WEC.”

“ELMS LMP2 last year was incredibly competitive, it is extremely strong and is likely to be like that again this year. So I believe the intensity of ELMS will prepare me well for WEC. I may find WEC to be even tougher when we join the grid at Silverstone in August but it won’t come as a shock to the system because of my ELMS experience.  I believe Le Mans will always be the toughest race for the obvious reasons – the duration, the large varied grid, the circuit itself, day-night-day racing combined with enhanced driver line-ups coming from all different disciplines around the world, just because it’s Le Mans. That said, United finished fourth in LMP2 on its LM24 début in 2017 and scored a podium finish last year.” 

Zak Brown, Team Owner and Chairman, United Autosports: “We are pleased to be able to announce our entry into the 2019/2020 FIA World Endurance Championship. It has been the aim for United Autosports to enter the world championship for a while, but everything needed to fall into place so we could do it at the right time. We feel that now is the right time.  We have developed a great relationship with Phil and Filipe and they make a fantastic pairing. We are still working on the third driver but for now, we are excited for what 2019 brings.”