Proton Competition has announced their six drivers and the colors for their two brand new Ford Mustang GT3 cars in the FIA World Endurance Championship 2024.
Five of the six drivers are well-known drivers at the German team, but all have Porsche experience from the past.
Car #77 will be driven by Ryan Hardwick, Zacherie Robichon, and Ben Barker.
Hardwick and Robichon won the ELMS GTE title in 2023 with Proton in a Porsche, and had IMSA success prior to that. Hardwick has been one of the best Bronze-rated drivers for the past seasons, while Robichon is lucky to retain Silver rating, as one of the fastest ones out there, and having won several titles in both USA and Europe.
Barker has Porsche experience too, but that was at GR Acing. The tall Brit is a Ford factory driver now, and will try to help the American/Canadian duo to succeed on the big World Championship stage.
In addition to the 16 other competitors from other teams, they will be facing a lot of internal team pressure from car #88, raced by Giorgio Roda, Mikkel Overgaard Pedersen, and Dennis Olsen.
Roda is back in GT car, after competing in LMP2 in 2023, and in GTE for the team in previous seasons. The Italian will race in LMP2 in the ELMS this year as well, but his Bronze status makes him very valuable in the GT3 car.
Danish driver Mikkel O was one of the quickest Silver-ranked drivers in the FIA WEC 2023. This will be the third World Championship season for the Dane. He has plenty of experience in a GT3 car, regardless if it was Porsche for many years, or in a Honda for GMB Motorsport in the Michelin Le Mans Cup.
The final driver is Norwegian Olsen. He was Porsche works driver for many years, but has switched full time to Ford. The young Norwegian was probably hoping to be a part of the LMDh programme, but has been stuck in GT cars. This is another GT3 programme – but he can surely prove that he can race other things than just Porsche – and Proton do have both an LMDh and LMP2 programme as well.
The FIA World Endurance Championship 2024 starts on 2 March at Lusail International Circuit in Qatar, with several testdays in the weekend prior, and the days leading into race day.
