Porsche Motorsport has confirmed that their GTE Pro entry for the 2020 Le Mans 24 Hours will be reduced from the planned four-car squad to two, whether or not the race goes ahead as (re) planned in September.
The economic impact of the COVID19 crisis has been directly cited as the reason behind the move which will see the pair of full-season CORE autosports-run IMSA Porsche 911 RSR-19s now not making the trip for the 24 Hours.
That leaves the pair of full-season FIA WEC cars as the factory representatives with the current presumption internally at Porsche that the planned additional drivers for the #91 and #92 will remain in place, though that is not yet formally confirmed.
The #91 then is planned to see Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz joined by Frederic Makowiecki whilst the sister #92 sees reigning World Champion GT drivers Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen joined by Laurens Vanthoor.
At present then there are no confirmed seats in the race for the planned #93 crew of 2015 and 2017 overall race winner Earl Bamber, fellow 2015 winner Nick Tandy and 2018 GTE Am winner Matt Campbell who had been due to make his GTE Pro Le Mans debut.
Neither, at present, are we set to see the #94 crew which had been due to feature Campbell’s fellow 2018 GTE Am winner Julien Andlauer (who would also have been making his GTE Pro Le Mans debut) Mathieu Jaminet or Patrick Pilet.
That leaves the GTE Pro entry currently at 9 cars – two apiece from Porsche Team, Aston Martin Racing, AF Corse (Ferrari) and Corvette Racing plus a solo Ferrari from Risi Competizione.
The Porsches become the second and third confirmed withdrawals from the entry after the decision from Frederic Sausset’s SRT41 ‘Garage 56’ effort to postpone their entry.
That should see the first, second and third reserve entries elevated to full entry status with the #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari (Duncan Cameron and co), the #4 ByKolles (the Gibson-powered LMP1 car) looks set to be added to the entry, Tom Dillmann the first-named driver, as does a second IDEC Sport-entered ORECA 07 Gibson in LMP2, their #17 car entered with Patrice Lafargue the first-named driver.
DSC sources have confirmed that the Ferrari and ORECA are more or less confirmed, this the first time that IDEC Sport will have raced a pair of ORECA 07s.
That leaves seven remaining reserve entries with the second High Class Racing ORECA, their ELMS car naming Jan Magnussen as a driver now topping the list.
This is unlikely though to be the final iteration of the list in what are set to be difficult times for the racing world.
