Autosport 2021 Top 50: #35 Filipe Albuquerque

Filipe Albuquerque, once again, garnered success in both prototype codes: he was a multiple race winner in DPi and LMP2 with Wayne Taylor Racing and United Autosports respectively.

He made an immediate impact on his full-time return to IMSA with victory at Daytona – his second – in the WTR Acura.

He and Ricky Taylor couldn’t have come much closer to the title: Taylor was briefly ahead of Felipe Nasr at the penultimate corner of the Road Atlanta finale and, under the pre-2021 points system, they would have only lost the championship on countback.

He started with a bang in the WEC, too. Albuquerque headed the LMP2 times in every session at Spa and starred in the race.

Filipe Albuquerque by the people who pay him

"I'd been trying to get hold of Filipe for a couple of years, but he'd always had contracts in place," says WTR boss Wayne Taylor. "Everyone seems to hiring young drivers, but I wanted someone who knew how to win the big long-distance races. He'd proved he could do that at Daytona with Action Express."

Taylor knew he was getting a team player, but he still marvels at how he and his son, Ricky, work together: "It's amazing to watch them over a race weekend. They drive each other on. Brian Pillar, my technical director, says he wouldn't swap them for any other pairing.

"Filipe tells you how it is. You know when he gives feedback about the car, it's for real. He's not just saying something for the sake of it. And when he doesn't like something, he'll tell you straight."

Albuquerque is highly rated by team bosses on both sides of the Atlantic

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Richard Dean at United Autosports reckons that Albuquerque has the complete armoury required by a modern sportscar professional.

"He's got the pace and is exceptional on new tyres, and then he's consistent, has an ability to save fuel and manage the tyres and doesn't make mistakes," explains Dean. "I can't think of one occasion since he joined us in 2017 when he's crashed one of our cars.

"That's amazing if you think of all the wins and poles he's had. He's putting it all on the line so often, but with a driver like Filipe making a mistake means missing his braking point by a few centimetres rather than a few metres. The mark of a top driver is that their mistakes don't turn into big incidents."

Albuquerque can also swap seamlessly from the different sportscar arenas: "It's not just the car that is different, it's all the sporting regulations. What you can do and when. The differences between WEC and IMSA can catch out even the sharpest driver, but not Filipe."

Dean, like Taylor, believes Albuquerque is a bolt-in professional who is easy to work with.

"I don't need to tell my staff that they've got to work an all-nighter on his car," he says. "They'll do it because it's Filipe's car."