WEC unveils 10-car LMP1 field for 2018/19 superseason

Confirmation of a second Ginetta from the British Manor team under the CEFC TRSM Racing banner has brought the total of P1 cars for Le Mans and the WEC to 10.

Ginetta test driver Charlie Robertson has been announced for the second of the two cars after Oliver Rowland was confirmed in the other car on Friday morning.

Ginetta boss Lawrence Tomlinson said: “I’m delighted confirm that CEFC TRSM will be running a two-car effort in the WEC and Le Mans.

"Our LMP1 project has brought together some of the brightest stars in motorsport design and engineering, and the next chapter will see CEFC TRSM announcing driving talent of equally high measure."

The pair of Ginetta-Mecachrome G60-LT-P1s from Manor are joined on the LMP1 entry by three other constructors, as expected.

BR Engineering will be represented by a pair of works-entered AER-powered BR1s from the ART-run SMP Racing team, which announced Mikhail Aleshin and Vitaly Petrov as its first two drivers, and a privateer car from US entrant DragonSpeed with a Gibson engine.

Rebellion Racing is returning to P1 after a championship-winning assault on the LMP2 class in 2017 with a pair of its own Gibson-engined R13s developed by Oreca.

The German-based ByKolles squad is back with a solo ENSO CLM-Nissan P1/01, with team regular Oliver Webb the first confirmed driver.

Manor's increased P1 campaign explains its absence from the LMP2 entry list, despite its initial plan to remain in the secondary prototype division.

New entries are DragonSpeed with an Oreca-Gibson 07 and Larbre Competition, which was originally planning a Le Mans-only assault, with a Ligier-Gibson JS P217.

These additions have resulted in a seven-car P2 entry, despite the graduation of Rebellion and Manor to P1.

The seven full WEC entries will be joined by an additional 13 P2s for Le Mans in June.

These include a pair of cars entered under the Jackie Chan DC Racing banner, which gained two guaranteed entries for the French enduro for its class successes in LMP2 and P3 in this winter's Asian Le Mans Series.

Its entries have been taken over by Ligier, though team boss David Cheng will race for the team after stepping down from the full-season line-up to concentrate on a management role.

The US JDC-Miller squad, which was awarded a guaranteed entry by IMSA, has not taken up its slot.

Ferrari to run extra factory cars at Le Mans

The factory AF Corse team will upgrade its GTE Pro assault to three cars for Le Mans in response to the four-car assaults from Ford and Porsche.

Ferrari regular Toni Vilander, who has raced with Risi Competizione at Le Mans for the past two years, is listed as the additional driver in the third car, which is numbered #52.

The extra Ferrari means that there will be 17 GTE Pro cars on the grid for Le Mans.

The regular WEC GTE Pro roster, which has increased to 10 cars with BMW's entry into the series, will be bolstered by the additional cars from Ferrari, Ford and Porsche, as well as the factory Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs.

Nine cars will race in GTE Am over the 2018/19 superseason, up on last year's five, and will be joined by a further four class entries at Le Mans.

This means there will be an straight 50/50 split between prototypes and GT cars on the Le Mans grid this year.

It had already been confirmed that there would be no experimental 'Garage 56' entry this year.

A reserve list of nine cars, including European Le Mans Series newcomer Racing Engineering in LMP2, has also been announced.

2018/19 WEC entry list:

N°	Team	Car	Confirmed drivers
LMP1 - 10 cars
1	Rebellion Racing	Rebellion R13-Gibson	Andre Lotterer  Neel Jani  Bruno Senna
3	Rebellion Racing	Rebellion R13-Gibson	Thomas Laurent  Mathias Beche  Gustavo Menezes
4	ByKolles Racing Team	ENSO CLM P1/01-Nismo	Oliver Webb TBA TBA
5	Manor TRSM Racing	Ginetta G60-LT-P1-Mecachrome	Charlie Robertson TBA TBA
6	Manor TRSM Racing	Ginetta G60-LT-P1-Mecachrome	Oliver Rowland TBA TBA
7	Toyota Racing	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez
8	Toyota Racing	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	Sebastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima Fernando Alonso
10	DragonSpeed	BR1-Gibson	Ben Hanley Henrik Hedman Renger van der Zande
11	SMP Racing	BR1-AER	Mikhail Aleshin TBA TBA
17	SMP Racing	BR1-AER	Vitaly Petrov TBA TBA
LMP2 - 7 cars
28	TDS Racing	Oreca 07-Gibson	Loic Duval Matthieu Vaxiviere Francois Perrodo
29	Racing Team Nederland	Dallara P217-Gibson	Giedo van der Garde Jan Lammers Fritz van Eerd
31	DragonSpeed	Oreca 07-Gibson	Roberto Gonzalez TBA TBA
36	Signatech Alpine	Alpine A470-Gibson	Nicolas Lapierre Andre Negrao Pierre Thiriet
37	Jackie Chan DC Racing	Oreca 07-Gibson	Jazeman Jaafar TBA TBA
38	Jackie Chan DC Racing	Oreca 07-Gibson	Ho-Pin Tung TBA TBA
50	Larbre Competition	Ligier JS P217-Gibson	Erwin Creed Romano Ricci Fernando Rees
GTE Pro - 10 cars
51	AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GTE	James Calado Alessandro Pier Guidi
66	Ford Chip Ganassi Racing	Ford GT	Olivier Pla Stefan Mucke
67	Ford Chip Ganassi Racing	Ford GT	Andy Priaulx Harry Tincknell
71	AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GTE	Sam Bird Davide Rigon
81	BMW Team MTEK	BMW M8 GTE	Martin Tomczyk Nick Catsburg Philipp Eng
82	BMW Team MTEK	BMW M8 GTE	Augusto Farfus Antonio Felix da Costa Alexander Sims
91	Porsche GT Team	Porsche 911 RSR	Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz
92	Porsche GT Team	Porsche 911 RSR	Michael Christensen Kevin Estre
95	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin Vantage	Nicki Thiim Marco Sorensen  Darren Turner
97	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin Vantage	Jonathan Adam Alex Lynn Maxime Martin
GTE Am - 9 cars
54	Spirit of Race	Ferrari 488 GTE	Giancarlo Fisichella Francesco Castellacci Thomas Flohr
56	Team Project 1	Porsche 911 RSR	Jorg Bergmeister Patrick Lindsey Egidio Perfetti
61	Clearwater Racing	Ferrari 488 GTE	Weng Sun Mok Matt Griffin Keita Sawa
70	MR Racing	Ferrari 488 GTE	Motoaki Ishikawa Olivier Beretta Eddie Cheever III
77	Dempsey-Proton Racing	Porsche 911 RSR	Matteo Cairoli TBA TBA
86	Gulf Racing	Porsche 911 RSR	Michael Wainwright TBA TBA
88	Dempsey-Proton Racing	Porsche 911 RSR	Matt Campbell TBA TBA
90	TF Sport	Aston Martin Vantage	Euan Hankey Salih Yoluc Charlie Eastwood
98	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin Vantage	Pedro Lamy Mathias Lauda Paul Dalla Lana