The entry list for the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual (15/16 January) has been revealed with the race this weekend to be held virtually on simulators located all around the world.
50 teams are entered with Mercedes-AMG Petronas Esports making its debut in the Le Mans Virtual Series, competing against Alpine Esports and Red Bull Racing Esports – the official sim racing divisions of the F1 Grand Prix teams – presumably a blessed relief fro the current messiness of the real thing!
Joining them will be an all-female team from the W Series, an official Prodrive Esports team, and a team named for sportscar racing icon Pescarolo. They will line up alongside Le Mans Virtual Series full season endurance esports entries from Team WRT, JOTA, Panis Racing, Duqueine, GR Racing, Proton Competition, Team Project 1 and D’Station Racing.
The crème de la crème of sim racers will be representing such well-known esports teams as Rebellion GPX Esports, Rocket Simsport, Floyd ByKolles Burst, R8G Esports, Team Redline, Veloce Esports, Team Fordzilla and SIMMSA Esports. The list is long and exciting.
The entries for the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual are split into two categories of cars, LMP and GTE. While all LMP teams will use the ORECA 07 LMP2 model, there are five different GTE models on the list:
Ferrari’s official FDA Esports Team will compete with a Ferrari 488 GTE, also used by SIMMSA Esports, while Porsche Esports Team leads a total of 10 Porsche 911 RSR GTE entries.
Current GTE championship leader BMW Team Redline is one of five teams using the BMW M8 GTE – the W Series entry opting for this model for their entry to endurance racing. Two Aston Martin Vantage GTE cars, including one from Prodrive Esports, and two Corvette C8.Rs make up the extremely competitive and always entertaining GTE category
The roster of drivers meanwhile includes newly crowned F1 World Champion Max Verstappen, an Alpine Esports team captained by (non-driving) former F1 and FIA WEC World Champion Fernando Alonso, plus 2021 INDYCAR Champion Alex Palou. Among the entries are former CART and IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Champion and ex F1 star Juan Pablo Montoya, racing alongside his son Sebastian in a Le Mans Virtual Series guest car, and INDYCAR’s Felix Rosenqvist – a race winner already this season and championship title contender who will have Verstappen alongside him in the Team Redline entry.
Single-seater stars on the list comprise ex Williams F1 young driver and Formula E star Oliver Rowland, Formula E’s Sergio Sette Camara, Indy 500 racer Sage Karam, Bent Viscaal, Felipe Drugovich, Victor Martins plus the W Series entry which features pro drivers Fabienne Wohlwend and Ayla Agren and their two female sim driver teammates, Emily Jones and Lyobuv Ozeretskovskaya.
Also on the entry list from W Series is Beitske Visser who has, in 2021, started to make quite a name for herself in endurance racing. A feast of successful names from the FIA WEC, ELMS, IMSA and GT racing worldwide will be on the grid: 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual winner Louis Deletraz together with his 2021 ELMS co-champion Yifei Ye, 2021 Petit Le Mans winner Gabriel Aubry, Job Van Uitert, Dani Juncadella, Arthur Rougier, WEC GTE Am champion Nicklas Nielsen, former DTM Champion Bruno Spengler, Porsche specialists Matt Campbell and Ben Barker, and current British GT3 champion Dennis Lind.
While the focus may initially fall on the real world racing stars (listed as PRO on the entry list), internationally-renowned esports stars such as Joshua Rogers (2020 24H Virtual GTE winner), Kevin Siggy, Bono Huis, Atze Kerkhof, Michi Hoyer, Jernej Simončič and Nikodem Wisniewski are just a few of the very talented and determined sim racers who will be combining with the pros to provide a true feast of competition and entertainment.
In total 200 drivers have signed up to take part in the event, the finale to the Le Mans Virtual Series which brings together motorsport’s real life racers with the world’s best esports squads. In addition to shining a spotlight on the famous French sportscar classic, and providing 24-hours of top entertainment for competitors and fans around the world, championship titles and prize money are at stake for full-season competitors.
The race begins at 14h00 (CET) on Saturday, 15 January.
