WEC unveils 32-car entry list for 2016
The World Endurance Championship has unveiled its entry list for the 2016 season, consisting of a total of 32 cars across its four classes.
Photo by: Lucien Harmegnies
In the fifth year since the championship's inception in 2012, 19 prototypes - nine in LMP1 and 10 in LMP2 - will be joined by 13 GT cars, with seven entries in GTE-Pro and six in GTE-Am.
The headline LMP1 class features the same nine entries that completed the 2015 season, with the Dunlop-shod ByKolles Racing team again joining fellow privateers Rebellion Racing and the six factory prototypes from Porsche, Audi and Toyota.
In LMP2, SMP Racing's brace of BR01s have been entered for a full season, while a second Signatech Alpine - entered under the 'BAXI DC Racing' banner - and an ORECA from Manor join last year's entries.
As revealed by Motorsport.com, KCMG has withdrawn from the class, while G-Drive Racing is down to a single car as part of its tie-up with JOTA Sport.
GTE entries
Ford Chip Ganassi Racing's pair of all-new GT machines balance out Porsche's withdrawal from the GTE Pro ranks as a factory team, although the German manufacturer will still be represented by the Dempsey Proton team, which steps up from GTE Am.
The Aston Martin works team, meanwhile, drops from three GTE Pro cars to two, keeping the number of class entries at seven, with the British marque entering a sole car in the Am class, down from two in 2015.
Larbre Competition, AF Corse and Abu Dhabi Proton Racing all return from last year, bolstered by KCMG and European Le Mans Series graduates Gulf Racing, although SMP Racing's withdrawal limits the size of the class to just six full-time cars.
Full entry list:
N° | Team | Car | Confirmed drivers |
LMP1 |
|||
1 | Porsche Team | Porsche 919 Hybrid | Timo Bernhard Mark Webber Brendon Hartley |
2 | Porsche Team | Porsche 919 Hybrid | Romain Dumas Neel Jani Marc Lieb |
4 | ByKolles Racing | CLM P1/01 - AER | Simon Trummer |
5 | Toyota Racing | Toyota TS 050 Hybrid | Anthony Davidson Sebastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima |
6 | Toyota Racing | Toyota TS 050 Hybrid |
Stephane Sarrazin Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi |
7 | Audi Sport Team Joest | Audi R18 e-tron quattro |
Andre Lotterer Benoit Treluyer Marcel Fassler |
8 | Audi Sport Team Joest | Audi R18 e-tron quattro |
Lucas di Grassi Loic Duval Oliver Jarvis |
12 | Rebellion Racing | Rebellion R-One - AER | Nicolas Prost |
13 | Rebellion Racing | Rebellion R-One - AER | Matheo Tuscher |
LMP2 |
|||
26 | G-Drive Racing | Oreca 05 - Nissan |
Roman Rusinov Nathanael Berthon |
27 | SMP Racing | BR01 - Nissan |
Nicolas Minassian |
30 | Extreme Speed Motorsports | Ligier JS P2 - Nissan |
Scott Sharp |
31 | Extreme Speed Motorsports | Ligier JS P2 - Nissan |
Ryan Dalziel |
35 | BAXI DC Racing Alpine | Alpine A460 - Nissan |
David Cheng Ho-Pin Tung |
36 | Signatech Alpine | Alpine A460 - Nissan |
Gustavo Menezes |
37 | SMP Racing | BR01 - Nissan |
Vitaly Petrov |
42 | Strakka Racing | Gibson 015S - Nissan |
Nick Leventis |
43 | RGR Sport by Morand | Ligier JS P2 - Nissan |
Ricardo Gonzalez Filipe Albuquerque Bruno Senna |
44 | Manor | ORECA 05 - Nissan |
Tor Graves |
LMGTE Pro |
|||
51 | AF Corse | Ferrari 488 GTE |
Gianmaria Bruni James Calado |
66 | Ford Chip Ganassi Racing | Ford GT | Marino Franchitti |
67 | Ford Chip Ganassi Racing | Ford GT | Olivier Pla |
71 | AF Corse | Ferrari 488 GTE |
Davide Rigon Sam Bird |
77 | Dempsey Proton Racing |
Porsche 911 RSR |
Richard Lietz Michael Christensen |
95 | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin Vantage V8 |
Nicki Thiim |
97 | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin Vantage V8 |
Richie Stanaway |
LMGTE Am |
|||
50 | Larbre Competition | Chevrolet Corvette C7R |
Yutaka Yamagishi Paolo Ruberti Pierre Ragues |
78 | KCMG | Porsche 911 RSR |
Christian Ried |
83 | AF Corse | Ferrari F458 Italia |
Francois Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Rui Aguas |
86 | Gulf Racing | Porsche 911 RSR |
Michael Wainwright |
88 | Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing | Porsche 911 RSR |
Khaled Al Qubaisi |
98 | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin Vantage V8 |
Paul Dalla Lana |
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments