LM GTE Pro : 7 Cars
51 AF Corse M Ferrari F458 Italia Gianmaria Bruni/ Toni Vilander
71 AF Corse M Ferrari F458 Italia Davide Rigon/ James Calado
91 Porsche Team Manthey M Porsche 911 RSR Richard Lietz/ Michael Christensen
92 Porsche Team Manthey M Porsche 911 RSR Patrick Pilet/ Frédéric Makowiecki
95 Aston Martin Racing M Aston Martin Vantage V8 Christoffer Nygaard/ Marco Sørensen/ Nicki Thiim
97 Aston Martin Racing M Aston Martin Vantage V8 Darren Turner/ Stefan Mücke
99 Aston Martin Racing M Aston Martin Vantage V8 Alex MacDowall/ Fernando Rees/ Richie Stanaway
Not quite deja vu in 2014 but there’s a very familiar look and feel around the GTE Pro pack this season.
There’s no change from the Championship winning AF Corse squad in either the car or on the driver front for the full season with GT World Champions Gimmi Bruni and Toni Vilander back in the #51 car, James Calado and Davide Rigon return in the sister #71 which saw the new for 2014 pairing improving very steadily towards the end of last season.
Expect both cars to be very competitive indeed!
Porsche too return with a pair of full season cars from the factory owned Team Manthey.
The #91 911 RSR sees Michael Christensen aboard for the season alongside longtime factory man Richard Lietz whilst the all French pairing of Messrs Pilet and Makowiecki continues into 2015 aboard the sister #92 car.
The major change in the class though comes from Aston Martin Racing who field a third Pro class car for the season.
The additional car comes courtesy of a change for the 2014 LMGTE Am winning Young Driver AMR squad, known of course, to all here as the ‘Dane Train’. The all Danish driver line-up is maintained with Nicki Thiim the only championship winning driver returning. He’s joined by Christoffer Nygaard, who raced the #95 car in 2013, Christoffer out of a drive in the #98 car he saw service in last season by dint of elevation to Gold ranking.
The new man on the team is single seater star Marco Sorensen, a race winner in both Formula Renault 3.5 and GP2.
There’s no change for the lead AMR car. The #97 Aston Martin retains the services of Darren Turner and Stefan Mucke for the umptienth season, the team though have put in a request to the big guy upstairs for rather better luck than they have been dealt out for the past season or several, this after Darren Turner reportedly tripped on a black cat, fell under a ladder and broke a rabbit’s foot.
Last but by no means least is the return of the #99 car, running at Silverstone in the blue and Yellow Valero petroleum livery. There’s no tie in for 2015 with the Craft Bamboo team, who return to the WTCC, but a pair of the car’s 2014 drivers are retained in Alex MacDowall and Fernando Rees, young Kiwi Richie Stanaway joins in the fun and is likely to turn some heads this season, he’s quick and very highly rated by the AMR top brass.
Mix all of this lot together, add in the Am cars and the drivers of their Pro wheel men, stir, pop in a dash of LMP2 and LMP1 action around them on track and leave to simmer!
LM GTE Am : 7 Cars
50 Larbre Competition Chevrolet Corvette C7 Gianluca Roda/ Paolo Ruberti/ Kristian Poulsen
72 SMP Racing M Ferrari F458 Italia Victor Shaytar/ Andrea Bertolini/ Aleksey Basov
77 Dempsey Racing – Proton M Porsche 911 RSR Patrick Dempsey/ Patrick Long/ Marco Seefried
83 AF Corse M Ferrari F458 Italia François Perrodo/ Emmanuel Collard/ Rui Aguas
88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing M Porsche 911 RSR Christian Ried/ Khaled Al Qubaisi/ Klaus Bachler
96 Aston Martin Racing M Aston Martin Vantage V8 Francesco Castellacci/ Roald Goethe/ Stuart Hall
98 Aston Martin Racing M Aston Martin Vantage V8 Paul Dalla Lana/ Pedro Lamy/ Mathias Lauda
The LM GTE Am field has seven full season cars too with a little more variety than their Pro class counterparts thanks to the return to the fray from Larbre Competition.
The big V8 engined Chevy will provide a welcome bass note to the WEC orchestra this season and with the Roda/Ruberti combo moving over from the 8Star/AF Corse Ferrari effort, joined by Kristian Poulsen from AMR this is a team that could show some form during the year. If the plan works who knows? Others might just look to a Corvette future!
There are just two full season Ferrari entries in the Am class, both looked after by AF Corse, one though, at least as far as the latest entry we have, is still entered under the SMP Racing banner.
This is the ELMS GTE winning car from last year and it brings with it a driver squad and race engineer (Steve ‘Doc’ Bunkhall) for the whistle stop tour of the globe that is the WEC. The combination of Andrea Bertolini and Russian drivers Viktor Shaitar and Aleksey Basov worked in Europe but will the competition on a world scale be spicier?
The #83 car meanwhile is a more traditionally red hued 458 GTE for Man Collard and his Gentleman racer charge Francois Perrodo, the pair joined by the rapid Rui Aguas. Again expect this car to feature in the thick of things at periods during the race.
Porsche’s representatives in the class both come from the Proton Competition stable, the #77 911 RSR though is entered under the Dempsey Racing Proton banner, the sister #88 car under Abu-Dhabi Proton Racing.
Patrick Dempsey is, of course the man behind the #77 effort, the actor/racer opening his WEC account with support from Porsche, and from Porsche factory driver Patrick Long. The pair have combined well in the past and with the addition to the mix of the very rapid Marco Seefried there’s potential for podiums here.
The #88 car meanwhile sees no change from 2014 as team owner Christian Ried again combines with Khaled al Qubaisi and Porsche specialist Klaus Bachler. The trio will only be quicker with the benefit of a full season of the 911 RSR behind them.
Completing the field are a pair of Aston Martins with the #98 squad returning, Caadian Gentleman driver Paul Dalla Lana combining with the still very rapid Pedro Lamy and ex DTM man Mathias Lauda, this was a car to watch last year with an astounding season that failed to take the title only because the ‘Dane Train’ had an even more astounding one! They’ll be looking to put that one straight.
Making a comeback to the WEC after a year out in the ELMS is Roald Goethe’s Gulf Racing Aston, entered here under the AMR banner. Stuart Hall and Jamie Campbell Walter took the title two years ago when Hall was still Silver ranked, he’s a golden boy now though and is back as the lead driver alongside ‘boss’ Goethe.
The pair are joined by a new addition to the AMR ranks, ex FIA GT3 Champion Francesco Castellacci, much is going to depend here on Goethe’s pace, but when the Pros are aboard this car is likely to be in amongst the top GTE runners.
