The FIA World Endurance Championship will have a thirty-three car entry for the 2021 season.
ACO and LMEM have announced the entry list today, without major surprises, if you have followed the news through the last few weeks.
LMP1 will be replaced by the Hypercar category, where four new LMH cars and one of the old LMP1 cars will compete in 2021. Toyota Gazoo Racing will bring two cars, plus two from Glickenhaus Racing, with Alpine Elf Matmut bringing the old grandfathered LMP1, that they have given the designation Alpine A480 instead of its previous Rebellion R13 name.
Glickenhaus has so far announced Gustavo Menezes to drive one of the cars, while Ryan Briscoe has been hired to race the other.
Alpine Elf Matmut, that previously was known as Signatech Alpine Elf/Matmut, will stick to Andre Negrao, as the so far only announced driver.
The LMP2 category will have eleven cars entered. That is a good mix of teams from previous seasons, with the likes of United Autosports, Racing Team Nederland, JOTA Sport, DragonSpeed and High Class Racing. Add to those, Realteam Racing moving up from LMP3 in the ELMS, and Richard Mille Racing Team that will bring the three females, previously running in the ELMS LMP2. Inter Europol Competition will advance from the ELMS and Asian Le Mans Series, and will run a single car. WRT is a team that we only once before, has seen in ACO racing. That was Spa Francorchamps in 2016, during the ELMS round. They have bought an ORECA 07, like the majority of their LMP2 competitors.
The only team to run a Ligier LMP2 car is ARC Bratislava, that moves up from the Asian Le Mans Series, to the FIA WEC itself.
The GTE Pro category will be a four-car battle between AF Corse and Porsche, entering two cars each. Both teams have switched one of their drivers from 2019/20, and AF Corse has changed car number 71 to 52, for their second car.
Photo: JJ Media
The GTE Am has expanded even more than it already was during the 2019/20 season. We are all the way up to thirteen cars running in the upcoming season.
Ferrari has five cars, Porsche had five cars, and then three Aston Martin cars.
AF Corse enters two Ferrari cars, while Cetilar Racing and Iron Lynx both will receive help from them.
Dempsey-Proton Racing will enter two Porsche 911 RSR cars once again and will be joined by Team Project 1, that also brings two. The former Gulf Racing has changed the name to GR Racing, and will be a single entry of the latest RSR.
TF Sport will do the running of two Aston Martin cars – one under their own name, and the second under the D’Station Racing.
Paul Dalla Lana will return in the #98 once again, under the Aston Martin Racing name. He is the only driver announced in the car so far.
Those thirty-three cars are also the first thirty-three cars entered for the 2021 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, since the FIA WEC cars have auto-entries for the race, since it’s a part of the Championship.
The entry list, with all the confirmed drivers so far, can be viewed here.
