LMP1
The last of eight FIA WEC races of 2013 will see the final seven titles decided as the field race into darkness. LMP1‘s season results are already set with the Driver’s and Manufacturers Champions are already crowned with Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Loic Duval keeping Audi on top of the world. Remember though that each of the trio needs to complete the minimum driving time in the 6 Hours of Bahrain in order for the title to remain an equally shared one.
They’ll be back in Bahrain and looking to have a rather less conservative run that they did at Shanghai in pursuit of the required points to clinch the title. The scene of their triumph last time out saw despair for Toyota who saw what seemed like a certain win evaporate in the closing stages. They’re back again though and again field a pair of TS030s in pursuit of a first race win for the season (if we count Fuji as the non-race it was).
Kazuki Nakajima returns to the cockpit of the #7 to help his team mates Alex Wurz and Nicolas Lapierre towards that aim. The line-up of Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi and Stéphane Sarrazin in the #8 Toyota will be equally determined to put the frustration of their Shanghai suspension issue behind them and race for the win.
Also looking to end their season on a high will be the #1 Audi crew, a race win in Bahrain won’t remove the pain of losing their World title to their #2 Audi team-mates but it might help just a little!
With the FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP1 Teams also already settled in Rebellion Racing’s favour, Andrea Belicchi, Mathias Beche and Nicolas Prost will be racing again in hope of an attrition aided podium, and to gather data for their 2014 programme with the new Rebellion R1 LMP1.
LMP2
OAK Racing arrives at the season finale holding the top two positions in the LMP2 Teams’ Trophy battle with 13 points separating the leading #35 from the sister #24 Morgan Nissan, and a total of 20.5 points between OAK and the Argentinian-entered #49 Pecom Racing Oreca Nissan in third place, the AF Corse prepped car falling back after electrical woes cramped their style in China.
G-Drive Racing has won three of the last four rounds in their #26 Oreca Nissan LMP2 and is just two points behind Pecom, nicely poised for a fight to the finish. The #35 car’s Bertrand Baguette, Ricardo Gonzalez & Martin Plowman hold a 15 point advantage in the FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP2 drivers over OAK Racing team mates Alex Brundle, David Heinemeier Hansson and Olivier Pla. On 107 points (-22.5 to the leaders) are the #26 G-Drive trio of Roman Rusinov, Mike Conway & John Martin.
The class of nine entries meanwhile welcomes some new faces to the FIA WEC for the 6 hours of Bahrain, plus a returnee in the person of Dubai-resident Fabien Giroix who joins Robbie Kerr and Craig Dolby in the #25 Delta-ADR ORECA 03 Nissan. One of the two newcomers is 19-year-old Austrian Lucas Auer who will be making his debut in sports prototypes in the #31 Lotus Praga T128 alongside Kevin Weeda and Vitantonio Liuzzi.
The #41 Greaves Motorsport Zytek-Nissan features the second (and third!) WEC newcomers, Jon Lancaster, a race winner in GP2, Auto GP, Formula Renault 3.5 and F3 Euroseries gets his LMP debut in Bahrain teamed with the the returning Björn Wirdheim.
Also racing in the #41 car is yet another of the NISMO Athletes that has emerged from the Nissan GT Academy. Wolfgang ‘Wolfie’ Reip won GT Academy Europe in 2012, beating 830,000 gamers to the top prize. Since then the popular Belgian has worked incredibly hard and played a key role in Nissan’s GT3 successes in the Blancpain Endurance and FIA GT Series.
“My first laps in an LM P2 car will be during Free Practice 1 in Bahrain,” said Wolfie. “I have trained in the Nismo Simulator to get a feel for the track so already I have a good grasp of the speed into the corners and the braking points. I have also upped my game in the gym as LM P2 is tougher on the body than GT3 and it will of course be hot in Bahrain. It looks like a good track; it has three pretty big straights, a lot of slow corners and three fast ones so it will be a good challenge for me.
“Considering this is my first race in an LM P2 car and my first race in the World Endurance Championship, I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself,” he continued. “My target is to learn but I hope to do this quickly and help my two teammates to get a good result. So far I think I can say that I am able to adapt to faster cars very quickly so you never know. A podium would be great. Imagine that!”
David Cheng, the Chinese driver who resides in the USA, remains with OAK Racing in the distinctive Art Car, the #45 Morgan Nissan of Jacques Nicolet and Keiko Ihara, for the final round of the season.
