The ByKolles team, who is racing under the Floyd Vanwall Racing Team banner in 2023, has made some changes to their driver line-up for this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. Jacques Villeneuve is no longer part of the team, after a very problematic start to the season. The Canadian Formula 1 World Champion will be replaced by Tristan Vautier, who has plenty of Prototype experience, but none with the Vanwall Vandervell 680 Hypercar so far. He will be sharing the car with Tom Dillmann and Esteban Guerrieri, who already competed…
Read MoreAuthor: Jens Jensen
Rexy goes to Le Mans
The 24 Hours of Le Mans often delivers some special liveries, that maybe, maybe not will only be seen once, and are instant iconic for the future. We saw that with the Pink Pig design at Porsche in 1971, which was revived for the 2018 race – and won the GTE pro category. Another design that has already become an instant classic is Rexy. It made its first appearance with AO Racing for the 12 hours of Sebring, and was immediately a favourite amongst the fans. Their Porsche 911 GT3…
Read MoreJakobsen official junior driver for Peugeot
Malthe Jakobsen has been named the official junior driver for Peugeot TotalEnergies. The Dane already had the first contact with the team during fall of 2022, and did the Rookietest in Bahrain for the team, where he did such an impressive job, despite it being the very first time that he was onboard such advanced material as a Hypercar. The parties have kept in touch ever since, and that has turned into an official contract with the team. Jakobsen did several seasons of Formula 4 in both his native Denmark…
Read MoreLMP3 no longer part of IWSC
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship has chosen to no longer run the LMP3 category, once the 2023 season ends. The category was introduced in the American series for the 2021 series, where the numbers in DPi, LMP2, GTLM and GTD were getting smaller and smaller. That has changed now, with major increases in all categories – especially the GTP category, where an excess of 10 competitors is expected for the full season entry. The LMP3 category has usually delivered just shy of 10 cars, on the race weekends where the cars…
Read MoreWTRAndretti with extra car in 2024
There will be a new car on the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship grid for the 2024 season. A new collaboration between Wayne Taylor Racing and Andretti Autosport was announced earlier this year, in regards to their sportscar programmes. In 2023, they would continue to run separate programmes. WTR currently competes with the Acura ARX-06 LMDh car, plus a GTD programme at the four Michelin Endurance Cup rounds, while Andretti Autosport has two programmes, where they compete with an LMP3 car for the longer races, and a GTD programme for the…
Read MoreTire ovens allowed at Le Mans
The competitors for this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans will be allowed to heat their tires after all. The FIA and ACO had originally disallowed tire ovens for the 2023 season, to save the energy that was used for all the heating, that the teams used to bring to the tracks. Since the very moment that it was announced, there were a lot of teams fearing dangerous situations, when drivers were going to exit the pit on stone-cold tires. The tires had to be stored in shade, so not…
Read MorePorsche with special Le Mans livery
Porsche will once again run a special livery for the 2023 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The German car manufacturer has done it in previous years – including 2018, when they won with the classic “Pink Pig” livery in GTE Pro. They will compete in the Hypercar category with three works cars in total. Not only has it been 100 years since the very first 24 Hours of Le Mans, but it’s also been 75 years since Porsche made their first car, under their own brand. The…
Read MoreRockenfeller and van der Helm at JDC
JDC-Miller Motorsports has announced the two drivers, who will debut in their brand-new Porsche 963 in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. It will super-experienced Mike Rockenfeller and the young talent Tijmen van der Helm, who will make his racing debut at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on 14 May 2023. The team was announced as one of the very first privateer Porsche teams back in 2022, but it quickly became clear, that the delivery dates of the new race cars, would be somewhere around late spring, no matter what privateer outfit…
Read MoreLotterer: It’s a completely different animal
With the return of Porsche to the top-line category in the FIA World Endurance Championship, it also meant a return to sportscars for Andre Lotterer. The three times Le Mans Champion, and the very first FIA WEC World Champion from 2012, had a talk with Racing24-7.net, at the second round of the 2023 Championship in Portimao. First of all, good to see you back again in sportscars. Did you miss the four years away? “Yeah, for sure! The Championship changed of course, and the competition was not really there, in…
Read MoreELMS double up in Portimao, LMC races in Aragon
The European Le Mans Series will be finishing the 2023 season off with two races at Autodromo Internacional do Algarve. That is the decision, following the cancellation of Imola, announced earlier this week. The Michelin Le Mans Cup will add a race weekend at Aragon in Spain, as a support to the ELMS – a round they weren’t meant to do originally. The cancelation of Imola is down to renovation of the pit- and paddock area, which hasn’t been finished on schedule, so both ELMS and LMC teams can’t be…
Read MoreKvyat hired by Lamborghini
