The World Endurance Championship and ACO are today announcing the entries to both the full season and 2018 Le Mans.
Watch the full press conference below:
The World Endurance Championship will see 36 full-season entries. At Le Mans, 60 cars will line-up on the grid, with nine cars in reserve – six LMP2s, three GTE-Am cars. The grid is split between 30 GTs and 30 prototypes across the four classes.
Already confirmed ahead of the announcement were the works Toyotas, with Fernando Alonso replacing Anthony Davidson. He joins Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima in the No 8 TS050 Hybrid, with Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López in the sister car.
Vitaly Petrov and Mikhail Aleshin will race for SMP Racing in its new Dallara-based BR1 LMP1, while Manor will be stepping up to LMP1 with Ginetta with two cars. Returning to LMP1 will be the Gibson-powered Rebellion Racing, fielding Andre Lotterer, Neel Jani, Bruno Senna, Mathias Beche, Gustavo Menezes and Thomas Laurent.
Seven LMP2s will contest the full WEC season, with a 20-strong field at Le Mans. Jackie Chan DC Racing, who almost won the Le Mans 24 Hours outright in 2017, will return with four cars courtesy of its presence in the Asian Le Mans Series.
In GTE, there will be 10 full-season entries, two from each of the manufacturers: Aston Martin, Porsche, BMW, Ferrari and Ford. Le Mans will see seven more, with two Corvettes making the annual trip along with two Porsche and Ford entries from IMSA and a third Ferrari.
Aston Martin and BMW both have new challengers, with Alex Lynn joining Aston Martin with fellow Brits Darren Turner and Jonny Adam, plus Danes Nicki Thiim and Marco Sørensen. Maxime Martin also joins the team.
BMW’s new M8, which made its debut at Daytona, will be driven by Nick Catsburg, Augusto Farfus, António Félix da Costa and Martin Tomczyk, with Tom Blomqvist, Philipp Eng and Alexander Sims also expected to feature.
GTE-Am victors Paul Dalla Lana, Mathias Lauda and Pedro Lamy will defend their title in the #98 Aston Martin V8 Vantage GTE, in a nine-car full-season field, with four additional entires at Le Mans. There will six new Porsches in the GTE-Am field.
In other WEC news, the championship has confirmed it will move the Fuji round to accommodate Fernando Alonso. The race will now take place on October 12-14.
Dr Wolfgang Ulrich has joined the ACO as a special consultant, too.
LMP1
Rebellion Racing (two cars)
Team ByKolles
CEFC TRSM Racing – Ginetta G60-LT-P1 (two cars)
Toyota Gazoo Racing (two cars)
DragonSpeed – BR Engineering BR1 Gibson
SMP Racing – BR Engineering BR1 AER (two cars)
LMP2 (7 Entries)
TDS Racing – Oreca 07
Racing Team Nederland – Dallara P217
DragonSpeed – Oreca 07
Signatech Alpine Matmut – Alpine A470
Jackie Chan DC Racing – Oreca 07 (two cars)
Larbre Competition – Ligier JS P217
Le Mans entries (13 additional)
United Autosports – Ligier JS P217 (two cars)
G-Drive Racing – Oreca 07 (two cars)
SMP Racing – Dallara P217
Jackie Chan DC Racing – Ligier JSP217 (two cars)
Panis Barthez Competition – Ligier JSP217
Algarve Pro Racing – Ligier JSP217
Eurasia Motorsport – Ligier JSP217
Graff-SO24 – Oreca 07
IDEC Sport – Ligier JSP217
Cetilar Villorba Corse – Dallara P217
GTE-Pro (10 Entries)
AF Corse – Ferrari 488 GTE (two cars)
Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Team UK (two cars)
BMW Team MTEK (two cars)
Porsche GT Team (two cars)
Aston Martin Racing (two cars)
Le Mans entries (seven additional)
AF Corse – Ferrari 488 GTE Evo
Corvette Racing (two cars)
Ford Chip Ganassi Team USA (two cars)
Porsche GT Team (two cars)
GTE-Am (9 Entries)
Spirit of Race – Ferrari 488 GTE
Project 1 – Porsche 911 RSR
Clearwater Racing – Ferrari 488 GTE
MR Racing – Ferrari 488 GTE
Dempsey Proton Racing – Porsche 911 RSR
Gulf Racing – Porsche 911 RSR
Proton Competition – Porsche 911 RSR
TF Sport – Aston Martin Vantage GTE
Aston Martin Racing – Aston Martin Vantage GTE
Le Mans entries (four additional)
Ebimotors – Porsche 911 RSR
Keating Motorsports – Ferrari 488 GTE
JMW Motorsport – Ferrari 488 GTE
Proton Competition – POrsche 911 RSR
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