There have been a number of updates to the entry list since the teams arrived on site in Dubai.
Finnish Esports racer Sami Matti Trogen joins the #35 Walkenhorst BMW crew as BMW take a look at his skills in the real racing world.
In the #60 Formula Racing Ferrari Frederick Paulsen has been replaced by Alessio Rovera after the Dane found the prevailing travel and quarantine regime caused too many difficulties.
Two LMP2 squads will be rotating driver squads across the two racing weekends – the Phoenix racing squad will see Nicki Thiim race in Dubai, Kelvin van der Linde (who is here in Dubai) at Yas Marina.
The #28 JOTA squad meanwhile will field Stoffel Vandoorne alongside Sean Galael here, with the Belgian swapping with Tom Blomqvist in Abu Dhabi.
Another familiar face in the paddock this weekend is 2016 FIA WEC World Drivers Champion and Le Mans 24 Hours winner Neel Jani, here with G-Drive Racing’s Yifei Ye, the the Chinese driver managed by Neel’s father, and having lived with the Jani family for the past five years.
Joining Jani on Management duty is another past Wec Champion, Jamie Campbell Walter looking after multiple clients here including LMP2 debutantes Franco Colapinto and Rui Pinto de Andrade in the #25 G-Drive Aurus, and Ferdinand Habsburg in the sister #26.
There’s another family affair amongst the support series for the Asian Le Mans Series in Dubai with the F4 UAE Series featuring Hamda Al Qubaisi and F3 Asia featuring both her her older sister Amna and their father, regular GT racer and WEC GTE Am race winner Khaled Al Qubaisi.
The single seater series have also seen a number of familiar faces to DSC readers on driver coaching duties with Rob Barff, Richard Bradley and Dan Wells amongst the notable names.
The development of the Dubai Autodrome ‘technopark’ continues apace with Dragon Racing’s impressive HQ joined on-site by the home of Spa and Dubai 24 Hours winners GPX Racing, and the long-time resident AUH Motorsports now also in a new unit, part of a still expanding development located on the inside of the circuit on the run down to T1.
