Audi prototype driver Filipe Albuquerque placed with Jota in ELMS

The Portuguese, who has moved from Audi's DTM line-up to drive at the Le Mans 24 Hours and Spa World Endurance Championship round in an R18 e-tron quattro, will share Jota's Zytek-Nissan Z11SN LMP2 with Simon Dolan and Harry Tincknell in the five-round ELMS.

Audi Sport boss Wolfgang Ullrich said: "It will give Filipe a better chance of developing more quickly into an endurance sportscar driver by competing in the ELMS and provide him with a solid foundation in a race scenario towards his preparation for his factory LMP programme."

Albuquerque said that he expected to learn a lot with Jota in the ELMS, which kicks off on the support bill of the Silverstone WEC round in April.

"For me, it's perfect to get more experience in endurance racing - it's a win-win situation," he said.

Albuquerque, who already has sportscar experience racing Audi's R8 LMS ultra GT3 contender, will get his first taste of the Zytek in Estoril next week.

He is joining a team with existing links to Audi: Allan McNish helps manage Tincknell and was instrumental in his move from single-seaters to sportscars for 2014.

Ullrich revealed that he also played a role in Audi GT drivers Rene Rast and Laurens Vanthoor's participation in LMP2 at Le Mans with Sebastien Loeb Racing, which has moved from McLaren to Audi machinery for its GT programmes in 2014.

But he stressed that the link-up was not as overt as that with Jota.

"It came up in discussions that there was a chance [for them to drive Loeb's ORECA-Nissan] and it made sense for them to do it - it is good for them to be there," he said.

The deal with Jota means the British team has one seat vacant for Le Mans and an attack on the Spa WEC round when Albuquerque will be on duty in the third R18 together with Oliver Jarvis and Marco Bonanomi.