LM P1

Audi and Toyota announced their teams ahead of the Le Mans 24 Hours press conference. Neither has changed significantly compared to last year. Audi will be placing its trust once again in Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer, the trio who won the 82nd round-the-clock race at Le Mans. Due to nine-time winner Tom Kristensen’s retirement, Audi needed a third driver to accompany Loïc Duval and Lucas di Grassi. The lucky man is none other than Oliver Jarvis, who came third at Le Mans in 2012 and 2013. His replacement in the third Audi has also been announced: René Rast, who has been a member of the Audi clan for a number of years as a GT driver, will form a team with Marco Bonanomi and Filipe Albuquerque.

Toyota was also quick to announce its line-up, which is considerably shorter as the Japanese constructor is the only marque to be entering just two cars this year. Last year’s drivers will all be back with the exception of Nicolas Lapierre, replaced by the substitute driver Mike Conway who competed in the latter rounds of the 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship. The Briton’s arrival has still meant a shake-up at Toyota. The World Endurance Champions Anthony Davidson and Sébastien Buemi will be joined by Kazuki Nakajima for his first full FIA WEC season. Mike Conway will be driving with Stéphane Sarrazin and Alexander Wurz, who has won Le Mans 24 Hours twice and is currently the race’s youngest ever winner.

Porsche, having returned to the prime endurance category in 2014, had also already announced its intention to continue with its two main teams, namely Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb, who won the last race of the 2014 FIA WEC season in São Paulo, as well as Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber. However, for the third car, Nico Hülkenberg was the only driver already designated for the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps and Le Mans. Team principal Andreas Seidl took the opportunity at the press conference to announce for Force India F1 driver's fellow team members. He will be working with Earl Bamber and Nick Tandy, both already GT factory drivers.

Nissan was the only marque yet to announce the names of all its drivers for Le Mans. Prior to the conference, only Marc Gené was a certainty. Winner of the Le Mans 24 hours in 2009 and runner-up last year, his name had already been brandished in the Super Bowl commercial for the GT-R LM NISMO. The Spanish driver is not the designated driver however as three other names were announced at the conference: Olivier Pla, the well-known LM P2 driver despite having won very few trophies, mainly due to the quick, reliable Toulouse-born driver’s bad luck, Harry Tincknell, who won the LM P2 category in 2014 as a rookie and Tsugio Matsuda, the current Japanese Super GT champion.

As for the private teams, Rebellion Racing is undecided as yet although the teams’ make-up is sure to be different in 2015 as this year’s designated drivers Nicolas Prost and Mathias Beche shared a car last year. There is also a question mark at Team ByKolles, ex-Lotus, as the only driver announced so far is the Swiss Simon Trummer.

Cécile Bonardel / ACO Translated by Emma Paulay

PHOTO: PARIS, FRANCE, PAVILLON CAMBON-CAPUCINES, THURSDAY 5 FEBRUARY 2015, ACO PRESS CONFERENCE. Andreas Seidl, Porsche team principal, announces the names of the drivers for the third Le Mans 24 Hours car.