Category: WEC

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Porsche Penske Motorsport 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…

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,…

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…

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…

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…

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.…

Simon Pagenaud will finally return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2023. The French racing driver will be driving for COOL Racing #47, which he will share with Reshad De Gerus and Vladislav Lomko. Pagenaud has participated in the 24-hour race for times before, making his debut in 2008 for Team ORECA-Matmut in a Courage. The following three years were onboard a Peugeot 908 for Pescarolo Sport and the works team itself. His primary focus moved on to American racing, where the has been plenty of date clashes –…

JOTA has chosen to change the team colors once again for the 2023 season. The British outfit has changed their liveries many times, depending on the sponsor that they have had, with a range of white, orange, red, and most recently green. Both their brand new Porsche 963 Hypercar and the ORECA 07 Gibson LMP2 will be in gold for 2023. The team has got Hertz as the title sponsor in the Hypercar category, but Porsche hasn’t been able to deliver the new car just yet, due to a shortage…

The opening round of the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship will have 37 cars on the starting grid. The majority of the entry list for the 1000 Miles of Sebring is as expected, but there is a slight change surrounding the Hypercar and LMP2 categories. Hertz Team JOTA and Proton Competition won’t have their new Porsche 963 cars yet, so they can enter the Hypercar category. Hertz Team JOTA has opted to run in the LMP2 category instead, with David Beckmann pairing up with the full-season regulars Yifei Ye and…

United Autosports and Vector Sport have announced several of their drivers for the coming 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship season. United Autosports will run Frederick Lubin alongside Filipe Albuquerque and Phil Hanson. Lubin will make his sportscar debut, after having raced single-seaters and karting until now. He has competed in Formula 4, British F3 and Euroformula, doing a classic path through the motorsport categories. Albuquerque and Hanson were teamed up with Will Owen for the 2022 season. Owen has been upgraded to Gold ranking for 2023, so he can no…

Alpine Elf Team will enter two very strong cars in the FIA World Endurance Championship 2023. The French team, which is run by Signatech, has a kind of interim year in 2023, with them staying sharp between their Hypercar programme with the Alpine A480 build to LMP1 spec, and their brand new LMDh car coming for 2024. If you look at the drivers, it hasn’t got any signs of 2023 just being a year just to tool around – but there are super high goals. While they ran just a…