WEC 2016 : Who's racing in GTE

After both LMP classes, let's take a quick look at the GTE classes in the 2016 World Endurance Championship.  2016 marks the return of Ford into endurance racing and the introduction of the brand new, turbo engined Ferrari 488.

GTE-Pro

The GTE-Pro class is all about Ford's return to endurance racing with their stunning new Ford GT. At Daytona last month the GT already showed some impressive pace, but suffered from a few reliability issues. With an impressive driver line-up including Marino Franchitti, Stefan Mücke, Olivier Pla and Andy Priaulx, Ford seems ready to plays its role in the GTE-Pro class this season. 

Not only Ford will enter a completely new car, with the arrival of the turbo charged Ferrari 488 GTE, AF Corse also has a new weapon to tackle the GTE class.    The #51 car will be driven by Gianmari Bruni who will be joined by James Calado, making the switch from the #71 car.  Sam Bird, who won the 2015 LMP2 championship with G-Drive Racing has been recruted by Ferrari as factory driver and will race in the #71 together with Davide Rigon.

Aston Martin Racing launched their GTE challenger last week, a revised V8 Vantage with a fully revised aerodynamic package. In its 12th year of competition, they will field 2 cars in the GTE-Pro class on Dunlop tyres. Darren Turner joins the #95 "Dane Train" this season and will share the car with Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen.  The second V8 Vantage #97 will be occupied by Richie Stanaway; Jonny Adam and Fernando Rees.  

No official Porsche team this year in GTE, as they are focussing on the development of the new 911 RSR which will make its debut in 2017.  Dempsey-Proton Racing will however field a 911 RSR for Richard Lietz, and will have Porsche factory support during the season.

#51 AF Corse - Ferrari 488 GTE - Bruni/Calado

#66 Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK - Ford GT - Franchitti/Mücke

#67 Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK - Ford GT - Pla/Priaulx

#71 AF Corse - Ferrari 458 GTE - Rigon/Bird

#77 Dempsey-Proton Racing - Porsche 911 RSR (2016) - Lietz

#95 Aston Martin Racing - Aston Martin V8 Vantage - Turner/Thiim/Sorensen

#97 Aston Martin Racing - Aston Martin V8 Vantage - Stanaway/Adam/Rees

A very competitive field, but we're still missing the Corvettes in the World Endurance Championship. Having the Corvettes in this class would be a true showcase of the best GT teams racing around the world.  Larbre has been working on an entry in GTE-Pro this year, but at the end it didn't come together. 

GTE-Am

In GTE-Am we're about to see e a battle between 4 constructors with Corvette, Ferrari, Porsche and Aston Martin at the start. 

Larbre Competition returns with its Corvette C7, in what will might be their last season in the Am category.  Plans to enter an car in the Pro class this season came to an end when the team couldn't get a new C7R, but Jacques Leconte and his team are already working hard to be able to enter a Corvette in GTE-Pro next season.  Paolo Ruberti, Pierre Ragues and Yukata Yamagishi have already  been confirmed as drivers for this year.

Aston Martin Racing provides one V8 Vantage for Paul Dalla Lana who teams up again with Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda. 

Hong Kong based KCMG opted not to race in the LMP2 category this season, except for Le Mans where they will defend their title.  They will be in the GTE-Am class however, with a single Porsche 911 RSR, with Porsche support from Proton Racing.  Only one driver confirmed so far : Christian Ried.  Gulf Racing UK will step up from the ELMS championship and field their Porsche 911 RSR, driven by Michael Wainwright, Adam Caroll and Ben Barker.  The third team racing with a 911 RSR is Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing, entering a car for Khaled Al Qubaisi, David Henemeier Hanssen and Pat Long.  No sign of Patrick Dempsey so far this season (too busy with his acting career), although it's not completely ruled out that he might be at one or more race(s) this season. 

AF Corse returns to the Am category with the #83 Ferrari 458 Italia, driven by the same drivers as last year : Francois Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard and Riu Aguas.

