G-Drive to make WEC return in Bahrain
G-Drive Racing will return to the FIA World Endurance Championship fold at next month’s bonus points round in Bahrain, it has been confirmed.
It will be the first WEC outing for the multiple European Le Mans Series title-winning outfit since this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours, where it finished sixth in the LMP2 class.
The team’s solo Oreca 07 - badged as an Aurus 01 - will be piloted by two-time Formula E champion Jean-Eric Vergne, team owner Roman Rusinov and Job Van Uitert, who raced for fellow TDS Racing-run squad Racing Team Nederland at Silverstone in place of Nyck de Vries.
It brings the LMP2 entry up to nine for the Bahrain race, while the total size of the grid remains at 31 cars as the GTE Am field returns to its usual tally of 10 cars.
The news of G-Drive entering the Bahrain race follows the announcement that it will contest the 2019/20 Asian Le Mans Series season in conjunction with Algarve Pro Racing with an Aurus 01 for Rusinov, Leonard Hoogenboom and James French.
Elsewhere on the Bahrain entry list, Team LNT has yet to confirm its line-up for its two Ginetta G60-LT-P1s, but two-time American Le Mans Series champion Chris Dyson is expected to make his WEC debut with the team after missing the opening three rounds.
It's unclear who Dyson will replace on the Ginetta roster, but Jordan King, Ben Hanley and Egor Orudzhev are all understood to be on race-by-race deals.
Dempsey-Proton Racing has yet to confirm who will join Thomas Preining in the #88 Porsche 911 RSR. In Shanghai, Will Bamber - brother of factory Porsche racer Earl - and Angelo Negro partnered the Austrian driver, giving the car a third different line-up in as many races.
Peugeot will return to Le Mans with new hypercar entry
Opinion: Peugeot news is the shot in the arm WEC needed
Why F1-snubbed Davidson has no regrets in retirement
He may not have won the Le Mans 24 Hours - falling agonisingly short in 2016 - and didn't get the opportunities in Formula 1 his talents merited. But after calling time on his professional career last month, Anthony Davidson says his pride in his performances with Peugeot and Toyota in LMP1 mean more than the results he achieved
Why Le Mans didn't decide Toyota's WEC title outcome in 2021
Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez scored a second successive FIA World Endurance Championship title in the #7 Toyota, as its new Le Mans Hypercar went unbeaten. Motorsport.com recaps how each of the four classes in the 2021 season were won and picks out the best LMH and GTE drivers
The unanswered questions that define WEC 2021's controversial ending
OPINION: The deeply unsatisfying ending to a brilliant World Endurance Championship GTE Pro battle in Bahrain had Ferrari provisionally heading back from the desert as the victor. But Porsche plans to appeal the outcome, which rests on a number of confusing elements that have yet to be satisfactorily explained.
How the WEC's heavyweight duel reached its controversial flashpoint
The Ferrari versus Porsche fight for the FIA World Endurance Championship's GTE Pro title had been a finely-poised affair, right up until Alessandro Pier Guidi's punt on Michael Christensen in the closing stages of the Bahrain 8 Hours handed Ferrari a provisional title, pending Porsche's appeal. Here's how the controversy played out.
The remarkable fixes Toyota used to avert another Le Mans disaster
The 1-2 finish achieved by Toyota at this year's Le Mans 24 Hours was a result that will have surprised few, given its status as pre-event favourite. But the result was anything but straightforward, as worsening fuel pressure concerns required the team's drivers and engineers to pursue "creative fixes" on the fly. Here is the full story of how it reached the end without a lengthy pit visit
The 10 greatest drives of lost legend Jo Siffert
It's 50 years since Jo Siffert was killed in his prime at Brands Hatch. The Swiss scored just two world championship wins in a Formula 1 career spent largely with privateer teams, but showed on numerous occasions in single-seaters and in sportscars with Porsche that he could beat any of the best drivers of his era given the right equipment.
Inside the Le Mans finish too barmy for Hollywood
Team WRT has been at the forefront of GT racing for years and made a successful move to prototypes for 2021, capped by an LMP2 win on its Le Mans debut. It could've been even better had the race been one lap shorter, when its cars ran 1-2, but the stranger-than-fiction reality has spurred the team to reach greater heights.
Why Toyota's Le Mans victory was not as simple as it looked
Toyota scored its fourth Le Mans 24 Hours victory and a 1-2, with the #7 car of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez beating the #8. But although it looked straightforward from the outside, Toyota faced serious problem that had to be solved with some quick-thinking and ingenuity.