For Habsburg, Racing at Road America Feels Like a Full Circle Moment
Photo: Brandon Badraoui/Lumen Digital Agency/IMSA
By Dennis Krause
From karting to junior formula cars to a variety of sports cars and prototypes, Austria’s Ferdinand Habsburg has raced most of the biggest and well-known circuits in the world - with the exception of Elkhart Lake’s Road America.
This weekend, Habsburg is excited to finally tick that box by competing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s six-hour Motul Sports Car Endurance Grand Prix.
“It's a very different kind of track than I've really ever driven on,” commented Habsburg. “It feels like everybody was raving about this track and this race, and obviously, I've driven it a lot on iRacing and as a kid on video games and stuff like that. So it felt like a very full circle moment because I feel like this track and also (WeatherTech Raceway) Laguna Seca are the ones that you kind of dream of one time driving when you're coming up the ranks, and it's really amazing to be here.
“And the track gives you a lot of challenges. You have these crazy long straights, so you really have to focus on your exits. But it doesn't take any prisoners, so you need to maximize the entries as well because there's a lot of time to be found there. So I think that in the race, it's going to take a really high level of focus to be really perfect every corner, and traffic management is not easy either. So it's like an all-round track. Like you have challenge in every single aspect. Feels quite humid as well, so I think it'll be sort of a challenge with the humidity.”
But Habsburg’s enthusiasm for Elkhart Lake and Road America doesn’t end at the track gates.
“I love the town,” Habsburg added. “I'm staying in a hotel right by the lake, and it's just a really beautiful vibe. There's live music everywhere. It's very beautiful, very taken care of. The track is amazing. I heard that it's a non-profit organization, so every money that they make goes back into the track, and I'm just like, that's a brilliant, brilliant idea of why it's a good way to think about how we should treat our sport. So a lot of nice things.”
Photo: Jake Galstad/Lumen Digital Agency/IMSA
Habsburg will be competing in the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class as the gold-rated driver in the No. 18 Era Motorsport ORECA LMP2-07 with co-drivers Naveen Rao, a bronze-rated driver and Jacob Abel, who’s a silver.
The LMP2 class cars are between the Grand Touring Prototypes (GTP) and the GT classes as far as speed goes. That means in addition to focusing ahead through the windscreen, he’ll also have to keep one eye in his mirrors for faster traffic coming through.
“Exactly,” Habsburg agreed. “I mean, we've had it all year, right? So you're kind of used to it, and also in WEC (World Endurance Championship), I'm used to just focusing forward, so I kind of can know what these guys were feeling, and with the GT’s, you're just kind of trying to not impede them in their race, and then they don't impede you in yours. So it's part of the major fun of endurance racing, the traffic management, and it's a huge part of performance.”
Still young at age 29, Habsburg has already won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMP2 class in 2021. Clearly a career-defining achievement for most racers. But it’s not the only one that he’s most proud of.
Photo by Alpine
“What was big for me was my first WEC win in Hypercar in Fuji (in 2025). It was big for the team because it was the first win for Alpine as a brand and first overall victory in a World Championship race. So that was really special. Plus, of course, they made a big deal about it because it was the 100th WEC race.
“So that one felt really particularly special as well, but you get these kind of wonderful moments where also the reward of the experience of being successful really is big because you get a lot of reward feeling just from driving the damn thing.
“It's amazing to to drive these cars, so being able to get also a really great result was, those kind of things are really special.”
Like most every other young driver starting out, Habsburg admits that he had aspirations of making it to Formula One.
“Yeah, I did. I wanted to go to F1 because it kind of seemed like the natural, highest point that you could get to,” Habsburg explained, “and when I was in Formula Three, I was kind of confronted with a situation of realities of like, okay, you could really take a big risk and a gamble and try to go to Formula Two and see what happens, or you have this opportunity to go to DTM (German Touring Car Championship) where this was at a time when I was driving Formula Three.