#50 Larbre Competition - Corvette C7 - Ragues/Ruberti/Yamagishi
#78 KCMG - Porsche 911 RSR - Ried
#83 AF Corse - Ferrari 458 Italia - Perrodo/Collard/Aguas

#86 Gulf Racing - Porsche 911 RSR - Wainwright/Caroll/Barker

#88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing - Porsche 911 RSR - Al Qubaisi/Henemeier Hansen/Long

#98 Aston Martin Racing - Aston Martin V8 Vantage - Dalla Lana/Lamy/Lauda


Kristof Vermeulen.

WEC 2016 : A look into the LMP1 and LMP2 class

Almost three weeks ago, the entry list for the 2016 World Endurance Championship has been revealed at a press conference in Paris.  With more and more teams presenting their cars and driver line-ups in the past days and weeks, the entry list is now almost complete and ready for the WEC prologue next month at the Paul Ricard track at Le Castellet.

So far, this is what we know about teams and drivers in both prototype classes; LMP1 and LMP2.  Not all drivers have been announced at this moment, and a few cars still have to be revealed,  most of them scheduled at the prologue.

LMP1

After the withdrawal of Nissans's LMP1 project, there will be no changes to the LMP1 field compared to last year.   At Le Mans however, none of the 3 major manufacturers will field a third car (as Audi and Porsche did last year).

Porsche returns to defend its 2015 title with the 919 Hybrid and retains both of their 2015 driver line-ups : defending champions Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber & Brendon Hartley in the #1 and Romain Dumas, Neel Jani & Mark Lieb in the #2. The introduction of the new 919 Hybrid last year was a big success for Porsche winning Le Mans and the WEC title, showing some really fast pace over the season.  The revised and upgraded version of the 919 has already been tested since the end of last season. Expect some major aerodynamic upgrades and a revised engine for 2016. As last year, Porsche will compete in the 8 MJ hybrid class.

Challengers Audi and Toyota both will bring a brand new car on track, hoping to close the gap with Porsche this season. The new Audi R18 was presented last november and has been tested thouroughly since then.  The new LMP1 sees a radical design change with a much more agressive front and what appears to be gullwing doors.  Audi stays faithfull to a diesel powered engine but introduces a new hybrid system, abandoning the flywheel energy storage system in favour of a lithium-ion battery, the technology that's also been used by Porsche last season.  They will also step up to the 6 MJ class instead of the 4 MJ class last year.  No changes in the driver line-ups at Audi for 2016 with Marcel Fässler, Benoit Tréluyer and Andre Lotterer in the #7 and Lucas Di Grassi, Loic Duval and Oliver Jarvis in the #8. 

Toyota Gazoo Racing enters 2 new TS050 Hybrids this year. A brand new car, with new engine and hybrid system.  No more big naturally aspirated V8 in the back of the TS050 but a smaller sized turbo charged engine (V4 or V6 ?). With the introduction of the new engine and a battery energy storage hybrid system, Toyota will also compete in the 8 MJ hybrid class. After the retirement of Alex Wurz (a rather short one, as he raced at the Daytona 24 Hours last month), Kamui Kobayashi will take his place at the #6 car together with Stéphane Sarrazin and Mike Conway.  The line-up of the #5 car will stay the same with Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima.

As last year, we will see 2 privateers entering in LMP1 with Rebellion Racing and byKolles. Rebellion enters 2 R-One's again, powered by the revised AER P60 V6 twin turbo engine.  Rebellion switches from Michelin to Dunlop rubber this year, which sees Dunlop coming back into to the LMP1 class for the first time since 2012.  No change in the driver line-up for 2016; the #12 will be driven by Nicolas Prost, Mathias Beche and Nick Heidfeld; the #13 by Mathéo Tuscher, Dominik Kraihamer and Alexandre Imperatori.

The second team in the privateer class is the Austrian ByKolles Racing, fielding one CLM P1/01 again, also powered by the AER engine.  A new aero package, suspension upgrades and several performance upgrades should make the CLM P1/01 a competitive car for the new season. The #4 entry will be driven by Simon Trummer and Pierre Kaffer.

