Realteam Racing will make a huge step up the ladder.
The Swiss team has run in the European Le Mans Series in the LMP3 category so far, but they will make not only one but two levels up.
The team already had a collaboration with TDS Racing, who ran the LMP3 car until now, and will run an LMP2 car in 2021 in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
TDS Racing has got some spare LMP2 capacity after G-Drive Racing has switched to Algarve Pro Racing. TDS Racing is active in FIA WEC anyway, with them running the Racing Team Nederland car too, so they will double their data.
Esteban Garcia will continue as a full-season driver in the car, and will be joined by none other than Norman Nato and Loic Duval. The teammate of Garcia until now, David Droux, will be the reserve driver.
Norman Nato has raced in LMP2 for several seasons, and got the LMP1 opportunity at Rebellion Racing last year. He has a job too at H24, which is developing a Hydrogen prototype, that we previously have seen running demo laps at Le Mans, and in the Michelin Le Mans Cup.
Loic Duval was racing at Audi Sport for several seasons in their LMP1 programme, was won the World Championship in 2013 alongside Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish. When Audi closed their sportscar programme, he switched to DTM, but never really hit the groove there. Other than this WEC programme, he will be racing at Mustang Sampling Cadillac in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. If both schedules remain as they currently are, there might be some troubles brewing later in the year, with a date clash currently between the FIA WEC at Fuji and IMSA in Long Beach. So it might not be so bad to be David Droux. Duval raced LMP2 last year too, running with Algarve Pro Racing in the European Le Mans Series.
The team will aim at the LMP2 Pro/Am Trophy, since Garcia is a Bronze rated driver. That will put him up against Frits van Eerd from Racing Team Nederland, who has the same ranking.
The FIA World Endurance Championship 2021 is scheduled to start in just over two months time at Sebring in the USA.
