35 cars across the four classes have been entered for the FIA WEC Prologue on 6/7 April at Paul Ricard circuit, with 13 cars set for the non-stop 30 hour test (10am Friday to 4pm Saturday), offered for the first time as part of the pre-season test.
Entry is available on the Saturday ONLY to the public and will be free of charge, with the paddock open to fans and with a 30-minute pit walk organised immediately after the end of the track session at 16h05.
At present only the second Rebellion R13 is set to miss the test, the first car is set to be delivered to the team in the days immediately prior to the Prologue.
That test will be the first time that all of the new Privateer LMP1 cars will take to the track together alongside Toyota Gazoo Racing’s hybrid entries, it’s also the first time that BMW’s new M8 GTE will appear as a WEC entrant. It marks the public track debut for the all-new Aston Martin Vantage AMR and the EVO version of the Ferrari 488 GTE too.
Larbre Competition’s Ligier JS P217 will also make its first appearance, together with the new GTE Am Porsche 911 RSRs from Proton Competition, Gulf Racing UK and Project 1 Motorsport.
Gérard Neveu, CEO of the WEC commented: “We have such an incredible line up of cars and drivers for this unique, transitional Super Season, and, like all our competitors, we can’t wait for the action to start.
“We are very happy to be returning to Circuit Paul Ricard for the Prologue, our traditional pre-season collective test, which comes just a week before the first round of the European Le Mans Series, also at Le Castellet.
“We look forward to welcoming our fans on Saturday as they experience the warm and friendly ambiance of the WEC paddock, which is open to all, with a pit walk allowing them to see these amazing cars both on and off track.”
The entry list in more detail.
LMP1 Notes
With Fernando Alonso, Kazuki Nakajima and Kamui Kobayashi all otherwise engaged, the Toyota Gazoo Racing squad will see both nominated reserve driver Anthony Davidson and official test driver Alex Wurz running at the Prologue. One TS050 is listed for the 30 hour test.
Rebellion Racing will have its first (very) new Rebellion R13 Gibson running at the test too and are currently due to rotate all six nominated drivers in the single car that they plan to have available. Notably, its car is listed for the 30-hour test, the team needing the extra track time to catch up to its LMP1 rivals which have already been out testing in recent months.
ByKolles Racing currently lists only Oliver Webb in the car, but there will be others at the test – at least Webb will hope so as the car is another listed for 30 hour running!
CEFC TRSM Racing (formerly CEFC Manor) lists both of its new Ginetta G60-LT-P1 Mecachromes, with Oliver Rowland and Charlie Robertson the two named drivers thus far on the entry list.
DragonSpeed and SMP Racing will all be campaigning BR Engineering BR1 chassis, with the US team using a Gibson engine, and the two Russian entries AER power.
SMP’s drivers are yet to be confirmed officially for the test though Mikhael Aleshin, Stephane Sarrazin and Vitaly Petrov are all confirmed for the season. Both SMP cars are confirmed for 30-hour run.
Ben Hanley, Henrik Hedman and Renger van der Zande are set to drive Dragonspeed’s new BR1 Gibson.
GTE Pro Notes
In LMGTE Pro all 10 entries will be present, including the reigning FIA GT World Champion Ferrari, which will return with an EVO version of the 488 GTE in the hands of an unchanged driver line headlined by champions James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi.
The WEC’s latest manufacturer BMW with its two brand new M8 GTEs will bring a full line-up of drivers, including season regulars and endurance partners including Alexander Sims, Philipp Eng and Tom Blomqvist. One BMW will take part in the full 30-hour test.
The other newcomer to the class is the Aston Martin Vantage AMR, fresh from a major testing push, new signings Alex Lynn and Maxine Martin will both be on parade in the marque’s two-car effort, again one car is slated for the 30-hour test.
A welcome returnee to the WEC is Gianmaria Bruni, now of course with Porsche, the brand’s 911 RSRs both set to run for the full 30 hours with Bruni paired with 2015 GT Driver Champion Richard Lietz. Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen pilot the second car.
Ford is back too, with an unchanged line-up and a unchanged Ford GT, there’s no sign of the team’s nominated third drivers, Tony Kanaan and Billy Johnson however.
LMP2 Notes
All seven full-season LMP2 entries are listed (though none for the 30-hour run).
After 2017 saw an all ORECA, all Dunlop entry, 2018 sees a Dallara and Ligier added to the WEC roster, Racing Team Nederand’s Dallara sees Giedo van der Garde make his public debut with the team whilst Larbre Competition’s new Ligier JA P217 is set to start the season on Michelin rubber with RTN also considering a switch after running in 2-17 in the ELMS on Dunlops.
Another Michelin runner will be DragonSpeed, the 2017 ELMS title-winning team adding an LMP2 ORECA to its new LMP1 campaign, the already named Roberto Gonzalez is the only as yet confirmed name for the test. As with several other teams though there are likely to be other announcements prior to, and at the test proper.
Jackie Chan DC Racing sees major changes in line-up with Ho-Pin Tung the only driver from its six-man 2017 line-up currently named. He’ll be joined by Asian Le Mans Series LMP3 race winner Gabriel Aubry in the #38 at Paul Ricard.
The sister #37 car meanwhile sees an all Malaysian line-up, who took on the Asian Le Mans Series earlier this year, with Jazeman Jaafar and Weiron Tan already having race winning experience in the team’s ORECA 05 Nissan at Buriram. They are joined by countryman Nabil Jeffri who impressed greatly in a one off Asian LMS run for Eurasia at Sepang.
A pair of returnees come in the shape of Signatech Alpine’s A470 and TDS Racing’s ORECA, TDS seeing former WEC World Champion Loic Duval aboard for the season alongside Francois Perrodo and Matthieu Vaxiviere.
GTE Am Notes
All nine LMGTE Am class entries will be present:
Three Ferraris from the Swiss Spirit of Race team, Clearwater Racing from Singapore and a newcomer to the WEC, MR Racing. Giancarlo Fisichella returns to the WEC for the first time since 2013 as part of the returning #54 Ferrari effort.
Christian Ried’s Dempsey-Proton Racing is back with two new 911 RSRs and Gulf Racing’s single Porsche (with Aussie Alex Davison joining the team) is joined by a new team representing the German marque, Team Project 1 from Germany which features long-time factory driver Jörg Bergmeister.
Two Aston Martin Vantages will contest the ‘Super Season’ including defending class champions, Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda in the Aston Martin Racing entry, joined this year by newcomer TF Sport in a second Vantage.
The full entry list is below with the cars listed in bold those that are slated to take part in the full 30 hours of running.