#1 Porsche Team - Porsche 919 Hybrid - Bernhard/Webber/Hartley

#2 Porsche Team - Porsche 919 Hybrid - Dumas/Jani/Lieb

#4 ByKolles Racing Team - CLMP 1/01 AER - Trummer/Kaffer

#5 Toyota Gazoo Racing - Toyota TS050 Hybrid - Davidson/Buemi/Nakajima

#6 Toyota Gazoo Racing - Toyota TS050 Hybrid - Stéphane Sarrazin/Conway/Kobayashi

#7 Audi Sport Team Joest - Audi R18 - Marcel Fässler/Lotterer/Tréluyer

#8 Audi Sport Team Joest - Audi R18 - Lucas Di Grassi/Duval/Jarvis

#12 Rebellion Racing - Rebellion R-One - AER - Prost/Beche/Heidfeld

#13 Rebellion Racing - Rebellion R-One - AER - Tuscher/Kraihamer/Imperatori

LMP2

The second prototype class, LMP2 has 10 entries for the full WEC season.

Defending champions G-Drive Racing return with an Oreca 05, driven by Roman Rusinov, Nathanaël Berthon and a third to be announced driver (Harry Tincknell ?).  The car will be managed by Jota Sport, which will also run their Gibson 015S in ELMS under G-Drive Racing.  Le Mans winners KCMG will not return to LMP2 in the WEC this season, except for Le Mans. 

After racing in Bahrein in the last race of 2015, SMP Racing returns to the WEC and will field two of their gorgeous BR01/Nissan's, one of them with Nicolas Minassian & Kirill Ladygin in the #27 and former F1 driver Vitaly Petrov with Viktor Shaytar in the #37.  The other two drivers still remain to be announced.

Extreme Speeds Motorsports head into their second season with a Ligier JSP2 in the WEC. After their win at Daytona last month, they might well be big contenders this year.  The ESM headquarters in Europe moved to the OAK facilities at Le Mans this season. 2 new faces in the ESM line-up : Filipe "Pipo" Derani who made an impressive debut at G-Drive Racing last year (and won the Rolex24 this year), and American Christopher Cumming. 

WEC regulars Strakka Racing return with their Gibson 015S, probably with the same driver line-up as last season.  At a certain point it seemed like they might step up to LMP1 in a revised Dome chassis, but it's LMP2 again this season. 

The final team returning to the WEC for its second season in Signatech Alpine, switching their rebadged Oreca 03 chassis for a new Oreca 05 Nissan, rebadged to Alpine A460.  Signatech will also run the Baxi DC Racing entry with a similar car.  2 drivers confirmed so far : Nicolas Lapierre & newcomer Gustavo Menezes who succesfully raced in Formula 3. 

Three new LMP2 teams will enter the WEC this season.  Mexican Ricardo Gonzalez's new founded RGR Sport by Morand will field a Ligier JS/P2 with a stellar driver line-up : Ricardo Gonzalez himself, Bruno Senna and Filipe Albuquerque.  A very ambitious new entry who immediatly wants to fight for the championship and victory at Le Mans.  After John Boot and Graeme Lowdon left the Manor F1 team, their interest went on to the WEC in which they will field an Oreca 05. Their full line-up will be announced ahead of the prologue next month, with right now only Tor Graves confirmed.  The third newcomer in the WEC is Asian Le Mans Series champion DC Racing who will team up with Signatech Alpine and enter an Oreca 05, rebadged to Alpine A460. 2 drivers are already confirmed :  David Cheng and Ho Pin-Tung; the third driver still to be announced.

#26 G-Drive Racing - Oreca 05/Nissan - Rusinov/Berthon

#27 SMP Racing - BR01/Nissan - Nicolas Minassian/Ladygin

#30 Extreme Speed Motorsports - Ligier JSP2/Nissan - Sharp/Brown/Van Overbeek

#31 Extreme Speed Motorsports - Ligier JSP2/Nissan - Dalziel/Derani/Cumming

#35 Baxi DC Racing Alpine - Alpine A460/Nissan - Cheng/Pin-Tung

#36 Signatech Alpine - Alpine A460/Nissan - Menezes/Lapierre

#37 SMP Racing - BR01/Nissan - Petrov/Shaytar

#42 Strakka Racing - Gibson 015S/Nissan - Leventis/Kane/Watts

#43 RGR Sport by Morand - Ligier JSP2/Nissan - Gonzalez/Senna/Albuquerque

#44 Manor - Oreca 05/Nissan - Tor Graves

No sign of Greaves Motorsport unfortunately, who had plans (and were highly expected) to step up to the WEC again with a new Oreca 05, but will stay in the ELMS championship this season with both the Oreca and their Gibson 015S.


