Varrone ‘Not Saying Goodbye’ to Sports Cars Despite F2 Move

Photo: Julien Delfosse/DPPI

Nico Varrone said his new venture into the FIA Formula 2 Championship next year is “for sure not a goodbye” to his sports car racing career, which will continue in multiple facets.

The 24-year-old Argentinean, who has competed full-time in the FIA World Endurance Championship this year in Proton Competition’s Porsche 963, while also being a Corvette Racing factory driver for the three long-distance IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races in GTD Pro, is set to continue his Corvette program, as confirmed earlier this week.

However, Varrone revealed he’s working on other sports car racing outings that don’t clash with the F2 calendar, where he was announced as being part of Van Amersfoort Racing’s lineup for next year.

“I will do the IMSA [endurance] races with Corvette,” he told Sportscar365. “I will still do it with them and I’ll still be around and will be doing some races.

“Because of the calendar I cannot do the full [WEC] season like now but for sure I will be around the paddock, doing some more races, that should be announced soon.

“It will be a busy calendar. I will prioritize F2 next year because of the amount of races and I know I have one shot. That will be the main focus but I will never leave endurance completely.

“This is where I came from. It gave me everything and gave me a career. I’m very thankful for that.”

Varrone, who outside of Formula Renault Argentina competition in his early years and a season of British Formula 3, has built his career in sports car racing, a move back to open-wheel racing presents a rare but unique opportunity that often sees drivers move the other direction.

“It’s good for me and I feel like if I do a good job there, I will represent endurance [racing] as well,” he said. “What we do here would have even more value.

“I think even from that view, I think it’s a really good opportunity and I’ll try do the best I can.

“It’s an opportunity that came now. I’m old for F2 [standards] but I’m still in the young range. There’s also drivers coming like Colton Herta.

“It’s changing a bit from that side. I hope my experience in endurance can help me a bit next year.

“But for sure it’s not a goodbye. I will still be around; we’ll have to see how it goes next year. But I don’t want to close any doors here.”

2024 Post-Season F2 Test Led to Renewed Open-Wheel Opportunity

Varrone said his post-season F2 test at Yas Marina Circuit with AIX Racing last year, helped ignite his debut in the upper-level open-wheel ranks.

It was at that test where he impressively set the second-fastest time in the final session.

“First of all, without this, last year with the test how it went, there was people interested,” said Varrone.

“In Argentina there were a lot of sponsors interested. So that’s why they put the money and they backed the test, the one day in Abu Dhabi, which went really well, actually. That was a really positive thing.

“Then after that test, there was even more people interested in trying to put me [in a seat] for this year. But it was difficult because of the budget and it was really late in how it went, with the post-season test.

“I was not able to find a seat for this year. But we kept in touch with a lot of teams that were interested.

“In May we did a test just in case a seat opens this season, just to be a bit more prepared, with Van Amersfoort. It was also a really good, where they were really happy and we were really happy with them.

“Suddenly there was a moment where everything was calming down and we didn’t think there was a chance.

“In the last month, the opportunity with Van Amersfoort came up. They sent us a proposal and we decided to try to look for opportunities and sponsorship.

“Finally we closed the deal.

“I’m super happy. It will be a new challenge. It’s really good. It was now or never because of my age also. If I didn’t do it now, I wouldn’t do it.

“For sure I’m taking the chance. I like the challenges and to do new stuff in my career. We’ll see how it goes.”

Jamie Klein contributed to this report

Source: Sports Car 365