The driver line-up for the 24 Hours of Le Mans has been announced today – minus one driver.
Among the works teams in LMP1 there are no surprises. Porsche enters Jani/Lotterer/Tandy plus Bernhard/Bamber/Hartley just like in the FIA WEC. Toyota Gazoo Racing has Conway/Kobayashi/Sarrazin, Davidson/Buemi/Nakajima and Kunimoto/Lapierre/Lopez. ByKolles Racing Team will start with Webb/Kraihamer/Rossiter just like they have had for the first two rounds of the FIA WEC. There are a total of 6 cars in LMP1.
It is far between the surprises in LMP2. G-Drive Racing #22 has Jose Gutierrez in the car instead of Leo Roussel, who’s in their usual ELMS driver line-up. There are a whooping 25 car grid in the LMP2 category.
GTE Pro have 13 well-known cars entered, with a good mix of Ferrari, Porsche, Ford, Corvette, and Aston Martin. The category has a tire war between Michelin, who delivered to all teams except Aston Martin Racing, who runs on Dunlop. So it will be exciting to see who will have the upper hand this year, or if they will be equal.
Photo: JJ Media
There are 16 GTE Am cars entered, where there is a much more intense tire war than in the Pro category. 10 teams have chosen Michelin, while 6 cars are on Dunlop tires. It’s the 3 Aston Martin and 3 Porsche cars who have chosen the British brand over the French. The only available seat in the field is in this category. Proton Competition #88 has only announced Nick Yelloly and Stephane Lemeret in their car, so they will need a third driver. It is pretty clear that the team should bring €1000 notes in their pocket when travelling to France, since all drivers had to be announced to the ACO before May 11th – and the usual fine for last-minute announcements is a thousand Euros.
We still have one car on the reserve list, where Mentos-Proton Racing #94 is the sole car. It’s unlikely for them to get an entry for the race, since the 60 cars looks pretty set. No cars have any damages after racing, so they should all be ready for June 4th, where the test day will be held.
The whole class of 60 cars can be found here
