The Provisional entry list for the FIA World Endurance Championship’s post-season Rookie Test at Bahrain International Circuit once again reveals a number of drivers under consideration for 2023 programmes as well as confirmation of the trio of drivers nominated by the FIA WEC for an opportunity to step into new machinery.
In Hypercar, alongside WEC nominee Lilo Wadoux, named at present against both the title contending Toyota and Alpine, she’ll test the eventual Championship winning car.
Peugeot Sport meanwhile will test an interesting quartet of drivers in a 9X8 with 2022 Formula E World Champion, 2021 WEC LMP2 Championship runner-up and ex SMP Racing LMP1 racer Stoffel Vandoorne joined by highly rated Formula E colleague Max Guenther, double WTCC Champion Yann Erlacher and 2022 European Le Mans Series LMP3 champion Malthe Jakobsen.
LMP2 sees no fewer than 11 cars listed for the test:
Doriane Pin is the WEC nominee and has already had seat time in the Prema Team Oreca at Portimao. She’ll run with the #38 Jota squad.
Prema Orlen Team will run a pair of Silver-ranked drivers, 2022 ELMS driver for the team Juan Manuel Correa joins the WEC squad for the team alongside young Dutch racer Tijmen va der Helm who has spent 2022 with the TDS Racing by Vaillante team in the ELMS.
Vector Sport are fielding Silver-ranked British racer Frederick Rubin alongside their current Silver Ryan Cullen in the #10 Oreca as the team look to the future into and beyond 2023.
United Autosports field both of their Orecas, one for their already confirmed 2023 ELMS line-up of Nelson Piquet Jr, Andy Meyrick and Daniel Schneider. The #23 will run with all-Aussie pairing Garnet Patterson (who has raced in 2022 with United in the Michelin Le Mans Cup) and double GT3 Pro Am Champion in GT World Challenge Australia Yasser Shahin.
Timur Boguslavskiy joins Antonio Fuoco in the AF Corse Oreca whilst Algarve Pro Racing welcome ELMS racer Filip Ugran, HPD GT3 Academy racer and Petit Le Mans GTD race winner (with Gradient Racing) Kyffin Simpson, 2022 GTE Am racer Fred Poordad and India’s ex Formula 2 racer Mahaver Raghunathan to the #45 car.
The #1 Richard Mille racing, #28 JOTA and #31 WRT Orecas are all listed with driver squads TBA.
Lorenzo Colombo is awaiting confirmation of whether it will be the AF Corse Ferrari or the Porsche Team 911 RSR that will host his Rookie Test, the two factory teams duking it out once again for the World Championship.
Corvette Racing put Ben Keating aboard the C8.R for the first time ahead of a GTE Am programme with the factory team in 2023.
A pair of Silver ranked drivers are also testing the Corvette, Nico Varrone arrives with ELMS GTE race-winning form for Rinaldi Racing whilst Axcil Jefferies gets a chance too, the pair presumably amongst those up for selection for the Silver-graded opening for the 2023 WEC programme.
Finally a trio of GTE AM cars with WEC selected ‘Rookie Finn Gehrsitz in the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin alongside Ryan Hardwick who has an automatic invitation for Le Mans and has already tested a Proton Porsche.
Team Project 1 are fielding a Porsche for the test with Dutch silver-ranked racer Maxime Oosten currently named.
Finally the #98 Northwest AMR Aston Martin currently fields no fewer than four Silver-ranked drivers: Jonathan Hoggard and Porsche Supercup racer Lorcan Hanafin from the UK, Patrick Gallagher from the USA and experienced Dutch racer Indy Dontje.
