Racing Team Nederland goes for stability

Racing Team Nederland will be aiming at stability for the 2021 season.

This is the first time for the Dutch team to run the exact same drivers, team and car, as they did in the previous season – with a slight modification.

Team owner Frits van Eerd will continue behind the wheel of the ORECA 07 Gibson once again, that once again will be run by TDS Racing, for the second season in a row. This new agreement is for both 2021 and 2022.

Giedo van der Garde will race alongside van Eerd for the fifth year. He has been the only constant since the start of the team. Even van Eerd missed a race in 2019.

Job van Uitert will be upgraded to be a full-season driver in their FIA World Endurance Championship 2021. Van Uitert did replace Nyck de Vries at two races in the 2019/20 season, which he combined with a seat at United Autosports. De Vries won’t be without a job, since he has a contract as a test- and reserve driver (for now) at Toyota Gazoo Racing in the FIA WEC, in addition to his Formula E programme for Mercedes.

Racing Team Nederland #29
Graphics: Racing Team Nederland

Racing Team Nederland will be racing in the new LMP2 Pro-Am category in the FIA WEC, where it’s mandatory to have a Bronze rated driver in the car. The team will battle side by side with “regular” LMP2 teams, but will have their own classification too, amongst other teams with a Bronze rated driver. The team is the only team so far, since the new LMP2 cars were introduced in 2017, to win an LMP2 race in the FIA WEC with a Bronze rated driver in the squad.

The team will run at least one bonus race, other than the six FIA WEC rounds of 2021. The season will start for them at Daytona in January for the 24 hours race at the oval. This will be the first outing at the race for the team, and they are going to use that as a warm-up to the FIA WEC, which is scheduled to start at Sebring in March.

The rules for Daytona states that a fourth driver is mandatory in LMP2, so the team has found a non-Dutch driver. Frenchman Charles Milesi will be running as the Silver ranked driver in the car. Van der Garde is Platinum, van Uitert is Gold, and with van Eerd as Bronze, they need a Silver to have a full line-up. Milesi got his Le Mans debut in 2020 for the Graff team, that he previously raced in LMP3 for.

The car will carry the well-known number 29 in both the FIA WEC and Daytona races, but will run a mildly changed livery – but still with the huge Jumbo writing on the side of the car.

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