Bentley Motorsport to end official program after Kyalami

The overhaul of competition programs within the Volkswagen group continues. After the shift of Audi Sport from Formula E in the Dakar andEndurance, the end of all competition for Volkswagen is Bentley Motorsport which will no longer officially compete in races in 2021.

The English firm, entered in GT3 via Team M-Sport, will end its presence in GT3, and therefore in the Intercontinental GT Challenge, at the end of the 9 Hours of Kyalami, final of theIGTC 2020 next week, as already indicated in the columns of our n°2289 this week.

“I want to start by saying thank you, on behalf of Bentley, to each of the sixteen drivers who have defended our colors over the last seven years, says Paul Williams, boss of Bentley Motorsport.

But special thanks go to Max Soulet, Jordan Pepper, Jules Gounon and Seb Morris for their support when Covid-19 shut down our factory program and for stepping up to work incredibly hard with our customer teams over the course of the year. a compacted season.

The Bentley Continental GT3 was launched in 2013 to prove and promote the performance of the Continental GT on the road and, beating Ferrari et McLaren on the track, that's exactly what we did.

As Bentley rapidly evolves to become the world's leading luxury brand focused on sustainable mobility, the GT3 category no longer supports this strategy. But there are exciting changes happening in the industry right now and we are closely evaluating how motorsport can support the brand in the future. »

The priority for the Crewe brand is now to finish on a good note next week in South Africa, with Jules Gounon, Maxime Soulet and Jordan Pepper, just like Bentley, able to clinch the 2020 IGTC title.

Note that the Continental GT3s will still be in action from 2021, in the hands of private teams. The official drivers will be released from their contract.