Mattia Drudi: "Car Collection has grown a lot over the years, we can fight for wins"

For his fourth season in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS, Mattia Drudi has joined Car Collection Motorsport. After three years with Attempto Racing, the Italian starts his new job with the German Audi squad this weekend in Imola piloting the #12 Tresor by Car Collection Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II – setting his sights for victory.

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Being from Emilia-Romagna himself, the race at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari is homecoming for the Rimini-born Drudi.

“I live one hour from here and I can consider it almost like a home race, since I live in Misano near the circuit,” the Audi works driver says.

“Imola is a historic track and here I won my first race in 2014 with a Formula 4. It is a very difficult and technical track and it will be a great challenge!

“Knowing this track well, where I raced in the past with the F4, Porsche Cup, Italian GT3 in 2019 and in 2020, with the GT World Challenge with Attempto, gives me good vibes.”

Established in 2002, it has only been in recent years that Car Collection has risen to the top ranks in GT racing, gaining the approval of Audi to run as a works team in the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring from 2019 onwards and steadily bringing the fight to the best teams around in GT racing.

Although making his GTWCE debut with the Germans this weekend, it’s not Drudi’s first involvement with Car Collection.

“I started with Car Collection in 2019 in the GT Masters and I can say that over the years they have grown a lot,” the 23-year-old continues.

“In the GT World Challenge, I ran the first seasons with Attempto; this is the first year I race with Car Collection in the GT World Challenge.

“I found a very prepared team. We did a lot of pre-season tests and the whole team is working 110-precent. It’s growing strongly so in my opinion we can fight for the top positions in the championship.”

Preparation is nothing without the right drivers in place. Drudi finds exactly that as he goes into battle alongside Audi ace Christopher Haase and last year’s Italian GT top dog Luca Ghiotto.

“I share the car with Haase, who has great experience with Audi, and with Luca Ghiotto who is relatively new to the GT3 world but is learning well and is already going very fast.

“As a line-up of drivers, we have the qualities to be at the top in the championship.

“The same goes for the team: there are excellent engineers and then the new Audi kit has significantly improved the car.

“Our goal is to reach the top and we will do our best to get to the podium and win races.