“We were the support series to DTM, and they were looking at all of us. And if you were kind of doing well and winning races, you were on their list. And so I ended up choosing DTM, kind of feeling like my true dream was to have this be my career. Where that ends up, you got the glitz and glamor of F1, which is great, but innately, I wanted to be a professional racing driver, and so I was like, you never know what happens in life. You just kind of start taking decisions as they present themselves, and in the end, I'm here.
“I'm loving it. I'm traveling the whole world. I'm doing IMSA. I'm doing WEC, I'm doing ELMS (European Le Mans Series), I'm doing all these different championships in prototypes, these amazing cars.
“Yeah, I'm very grateful to do all these things now.”
Photo by Alpine
Having already won Le Mans, albeit a class win, not overall, what does Habsburg still want to accomplish in his career?
“Good question,” he replied.
Then, after a long pause, Habsburg offered this.
“I don't know. I'd love to accomplish just being the best version of myself, being the most successful version of myself and doing it authentically.
“We all have our own talent. For me, I would love if I can influence people in a good way that makes them feel themselves and whole, whenever I'm managing, dealing with teams, mechanics, engineers, teammates, or in the press, with fans. As racing drivers, we are put in the position of people look up to us, or we are the ones in the spotlight, and it's a privilege. Taking on responsibility to be someone that you'd like to see be in that role. That's the dream, I think.”
If the Habsburg name sounds familiar to you, it’s probably because you were paying attention in your high school or college world history classes.
Habsburg, born Ferdinand Zvonimir Maria Balthus Keith Michael Otto Antal Bahnam Leonhard Habsburg-Lothringe is a direct descendant of the Habsburg dynasty, one of Europe’s most influential royal houses, ruling for over 700 years (roughly 1020-1918). While the dynasty originated in Switzerland, the Habsburgs became the dominant power throughout Central Europe through strategic marriages and politics. They held the Holy Roman Empire throne almost continuously from 1438 to 1806 and created the Austro-Hungarian Empire before it collapsed at the end of World War I. Habsburg’s titles (Archduke Ferdinand) and honorifics are unofficial as Austria abolished all royal titles in 1918.
Given that he is the heir apparent to head the House of Habsburg someday, what was the family reaction when Habsburg informed them he was going to be a racing driver?
“No shock at all,” Habsburg laughed. “They knew me well enough. They were like Ferdinand's a wacky kid. He loves his music. He loves his sports. Very supportive family.
Photo by author
“The wider family, of course… You don't just have to come from a historical family. Anybody who comes from large industry or experiences a long family line, tradition of a certain thing, and you kind of step out of that line, and you go and do your own thing, you experience friction sometimes, but finally when they come and watch, and they see the passion and the effort I put in, and the success, and all the things that go on, they always see that it's right for me.”
As it turns out, Habsburg is no longer the only racer in the family. His sister, Eleanor von Habsburg, is married to former driver Jerome d’Ambrosio.
“They fell in love, but they met on a plane, sitting next to each other. So it was nothing to do with me or racing or anything,” Habsburg chuckled. “It was just like two people sitting on a plane.”
In addition to his love of music and racing, Habsburg is passionate about surfing. It’s one of the reasons he recently moved from Vienna to near Lisbon in Portugal. While the area produces some of the biggest and best waves, Habsburg is well aware of his limitations and hasn’t tried the dangerous Praia do Norte in Nazare, where giant, skyscraper-sized waves break due to a massive underwater canyon.
“No, no. I went to watch, but it's not for me,” he emphasized. “I'm a small wave surfer. I'm a hobby. I'm not even bronze, man. I'm like a, I don't know, I'm like an iRacing surfer. You know what I mean? Like I just, I stick my way. I try to do my best, and I have the best fun ever. If there was a championship for the surfer that has the most fun, I'd always win. If it came to actual ability and talent, I would probably be in the bottom 5% But for me, it's just a way to switch off and enjoy.”
This weekend, Habsburg is switched on and enjoying his full circle moment at Road America.
Dennis Krause has spent decades covering all forms of motorsports, including over 40 Indianapolis 500s, with stints at WIBA Radio, PIT PASS - Radio’s Premier Motorsports Magazine and Motorsports Minute.