The FIA World Endurance Championship has unveiled a 39 car full-season entry list for the forthcoming 2022 season with few major surprises other than the confirmation of a record-breaking full-season total with confirmation to DSC from multiple teams that they have had proposed entries rejected from the HyperCar, LMP2, and GTE AM classes.
Hypercar: 6 Cars
A total of 6 cars are listed for the full season though, at present, the racing debut for the new Peugeot 9X8 Hypercars remains unannounced.
As expected and pre-announced the Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010s return in what is expected to be a visually revised form with Rao Hirakawa slotting in to replace Kazuki Nakajima in the #8 car.
The #36 Alpine’s sole named driver thus far is the returning Andre Negrao whilst the full-season entry from Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus is numbered #708 with Olivier Pla the named driver.
So four cars for the full year, with the Peugeots to arrive at some point, rear wing, rear winglets, or not!
And no place for the Vanwall-badged ByKolles, the background chatter on this one will be very interesting indeed!
LMP2: 15 Cars
A bumper 15 car all-Oreca entry includes 5 new teams to the class, four of which are new to the FIA WEC and two of which are new to Sportscar racing. They numerically more than compensate for the absence of three 2021 teams: High Class Racing, DragonSpeed, and Racing Team Nederland, all of whom have shifted their focus to IMSA for 2022.
Of the returning teams from 2021, as announced yesterday Champions Team WRT has added a second car under the RealTeam By WRT banner, that marks the acquisition of the RealTeam effort from TDS Racing last season and the likely opportunity to bolster the team’s effort at Le Mans with a third car drawn from one of the auto invitations earned in a successful 2021 season (Teams are only permitted to enter two cars under the same team name and license, RealTeam by WRT is not Team WRT!).
JOTA pushed the WRT crew hard last year and it would be fair to say were somewhat surprised by the departure to their rivals of Sean Gelael.
They have however bounced back with a two-car entry, the #38 entry returning with Roberto Gonzalez and Antonio Felix de Costa joined by Will Stevens, replacing the now retired Ant Davidson.
The #28 car by contrast features an entry new crew to JOTA with Silver-ranked Oliver Rasmussen joined by Ed Jones and Jonathan Aberdein.
As previously announced United Autosports boost their WEC effort to two cars with the #22 crewed once again by Phil Hanson and Filipe Albuquerque, joined in 2022 by the returning Will Owen as the Silver-ranked driver. The sister #23 sees Alex Lynn and Oliver Jarvis provide experienced and pace support to newly signed teenager Josh Pierson.
G-Drive Racing returns after some time away from the WEC with a full-season entry no longer featuring the Aurus branding that has been homologated onto the Oreca chassis for the past three seasons. Their #26 Oreca has James Allen and Rene Binder confirmed today, with a big-name driver still to come.
The G-Drive effort is supported by Algarve Pro Racing once again, with this the first full-season appearance for the team. They’ll also be supporting the returning ARC Bratislava effort, one of only three full season LMP2 Pro-Am efforts listed. The Evergreen Miro Konopka is listed together with Mathias Beche and young Dutch driver Tijmen van der Heim in the #44.
The #1 Richard Mille Racing Team returns with the expectation that the previously all-female crew might see a male driver for some or all of the season. For now, though just one driver is named, and it is not one of the 2021 trio but young French GT racer Lilou Wadoux, a race winner in the Alpine Europe Cup who tested the Oreca at the Bahrain Rookie test in November.
The final returnee is the #34 Inter Europol Competition car that scored strongly last season and will have ex F1 racer Esteban Gutierrez joining Alex Brundle and Kuba Smiechowski this season.
The first of the new teams to note is a big one, Team Penske, their #5 Oreca is not expected to race for the full season, and is part of an in-depth preparatory programme for their dual-platform (WEC & IMSA) Porsche LMDh programme for 2023. Dane Cameron and Felipe Nasr were both announced as part of that programme as newly appointed Porsche Factory drivers last month and they both feature here too, joined by the Peter Pan of endurance, the now Silver-ranked Manu Collard.
