Season three of the FIA World Endurance Championship was officially launched, which came with the announcement of a full compliment of thirty-one cars, representing 10 different nations.
LMP1 will become the largest segment with no fewer than nine cars, six in LMP1-H and three in LMP1-L. In the Hybrid division, there are two cars for reigning world champions Audi, who bring the next evolution of the Audi R18 e-tron quattro. Toyota Racing will have two new Toyota TS040s at the ready. Porsche will bring two 919 Hybrids to battle, which makes
its first public appearance at the official
test at Le Castellet at the end of March.
The LMP1-L categorywill see Rebellion Racing will enter two of its brand new Rebellion Toyota R-One, with Nicolas Prost and Matthias Beche announced as the lead drivers in each car. Lotus has also entered, bringing the brand new T129-AER with Christian Albers.
The LMP2 category has received seven full season entries. 2013 24 Heures du Mans LMP1 Privateer winners Strakka Racing return to the World Endurance Championship with a Nissan-powered Dome S103 with Nick Leventis as its lead driver.
G-Drive Racing is one of three Russian entries in LMP2 and the multiple race winning team is switching to a Morgan-Nissan for 2014 with the driver line up headed by Roman Rusinov. The other two Russian entries are from SMP Racing, the team that made such an impact in ELMS by winning the GTC category at its first attempt last season. The team is entering two Oreca-Nissans with ELMS GTC Champion Kirill Ladygin and Sergey Zlobin as the lead drivers.
Millenium Racing is also running a pair of Oreca-Nissans with Fabien Giroix and Stefan Johansson, and the final full season LMP2 entry is by the Hong Kong-based KCMG team who will also run an Oreca-Nissan for Matthew Howson.
WEC LAUNCHES