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The South African-born driver will replace regular driver Mueller for Rounds 9 & 10 of the season on 11 & 12 May, with the Swiss competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship that same weekend. Van der Linde is the team's Reserve and Simulator driver impressed in three Formula E races at the beginning of Season 9 while Robin Frijns recovered from a hand injury sustained in Mexico City.
“Nico is in extremely strong form at the moment, so of course it hurts a bit to be without him for two races. However, we don’t want to put any obstacles in the way of his parallel commitment to the WEC and have therefore given him the official go-ahead,” says ABT CEO and Team Principal Thomas Biermaier.
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“With Kelvin we are in the fortunate position of having a driver who is familiar with Formula E, our team and the current generation of the racecar and who has already completed three races for us – we are all looking forward to another weekend together.”
After van der Linde’s appearance in the ABT Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 on the fabled Nordschleife of the Nuerburgring, he will contest two weekends in the DTM before the Formula E event in Berlin. This means that within a month he will be competing in all three motorsport categories in which ABT Sportsline is involved.
“I am really looking forward to my comeback in Formula E, especially to the many fans and the special location in Berlin,” says van der Linde. “I’ve already spent many hours in the simulator with the team and been to the Formula E events, but of course it’s something completely different to drive myself.
"My goal is to play my part in the team’s upward trend. And maybe we’ll even pull off a little surprise.” He is relaxed about switching from one cockpit to another: “It's exciting few weeks with commitments in a variety of cars and championships – but that’s exactly how I want it to be as a racer.”