2020 ELMS LMP2 Champion Filipe Albuquerque returns to compete in the European Le Mans Series finale for the first since his championship winning season five years ago. The Portuguese driver also has a 100% podium finishing record from 2017 to 2020, winning the 4 Hours of Portimao in 2018 with 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Phil Hanson, finishing second in 2017 and 2019 and third in 2020.
This season Albuquerque has returned to the ELMS with Nielsen Racing, racing alongside former champion Ferdinand Habsburg and young Turkish driver Cem Bolukbasi in the no24 Oreca-Gibson. The trio have finished on the podium once this year at Spa-Francorchamps after Habsburg claimed the team’s first ever overall pole position.
While Albuquerque and his teammates are too far behind the leaders to challenge for the 2025 ELMS title, he will be focused on keep up his 100% record on podium finishes for his home race.
We caught up with Filipe Albuquerque to find out how the preparations for the season finale were going. How would he sum up the 2025 season so far?
“How do I sum the year? I would say, constant evolution,” he said. “It’s been a nice job to do with Nielsen and my teammates Cem and Ferdinand, we have been improving the car, the performance of the car. We’re getting more competitive every weekend, and it’s been super enjoyable to see the results evolving and the atmosphere in the team.
“The highlight of the season so far, if I have to pick one, it has to be Spa,” he continued. “We were super competitive the whole weekend, we obviously got pole position, the first pole position for Ferdi and for Nielsen in the series, which was amazing, and finishing with a good performance in the race in third. I think that’s the highlight, but we are still chasing the biggest highlight: winning in Portimao.”
How has Filipe Albuquerque got on with his new teammates this year? “I know Ferdi already from the paddock and racing against him, I knew he’s a nice guy and I am having a blast with him this year. Working together is really nice, he is a very good driver.
“With Cem, I just got to know him this season, and I am super impressed with him, with his performance. He is driving well, improving and learning and showing amazing performance.
“And then, on the personal side which for me is super, super important in endurance, dealing with personalities, you know we spend a lot of time together on the race weekends, it’s just been great. We have a great atmosphere, and it translates to the team. And for me, is one of the key points to have performance as well on the weekend, on the team, is to have everybody happy and on the same page, and when somebody is struggling, to lean on each other for help, and it makes us all better.”
Filipe Albuquerque has a 100% podium record in Portimao, so what makes the circuit so special for him? “Oh, I didn’t know I finished on the podium in all of those four years!” Albuquerque admitted.“For me Portimao, racing at home is obviously great. There is a lot of attention and a lot of pressure for the local boys, even if there’s three Portuguese drivers trying to go for it, for the podium. I think that would be the important thing, to have a Portuguese driver on the podium, obviously I want to win, I want to go on the podium again and keep that streak going.
“The track itself is just so beautiful to drive around, is one of those track that, when you’re driving, testing without anybody you have a blast of a time because of the elevation, the type of corners, you have fast corners, slow corners. It’s just amazing and very different from almost every other circuit in the world. When racing, it makes it complicated. OK, it’s wide and safe, but it’s challenging, especially the last corner. It’s somewhere where I like coming to.”
Does Filipe Albuquerque have a favourite corner or sequence? “I think the Craig Jones corner. I think it’s T8? There’s a hairpin, and when you exit the hairpin you’re literally looking at the sky, then you have a sudden drop and then a fast left flat, into a blind corner going right… even just describing it is complicated. When you are in the car at 250kmh, it’s just amazing, it feels like you’re in Disneyland on one of the rollercoasters but you are in control of your own car; it is really cool.”
With no championship to win, what is the goal for Filipe Albuquerque and Nielsen Racing in the final race of the 2025 season? “The goal, wherever I go to, is always the same: go for the win, do the best you can. Obviously sometimes you don’t have the pace to win but then is to do more than what the car can do. That’s simple. I don’t know if I am going to win, I don’t know if I am going to finish last, but I am going to be doing my best, and the aim is P1!”
