When the 6 Hours of Nürburgring is held in 2 weeks, a well known face will return to the FIA WEC.
Antonio Pizzonia, whose nickname is Jungle Boy, will be piloting the Manor Racing #44 along Tor Graves and James Jakes.
Will Stevens was a part of the driver line-up for the first 2 rounds of the championship, but he drove Le Mans for G-Drive Racing, since Roberto Merhi from #45 took his seat in the #44. The reports have said that Stevens would return to his normal #44 seat after Le Mans, so it’s quite a surprise that Pizzonia’s name suddenly appeared on the red and white ORECA 05 Nissan LMP2 car.
Manor Racing hasn’t come with an explanation so far, but Pizzonia’s name is listed on the official entry list from the FIA WEC organization yesterday.
Photo: JJ Media
Antonio Pizzonia drove Formula 1 for several years. First he raced for Jaguar in 2013, where he was replaced mid-season. Then a few race starts as a reserve driver at Williams BMW in both 2004 and 2005. Since then he has had starts in both Indycar, Champcar and GP2 and other series. In 2013 he had 2 starts for Delta-ADR in FIA WEC in LMP2, before that collaboration ended.
Will Stevens scored a lot of points with a 2nd place finish in LMP2 at Le Mans, and because of that, he is quite good positioned in the championship. But at the moment he is out of seat. Alex Brundle has taken over his Le Mans seat for the rest of the season, but no doubt that Stevens will be knocking on every possible door in LMP2, so he will get a chance to improve and perhaps take a championship medal at the end of the year.
Even though all the drivers in Manor Racing #45 were split between different cars at Le Mans, they are still equal on points, since it was non-score for all 3 drivers, on a disappointing 10th position in the championship.
We will see what the future brings for Will Stevens and if his name will pop-up in another car within the next 2 weeks.
