Armaan Ebrahim confirmed for FIA GT1 World Championship

Young Indian racing sensation Armaan Ebrahim has become the first Indian driver to be confirmed for the FIA GT1 World Championship. He has finalised a full one-year term contract with BMW Sports trophy-GT1 India team in the series.

Armaan will team up with Italian driver Matteo Cressoni to drive the BMW Z4 GT1 car, which has a power output of approximately 558PS. The GT1 World Series is a prestigious annual Touring Car Series in which manufacturers like Audi, Aston Martin, BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, Ford, Mercedes and Porsche participate. 

Shifting from Formula cars to GT cars for the very first time Armaan said, “Moving from Formula Cars to GT Cars will be a new challenge though I had a taste of it in Moscow last year. The GT 1 World Series looks impressive and I like the way SRO runs the whole Series.”

Armaan has had his first taste of the GT1 series last year when he raced with Sun Red for a one-off race in Moscow in a Ford GT40 and managed collecting points for the team. Incidentally his team mate Matteo has also raced with Sun Red team last year and has vast experience in GT racing. Matteo will be classified as the ‘gold driver’ while Armaan will be classified as the ‘silver driver’ in the BMW Sports Trophy-GT1 India team.

Together they will be targeting the Pro Am Title which is based on the points earned in the series. Looking forward to the series he said, “Driving under the Team India and BMW Sports Brand will surely be exciting as for one, I was a BMW Motorsport Scholarship winner when I raced in the Formula BMW Championship and it is good to be associated with BMW again. In addition, if we can put Team India on the Podium it will be absolutely great for India.”

Also competing in the championship will be rally legend Sebastian Loeb who will be floating his own team called Sebastian Loeb Racing which will field two McLaren MP4-12C GT3 cars, and Formula 1 drivers Riccardo Zonta and Bruno Senna who will be representing a Brazilian team on the grid. 

The FIA GT1 World Championship will have six rounds with five rounds in Europe namely France, Belgium, Netherlands, Slovakia, and Spain and the final round outside Europe in the Middle East. The first race of the championship will be held on April 1, 2013, in France at the Circuit Paul Armagnac, in Nogaro.