WEC

Ferrari to run Wadoux, Shwartzman in WEC rookie test

Lilou Wadoux and Robert Shwartzman will get behind the wheel of the Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar in next month's post-season World Endurance Championship rookie test at Bahrain.

Jamie Klein

Edited: Oct 25, 2023, 7:43 AM

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#51 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi

The two Ferrari works drivers were among several notable names to feature on an 18-car entry list for the test, set to take place on November 5 after the WEC finale at the same track, released on Tuesday.

For Wadoux, who has raced an AF Corse Ferrari in the GTE Am class in this year's WEC, it will mark her second time behind the wheel of an LMH after she drove the Toyota GR010 HYBRID in the same event last year.

Shwartzman meanwhile gets the chance to sample the 499P after racing in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup this season with AF, which also runs the Ferrari Hypercar programme.

All five major manufacturers in the Hypercar class will be present for the test, albeit with just one car for the majority, only Peugeot opting to participate with both of its cars.

Toyota will run the WEC's nominated rookie driver Josh Pierson in its solo GR010 HYBRID, as previously announced, joined by current team regular Jose Maria Lopez as well as Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat.

British pair Hawksworth and Barnicoat won this year's IMSA SportsCar Championship title in the GTD Pro category driving a Lexus RC F GT3 for Vasser Sullivan.

Porsche meanwhile is giving a first run in top-flight prototype machinery to newly-crowned DTM champion Thomas Preining, who will share the works 963 LMDh with a yet-to-be-announced second driver.

Cadillac's V-Series.R will be shared by Nicolas Varrone, who won this year's GTE Am title for sister GM brand Corvette and was originally the WEC's nominated rookie for the test in the LMP2 class, and Kyffin Simpson.

It was decided that Varrone's test would be moved from the LMP2 class to Hypercar as the secondary prototype division is discontinued in the WEC next year.

Barbadian Simpson, this year's European Le Mans Series champion, has links to Cadillac via partner team Chip Ganassi Racing, with which he is stepping up to the IndyCar Series in 2024.

Peugeot will run existing racer Mikkel Jensen alongside 2024 newcomer Stoffel Vandoorne and its own official junior driver Malthe Jakobsen across its two 9X8 LMHs.

Also present for the test will be the Vanwall Vanderwell 680 and two customer Porsches, one each from Jota and Proton Competition.

Job van Uitert will share the Vanwall with Esteban Guerrieri while the pair of Porsches will be piloted by Pietro Fittipaldi (Jota), Rene Binder and Julien Andlauer (both Proton).

The 18-car entry list for the test is made up by five LMP2s and four GTE Am cars.

Only three of the five LMP2 squads, Prema Racing, United Autosports and Inter Europol Competition, have at least one driver named for the test, with Jota and WRT yet to announce any.

Harry Tincknell will share Prema's ORECA 07 with current GTE Am racer PJ Hyett and Paul-Loup Chatin, while United Autosports will run bronze-rated Daniel Schneider and Inter Europol fields Formula 2 racer Clement Novalak.

Antoine Doquin, the WEC's nominated rookie for GTE Am, will share the title-winning Corvette C8.R with works driver Nicky Catsburg in the last official test outing for GTE machinery.

The other three cars in the class will all be AF Corse-run Ferraris, with Christoph Ulrich, Nicola Marinangeli and Lorenzo Patrese, son of ex-F1 racer Riccardo, named as drivers.

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