24h Le Mans
Two weeks before the 6 Hours of Silverstone, the third round of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) 2018-19 Super Season, the entry list has been cut to 34 cars following the withdrawal of the two Ginettas from the LMP1 field.
Ginetta, the designer of the G60-LT-P1 entered by CEFC TRSM Racing (Manor), has announced in a short media release that its two cars will miss the 6 Hours of Silverstone on 19 August following a change of engine supplier.
The British manufacturer had decided to swap the Mecachrome engine that had underperformed at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with an AER twin-turbo V6 engine. However, the amount of work needed to integrate the new unit will keep CEFC TRSM Racing out of the running at Silverstone, much to the disappointment of the British drivers who had been looking forward to racing on their home track.
British fans will still have something to cheer about as former F1 world champion Jenson Button will again compete in the #11 BR Engineering BR1-AER in the colours of SMP Racing, following his retirement in the final stages of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, along with Vitaly Petrov and Mikhail Aleshin. Just two drivers – Stéphane Sarrazin and Egor Orudzhev – will take turns at the wheel of the #17 sister car. Matevos Isaakyan, who crashed out at Spa and Le Mans, is omitted from the entry list.
There is also a change to the ByKolles Racing Team line-up. René Binder, who will be testing the high-downforce aero package next week, will appear alongside Oliver Webb and an as yet unnamed third driver.
As already announced, several driver line-ups will change in LMP2. Anthony Davidson will replace Frenchman Nathanaël Berthon in the #31 Oreca for DragonSpeed while Jan Lammers, who won the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Jaguar back in 1988, will give way to Nyck de Vries in the #29 Dallara of Racing Team Nederland, and Yoshiharu Mori will take the place of Thomas Dagoneau in the #50 Ligier of Larbre Compétition.
Finally, Aston Martin Racing announced yesterday that it would be running two-driver crews, like all its LMGTE Pro rivals, for the remaining three WEC rounds to be raced in 2018, with Jonny Adam joining the ranks of TF Sport in the #90 Aston Martin Vantage in the LMGTE Am class.
The 6 Hours of Silverstone will start at 12:00 BST on Sunday 19 August 2018.