Kristof Vermeulen

ELMS grid expands to an impressive 44 cars in 2016

Everyone expected the grid of the European Le Mans Series to boost in 2015, but no one expected a whopping amount of 44 cars. LMP3 takes the major part of entries with 20 cars, but the LMP2 grid also grows to a more than healthy 15 cars.

Photo © Adrenal Media/John Rourke
ELMS Website

The ELMS top category, LMP2, consists of 15 entries this season. Greaves Motorsport at the head of the field, defending their 2015 title with the Gibson 015S and adding a second car, the newly acquiered Oreca05. Greaves will defend their title against all time rivals Jota Sport, now racing under the G-Drive banner with the Gibson 015S and Thiriet by TDS Racings Oreca05. Other teams returning this year are Algarve Pro Racing, Pegasus Racing, Eurasia, Krohn Racing and Murphy Prototypes.

Of the new teams arriving in LMP2, Yves Courage is a name that pops out immediately. Absent from the endurance platform since 2007, Courage returns with a BR01. Race Performance also returns after a sabattical last year and will field their Oreca03 again. Other new teams are American Dragonspeed (Oreca05), SO24!, Panis-Barthez Competition and IDEC Sport Racing (Ligier).

We'll have 5 manufacturers (Oreca, Ligier, Gibson, Morgan and BR01), 2 engine suppliers (Nissan & Judd) and 2 tyre manufacturers (Dunlop & Michelin).  The 15-car field couldn't be more diverse than this.

LMP3 expands beyond expectation in its second season.  Where last year we saw an average of 5 cars, in 2016 no less than 20 LMP3 prototypes will be at the grid for the first race at Silverstone. Rather surprisingly, there's no sign anymore of the Ginetta-Juno car. Team LNT already confirmed not to return to the series, but one or two cars were still expected on the grid. Instead, Ligier provides almost all teams (all but one) with the Ligier JSP3. Only Murphy-3Dimensional.com will race another chassis, being the factory backed team with a Riley-Ave2.

Lots of new teams and names in LMP3 and several teams listing a car in LMP2 and LMP3. Panis-Barthez Competition, Race Perfomance, Murphy Prototypes will run a double program in 2016. Onroak, who stopped their LMP2 program in WEC last year to concentrate on the production of their cars, will field 2 Ligiers, one of them for Mr. Nicolet himself. Another new team is American United Autosports that will field to cars, as will Italian team Eurointernational and French teams Graff Racing & Duquiene Engineering. A few big driver names on the entry list too, with Alex Brundle & Mike Patterson (United Autosports), Nicolas Leutwiler (Race Performance/Asian LMS champion), Jacques Nicolet (OAK Racing) and David Hallyday (Duqueine Engineering).

LMGTE, the only GT class remaining in the European Le Mans Series has 9 entries. Danish Formula Racing will defend their title and pulled Christina Nielsen onboard, the second female driver in ELMS this year. They will race agains 4 other Ferrari's, 2 Aston Martins and 2 Porsches. All familiar faces compared to last season, except for Thiriet by TDS Racing who switched their BMW Z4 for an Aston Martin Vantage V8.  The Beachdean AMR team is a great addition to the field, after their succesfull race at Estoril last year.

There's no GTC category anymore this season in ELMS. The former GTC teams will be able to race in the brand new Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup, for which the entry list will be unveiled at the end of March.

44 cars, 34 teams, 14 nationalities, 3 categories ... what more do you need for an exciting racing season ? After the suprise 60-car entry list at Le Mans, a 44 car entry list in ELMS was a second pleasant surprise today.

The provisional entry list for the 2016 European Le Mans Series can be found here.

Kristof Vermeulen.