Daniil Kvyat has been hired by Lamborghini as a new factory driver, for their upcoming LMDh programme. The former Formula 1 driver started out his sportscar career at Sebring last month, being a part of the Prema Racing LMP2 outfit in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Kvyat will be part of the test- and development programme for the new Lamborghini LMDh car, which will make its race debut in 2024. He will also be one of the drivers for the IMSA and FIA WEC programmes in 2024. In addition to…
Read MoreLMEM cancels Imola round – working on a solution
The European Le Mans Series and Michelin Le Mans Cup have had to cancel their 2 and 4 hours respectively at Imola, which was meant to be run on the first weekend of May 2023. The cancellation is due to ongoing work in the pits and paddock area not being finished yet, so they won’t be able to host the ELMS and Michelin Le Mans Cup rounds. The Italian round has been a bit of an issue for ACO and LMEM, who is behind the ELMS and LMC series. The…
Read MoreNasr, Tandy, and Jaminet to Le Mans for Porsche
Porsche Penske Motorsports has named their three drivers, for the extra entry at the 2023 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. That will be three of the drivers, who are also active in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, who is going to help out at the French Classic. Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet usually share a Porsche 963 in the American series, but they will be joined by Felipe Nasr from the other car. In the meantime, the regular co-driver of Nasr, Matt Campbell, will be in a…
Read MoreGoodyear named tire supplier for new LMGT3 category
Goodyear has been named the official tire supplier for the new LMGT3 category in the FIA World Endurance Championship. That marks and expansion to deal already in place between the american tire manufacturer and the ACO. The deal is for three year. The official name of LMGT3, will be the new Pro/Am category, replacing the GTE Am category from 2024 onwards. GT3 cars are already part of the ACO set of regulations in the Asian Le Mans Series and Michelin Le Mans Cup. It’s a super popular set of regulations,…
Read MoreCadillac with an extra car at Spa
Cadillac Racing will run an extra car for the third round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, which will be run at Spa Francorchamps. The American team is run by Chip Ganassi Racing, who normally only runs a single FIA WEC entry, but as a warm-up for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, they will run an extra Cadillac V-Series.R. The team made its debut with the car at the Daytona 24 Hours, where they ran both their regular IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship car, and their FIA WEC. The Spa…
Read MoreTower and Racing Team Turkey announce drivers
Tower Motorsports and Racing Team Turkey have announced their drivers for the 2023 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Tower Motorsports #13 won their entry thanks to the Jim Trueman title in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, which John Farano secured as the best Bronze-rated driver in the LMP2 category in 2022. He is once again active in USA this year, but it will be with two other co-drivers for the French race. Ricky Taylor and Rene Rast have been signed for the historic endurance race. Taylor races…
Read MoreSørensen to race for GMB at Le Mans
GMB Motorsport has announced their full line-up for the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2023. Aston Martin works driver Marco Sørensen will help out Gustav Birch and Jens Møller for the team’s debut at the French classic Last week we had the announcement that Nicki Thiim would join Birch and Møller for the European Le Mans Series rounds. Sørensen has a programme in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and the team hoped for an entry for the 24 hours race. They were however announced as only the tenth reserve, so…
Read MoreThiim new driver at GMB Motorsport
Nicki Thiim is a new driver at GMB Motorsport, once the team enters the European Le Mans Series 2023. The Danish team has grabbed the Aston Martin works driver for their brand new Aston Martin Vantage GTE car, which will compete in both the ELMS and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which they won an entry for, thanks to their Michelin Le Mans Cup Championship win in 2022. Thiim will however only be competing for the team at the ELMS races, since he already has an FIA WEC commitment…
Read MoreNielsen: We have covered a lot of milage in a short amount of time
The new season of the FIA World Endurance Championship starts this week at Sebring. Ferrari AF Corse is not a new marque in ACO racing, but they are brand new to the Hypercar category in 2023, with their brand new Ferrari 499P in LMH spec. We had a chat with Ferrari works driver Nicklas Nielsen, regarding the introduction and testing over the last few months. You have been testing a lot over the last few months – half a year or so – since the car first came on track.…
Read MoreNew, old layout in Barcelona
When the opening race of the European Le Mans Series and Michelin Le Mans Cup 2023 will be held at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, it will be on a new-old layout. The Spanish track has chosen to revert to the original configuration, so the final two turns will be two very fast right-handers, instead of the ultra-slow chicane, which has been utilized for the last 15 years. The chicane was made due to safety concerns regarding the speed of the Formula 1 cars, in case of an accident. But the track…
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