Racing Team Nederland wants to step onto the world scene next year.
The team, founded by Frits van Eerd, has sent in an entry request for the FIA World Endurance Championship 2018/19.
They participated in the European Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans during 2017, and even though it was their debut season, they managed to do quite well.
The team will continue to run with a Dallara P217 Gibson, with hopes of it being more competitive following the updates that they have been allowed to make. The car model was plagued by aerodynamic issues which became clear especially during the second half of the year. The challenges were present at Le Mans too, with being the fastest car down the straights, but lost a lot of time in the corners. Dallara has been allowed to make some changes before the 2018 season, so they hopefully will be right up there with the very dominant ORECA 07 cars.
Photo: JJ Media
No drivers except Frits van Eerd himself, have been announced. Jan Lammers was the full season driver in 2017 with Rubens Barrichello joining in as the third driver.
But there is no guarantee for a FIA WEC ticket, since there are a lot of teams wanting to drive WEC during the 2018/19 season, since the calendar included two 24 Hours Of Le Mans races. That makes the season extremely interesting for teams and drivers, where the most part of the LMP2 and GTE-Am field enters with at least one driver per car paying. That amount of money will of course be higher with two times Le Mans, but could very well outweigh the chance of racing it twice. And when the teams get to Le Mans for the second time, they will know everything in and out, with a perfectly trimmed setup on the car.
If Racing Team Nederland gets their entry, it will be the first Dallara in the FIA WEC. That can very well be a positive in their chances in receiving an entry ticket for the season.
The entry lists for the FIA WEC, Le Mans and the ELMS will be announced on 9 February.
