Completing the three-class 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship line-up is GTE Am, with the end of the GTE Pro class after the 2022 season the only class for production-based GT cars and, in 2023, alongside the European Le Mans Series, a final season for the GTE-spec machinery from Aston Martin, Corvette, Ferrari and Porsche.
Happily, all four remaining marques look set to be represented in a class that DSC expects to number no less than 13 cars and possibly a little more than that!
Aston Martin
TF Sport are set to return with a new WEC driving squad as Ben Keating moves over to Corvette (see below) and they will almost certainly double up in the class by again providing the technical support required by Japanese outfit D’Station Racing.
Northwest AMR look set to return with Paul Dalla Lana set to tackle a tenth consecutive WEC season.
Heart of Racing, 2022 IMSA GTD Champions are understood to have requested an entry too – something the team trailed some time ago – whether they can squeeze onto a packed full-season grid though is firmly on the ‘to be confirmed’ list.
Corvette
Already confirmed is a single Corvette Racing-run C8.R with the factory team running a Pro-Am car for the very first time.
Ben Keating is the bronze, Nicky Catsburg the Platinum and the team tested Nico Varrone and Axcil Jeffries at Bahrain to try to fill in the Silver-ranked vacancy still in store – the two-car ‘rule’ here (if this is still remotely even a ‘thing’) is likely fulfilled by the Vette being entered alongside the Ganassi-run Cadillac Hypercar, both very much General Motors factory programmes.
Ferrari
AF Corse and/ or their Spirit of Race sub-brand could be the only team running Ferraris in the WEC’s GTE Am class for the final season with the departure of Iron Lynx to Porsche (see below) and with Kessel Racing and their Car Guy client in the melting pot and hoping the WEC Selection Committee can find space.
The unknown quantity is the number of AF Corse cars involved, certainly two, with the remaining possibilities dependent on the number cap for the class and the overall field. With a slot at the centenary Le Mans 24 Hours guaranteed by a full-season WEC entry, Amato Ferrari is unlikely to have to work too hard to fill every space offered by the entry. A definite two, a possible three, and a plausible four.
Thomas Flohr looks certain to return with his long standing #54 effort, Simon Mann may well be back too as part of another crew, and sources suggest that an addition to the AF Corse/ Spirit of race crew might well be Lilou Wadoux, the 2022 Richard Mille Racing LMP2 racer tested for the team at Bahrain, and tested again at Sebring.
Porsche
Porsche look set to be the most numerous marque in the class by far with seven potential full season cars.
Proton Competition look set to field two 911 RSR-19s with a strong likelihood that Michael Fassbender will be the Bronze driver aboard one, Mr ‘Ever Present’ Christian Ried in the other.
Proton will also provide the equipment for Iron Lynx to field a pair of Porsches in 2023 with a car for Claudio Schiavoni, who is set to do double duty, again in a Proton-supplied Porsche, in the ELMS too, and another for the all-female ‘Iron Dames’ effort. The two cars tested this week at Paul Ricard as captured by our friends at Endurance Info.
The switch from Ferrari as a result of the team making the move in GT3 to Lamborghini ahead of a parallel move two the Maru in Hypercar and IMSA GTP in 2024.
Team Project 1 are also set to enter their pair of Porsches for one last GTE hoorah with one new driver squad understood to have already been nailed in for the season, the Inception Racing collaborative effort will not reappear for a second year though.
The final GTE to be added should be the GR Racing Porsche for Mike Wainwright’s squad, another long-standing WEC entrant racing in GTE to the very end!
