G-Drive Racing have the first two drivers signed for the 2019 season.
It comes to no surprise that Roman Rusinov is back in the orange #26, while the team also have extended with Jean-Eric Vergne.
Rusinov has been synonymous with G-Drive Racing since 2013, brings a lot of Russian sponsors to the programme. He is the defending European Le Mans Series LMP2 Champion, which he won alongside Andrea Pizzitola.
Jean-Eric Vergne is the defending ABB FIA Formula E Champion, and finished second in the ELMS. How can that be, when he shared the car with Rusinov and Pizzitola? Well, Vergne missed the opening round at Paul Ricard due to clashing Formula E commitments in Rome on the same weekend.
The team hasn’t announced if they are going for ELMS again, or if they will come back to the FIA WEC. It hasn’t been announced either if they continue with TDS Racing, who has run their programme in 2017 and 2018. G-Drive Racing is just a title sponsor, that the team will get attached along with the orange colours. Teams like JOTA Sport, OAK Racing and ADR-Delta have run as G-Drive Racing in the past, just like Graff did with their second ELMS #40 entry in 2018, and DragonSpeed did with their #22 entry in 2017, even though Rusinov wasn’t in the car.
If the team opts to race in the ELMS 2019, Vergne will have the same issue again, since the dates between the opening race in ELMS and Formula E in Rome will clash again.
The team will have to find a new third driver, to be able to continue racing in the LMP2 category, since Andrea Pizzitola has been upgraded to Gold ranked driver in 2019. That is, if the team wants to continue in LMP2…