Wins bring (Four) Rings: Success in WTCR earns Audi Sport customer racing opportunities for Engstler

Young stars Luca Engstler and Gilles Magnus have been rewarded for their achievements in the 2021 – WTCR FIA World Touring Car Cup by being signed up to Audi Sport customer racing’s official driver squad for 2022. Engstler won the FIA WTCR Junior Driver Title in a Hyundai Elantra N TCR, while Magnus scored a breakthrough outright WTCR race victory as well as claiming the WTCR Trophy for Audi-powered Comtoyou Racing.

They join GT champion and fellow newcomer Ricardo Feller in the Audi Sport customer racing squad – which includes WTCR race winners Nathanaël Berthon and Frédéric Vervisch – although their precise programmes for 2022 have yet to be announced. “We’ve rejuvenated our line-up once again and are ideally positioned for all challenges in GT3 racing as well as WTCR touring car racing,” said Chris Reinke, Head of Audi Sport customer racing.

“From young talents to established names, we have a promising mix of international drivers especially in the customer programs but also for all tasks in strategic races.” Engstler from Germany’s Allgäu region, has six TCR titles to his name at the age of 21, while Magnus, who turned 22 last August, joined the WTCR grid in 2020 with support from the Belgian ASN-run RACB National Team initiative. A frontrunner from the off, he won the initial selection for a TCR Europe drive in 2019 at Audi in Neuburg an der Donau in December 2018.

His victory at WTCR Race of Hungary in 2021 was the first by an independent racer in Audi’s second-generation R3 LMS. The 2022 WTCR – FIA World Touring Car Cup is due to get underway at WTCR Race of Czech Republic, held at Autodrom Most, from April 9-10.