WEC – The World Endurance Championship gets dressed up

?The Automobile Club de l?Ouest is very proud to see such a list of entries for the third season of the World Championship?Endurance FIA WEC, underlines Pierre Fillon, President of the ACO. These thirty-one cars are the cream of endurance and they are all ambassadors of Le Mans around the world. In 2014, several changes will see the light of day in the LMP1 category. We are very happy to find Porsche at the highest level of endurance, and look forward to witnessing the battles between Porsche, Audi and Toyota. The LMP1 technical regulations include new features, which will make our sport more relevant in the eyes of the whole world, because the hybrid systems used in racing will eventually also be used on the manufacturers' road cars. We are also very happy to have three entries in the new LPM1 Light category, and look forward to seeing the new cars from Rebellion and Lotus on track. But the FIA ​​WEC also has a lot of competitors in LMP2 and LMGTE and we wish them all the best for 2014. See you at Silverstone in April! »

It is true that the plateau looks very good. The doubt regarding the list of entries in LM P1 this year in WEC affected Colin Kolles' Lotus team. The German team will indeed be there with a T129 with an AER engine, and as the first driver nominated the Dutchman Christjan Albers. Emanation of the T128 seen last year in LM P2, this car will scrap in LM P1-L (category reserved for privateers and accepting LM P1s not equipped with a hybrid system) with the two Rebellion R-Ones with Toyota engines. On the No. 12, we will notably find the Frenchman Nicolas Cheers and the German Nick Heidfeld. On the 13th, only the Swiss Mathias Beche is registered for the moment.

In LM P1-H (H for hybrid), we will unsurprisingly find two Audi R18 e-tron quattros n°1 and n°2, respectively allocated to the trios Loïc duval-Lucas di Grassi-Tom Kristensen and Benoît Tréluyer-Marcel Fässler-André Lotterer. Toyota will field two TS 040-Hybrids, number 7 for Stéphane Sarrazin-Alex Wurz-Kazuki Nakajima and No. 8 for Anthony Davidson-Nicolas lapierre-Sébastien Buemi. Finally, we now know the numbers of the Porsche 919 Hybrid. The German manufacturer opted for the 20 and the 14 to make...2014, the year of their return to the highest level of Endurance. The No. 14 will see Romain Dumas, Marc Lieb and Neel Jani take turns, while Mark Webber will share the wheel of the No. 20 with Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley.

The LM P2 category includes seven cars, namely five Oreca 03s (two for Millenium Racing and for SMP Racing and one for KCMG), a Dome Strakka S103 Nissan for Strakka Racing and a Morgan-Nissan (which could evolve in Ligier) for the G-Drive team, which will be operated by OAK Racing.

Seven cars will compete for the world crown in GTE Pro, one more than last year. Both Ferrari Italia fielded by AF Corse (the n°51 for Gianmaria Bruni-Toni Vilander and the n°71 for Davide Rigon and a driver to be designated) is added a third operated by RAM Racing and in the seat of which will notably install the Irishman Matt Griffin. Porsche AG Team Manthey will trust its pairs Jörg Bergmeister-Patrick Pilet and Marco Holzer-Frédéric Makowiecki, while Aston Martin Racing has currently entered Darren Turner in the No. 97 and Stefan Mücke in the No. 99.

Finally, we will find eight competitors in GTE Am. Three Ferraris, two for AF Corse, one for 8 Star Motorsports and one for RAM Racing, a Porsche 911 GT RSR for Prospeed Compétition, a Porsche 911 RSR for Proton Competition and two Aston Martin Vantage GTE aligned by the official structure.

“When we came together four years ago to develop the concept of the World Endurance Championship, our common goal was to return the sport to the level of popularity it had achieved in the past, says Jean Todt, President of the International Automobile Federation. Its prestige was to be based on its ability to offer captivating and motivating high-level races on the international scene, but in an environment that always left room for technological inventiveness. I am therefore particularly proud, as we approach the third season of the World Endurance Championship, to see that all of these objectives have been achieved. I am convinced that the 2014 World Endurance Championship season will be a benchmark. »

This suggests great struggles in each category.