Next up, the #9 Prema Orlen Team, another big new name to the WEC and LMP2, this effort with a solo Oreca with a dual WEC and ELMS programme and fielded with the help of Prema’s new partners Iron Lynx. The ‘Orlen’ part of the deal comes with the presence of Robert Kubica and he is joined by fellow reigning ELMS Champion Louis Deletraz and Silver ranked FIA F3 race winner Lorenzo Columbo.
Next up is the UK-based #10 Vector Sport team with Ryan Cullen as the Silver-ranked piece of the jigsaw alongside the already confirmed Nico Müller and Sebastien Bourdais, the effort based around the bones of the team that fielded the Risi Competizione-badged Oreca effort last season.
The final pair are the remaining two full-season LMP2 Pro-Am efforts with the #35 Ultimate squad, run by the Tech 1 outfit who in turn, make their full-season WEC debut too. The driver trio of brothers Matthieu and Jean-Baptiste Lahaye again teamed with their long-time friend and colleague Francois Heriau.
Last, but most certainly not least is the #83 AF Corse Oreca, the third of the LMP2 Pro-Am efforts and the first LMP2 effort in the WEC under the AF Corse banner that has feuded more cars in the Championship than any other team. Whilst they have run LMP2 cars for customers Pecom Racing, SMP Racing, and Cetilar Racing previously, Francois Perrodo brings the AF Corse name to the class for the very first time.
And that’s not all he brings, the now two-time GTE Am Champion brings both of his talented young co-drivers to the task too, and a year in LMP2 for Nicklas Nielsen and Alessio Rovera could be Avery important one, not just for the 2022 LMP2 Pro-Am title, but also for what comes next for AAF Corse in 2023!
At least one car is known to have been rejected for a requested LMP2 entry.
GTE Pro: 5 Cars
No surprises here other than to say that with the confirmation of the two factory-backed AF Corse Ferraris, the pair of Porsche factory 911 RSR and the solo full season Corvette C8.R (the first full WEC campaign from the American factory team), the stage s set for the final season of GTE Pro, a class that has brought drama from start to the threshold of the finishing season. This could be quite a season!
Just to confirm that the full-season entry marks the end of hopes that a Pro effort from either Aston Martin Racing or TF Sport might be possible.That possibility was discounted some little time ago.
GTE Am: 13 cars
The surprises amongst a baker’s Dozen of GTE Am entries surround both what is here, and what isn’t. No car from Kessel Racing despite DSC’s understanding that the well-established team had customer programmes ready to go. No sign either of one or other of the Porsche efforts from China with one possible and one certainly planned effort not seeming to make the cut for 2022 at least. There will be one more shot next season in the final year of GTE Am!
After some significant doubts, Team Project 1 is listed with two cars with Matteo Cairoli and Thomas Preining the named drivers, there are storylines still to emerge here for sure!
And after effectively announcing a pull-out after last season, Mike Wainwright appears to have thought again, the #86 GR Racing Porsche is back too!
Of the rest, the Ferrari pack is made up of the new-to-WEC #21 AF Corse squad of Simon Mann, Christophe Ulrich, and Toni Vilander, Thomas Flöhr returns with the #54 car though we’ll have to wait for confocal entered too, the #61 car, as suggested by DSC, for Franck Dezoteux and Pierre Ragues, though Come Ledogar is not currently listed.
Iron Lynx return with two cars again, the #60 with Claudio Schiavoni listed and the #85 entered under the Iron Dames banner with Rahel Frey set to return.
Dempsey Proton Racing field two Porsches with the ever-present Christian Ried set to continue his unbroken run of WEC appearances into season 10! He’s named in the #77 car with Porsche factory driver Julien Andlauer in the #88.
And there is a trio of Aston Martins. Paul Dalla Lana is back for yet another tilt at the title, and at Le Mans, with David Pittard rewarded for some excellent performances in BMWs with a WEC seat in the #98 Northwest AMR Aston Martin alongside PDL and the mercurial Nicki Thiim.
TF Sport brings back Ben Keating for his second crack at the WEC in an Aston Martin, expect confirmation of his crew shortly and Tom Ferrier’s crew also assist the fielding of the #777 D’Station Vantage, Satoshi Hoshino the sole named driver thus far.
