Optimum Motorsport expands Silverstone 500 line-up with Gilbert and Rueda

The duo, who had previously run under the Altitude Racing by Optimum Motorsport banner towards the latter stages of 2023, re-join the Wakefield-based outfit for this month’s Silverstone 500.

Alongside their full season European commitments in the Michelin Le Mans Cup, Andrew Gilbert and Fran Rueda have signed up to take on British GT’s blue riband event with Optimum Motorsport, jumping back into McLaren machinery for the first time since September last year.

The pairing claimed their first win together last summer in their first venture with Optimum at Circuit Paul Ricard, securing a Pro-Am win in the International GT Open. Gilbert and Rueda now return for this one-off with the same team, competing in the series’ Silver-Am category in the #84 Grenade inspired 720S GT3 Evo livery.

“It’s great to be back with Optimum in the McLaren. It’s been a tough few months training and getting my fitness back to a level that it was prior to an accident I had last year,” said Gilbert.

“Fran and I are super pleased to be doing the Silverstone 500 again this year and with Optimum who we had celebrated a lot of success with before my incident. We claimed the top spot in France so hopefully we can try and replicate that at Silverstone in the coming weeks.”

The action kickstarts next Friday with duo of test sessions ahead of the official practice Saturday morning. Both qualifying (April 27) and the race (April 28) will be shown live on Sky Sports F1 and GT World’s YouTube channel.