Nissan to skip Nurburgring WEC round

The move comes after a challenging Le Mans debut for the Japanese manufacturer and mirrors its decision to also skip the first two rounds of the WEC at Silverstone and Spa.

Ongoing problems with the energy recovery system ensured that all three of the team's front-engined GT-R LM NISMO cars had to race on engine power alone during the Le Mans 24 Hours.

The knock-on effects ensured that the Nissan entries struggled significantly on corner speed, although the powerful Nissan V6 3-litre twin turbo petrol engine and the cars' quirky aerodynamic package meant it was among the quickest cars on the Mulsanne straight.

"We won't rush back"

Darren Cox, who is the Global Head of Brand, Marketing & Sales at NISMO, would not specify if the Nissan GT-Rs would return for the following round at Austin in September, or indeed at Nissan’s home event at Fuji Speedway in October.

Speaking to Motorsport.com, Cox said: “We are keeping an open brief on how we get on in the tests, we are certainly not going to rush back. As soon as we are on a better footing we will come back, but no decision has been made yet on the return.”

Shoichi Miyatani, President of NISMO, re-iterated the company’s commitment to the LMP1 program, saying: “We are racers and we want to compete but we also want to be competitive. 

"That is why we have chosen to continue our test programme and prepare the GT-R LM NISMO for the strong competition we face in the World Endurance Championship.

"When you innovate you don’t give up at the first hurdle. We are committed to overcoming this challenge.”

Motorsport.com understands that Nissan will continue with its GT-R concept in the medium term and has discounted a complete design overhaul for 2016.

Ben Bowlby remains the LMP1 Technical Director and recently spearheaded a significant recruitment drive to add to his engineering team in the US.