Category: Endurance

Jules Gounon will have a three-fold debut at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari this weekend, when the second round of the FIA World Endurance Championship 2024 is to be run. The French driver will replace Austrian Ferdinand Habsburg for Alpine Endurance Team, since Habsburg is still recovering from the back injury, that he sustained during an Alpine test at Motorland Aragon, at the end of March. Not only has Gounon never raced in the FIA WEC before, he has never raced a Hypercar, nor has he raced for the Alpine…

The spectators for this year’s FIA World Endurance Championship round at Spa Francorchamps, will experience two very different hydrogen cars. The Belgian track will have both the H24 car, which is developed by MissionH24, and the Alpine Alpenglow, which is developed by the French car manufacturer. While the H24 has fuel cell technology, i.e. turning it into power and then driving some electrical motors, the Alpenglow has an internal combustion engine, which is fueled by hydrogen. This is the world debut of the brand new car, which previously has been…

Peugeot TotalEnergies has shown the first official pictures of their updated 9X8 for the FIA World Endurance Championship 2024. The French manufacturer has come up with a new development of their radical design, that was first raced at Monza in July 2022. 90% of the bodywork has been changed, including adding a small rear wing. It’s not as predominant as on all the other Hypercars in the FIA WEC, but a small low one – a bit like on the old 905 model from the 90s. The changes also includes…

Four-time Formula 1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel will be testing for Porsche Penske Motorsport. The German will be a part of the 36-hour endurance test, that the German outfit will do at Motorland Aragon in Spain, as preparation for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It is however not determined yet, if he is going to race for the team, or if it’s only a test. He has already done the first meters in the 963, since he did a short Rollout in Weissach, to check all systems. In addition…

Alpine Endurance Team has shown the colors and drivers, prior to the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship start later this month. The brand new Alpine A424 is built to the LMDh regulations, and will compete in the Hypercar category in the FIA WEC. If the team would wish to do so, they could also enter IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, where the technical base fits into the GTP category. But before doing so, it would have to go through a technical process and tests, just like everybody else wishing to compete…

BMW M Team WRT has named all six drivers for their LMDh programme in the FIA World Endurance Championship 2024. When the entry list was announced late November, we already saw Dries Vanthoor in car #15, and Sheldon van der Linde in car #20. Raffaele Marciello has left Mercedes after a lot of seasons, and has become a BMW works driver. “Lello” has won pretty much everything worth winning in GT3, but now he will make the jump into Prototype racing in the Hypercar category. He will be sharing car…

Proton Competition has announced their six drivers and the colors for their two brand new Ford Mustang GT3 cars in the FIA World Endurance Championship 2024. Five of the six drivers are well-known drivers at the German team, but all have Porsche experience from the past. Car #77 will be driven by Ryan Hardwick, Zacherie Robichon, and Ben Barker. Hardwick and Robichon won the ELMS GTE title in 2023 with Proton in a Porsche, and had IMSA success prior to that. Hardwick has been one of the best Bronze-rated drivers…

Ferrari AF Corse has confirmed their Hypercar team in the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship will remain unchanged. Miguel Molina, Antonio Fuoco, and Nicklas Nielsen will once again race in car #50, while James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi, and Antonio Giovinazzi remain onboard car #51. The team made their debut with the 499P model at Sebring in 2023, grabbing a shock Pole Position in their very first attempt. The race didn’t run quite as smooth, but they did finish on the Sebring podium, followed up at the second round in…

Toyota Gazoo Racing will change the livery of their racing cars in 2024. After running primarily white and red colors on the cars in both the FIA World Endurance Championship and the FIA World Rally Championship for many seasons, the coor will switch to primarily black, with a very clear GR logo. The two GR010 Hybrid cars will bi piloted by Mike Conway, Nyck de Vries and team boss Kamui Kobayashi in car #7, while the defending World Champions Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, and Ryo Hirakawa will continue in car #8.…

TF Sport has filled their seats in the first of their two Corvette Z06 GT3.R in the FIA World Endurance Championship 2024. The British team has previously announced Charlie Eastwood as the new Corvette factory driver, and lead driver of car #81. Rui Andrade and Tom van Rompuy was announced today as his two teammates. Andrade arrives as newly crowned LMP2 champion in the FIA WEC, which he won with Team WRT. The Angolian driver has been doing very well for the last couple of years in both the FIA…

Marco Sørensen has gotten a new works deal with Aston Martin Racing. The 33 year old Dane has signed a new multi-year deal with the British sportscar brand, for which he has raced for since 2015. It’s been some quite successful years for Sørensen. He won the GTE Pro title alongside Nicki Thiim in 2016 – something he did again in the 2019/20 season. They continued to race together for just one season more, before the GTE Pro programme was shut down, following the car company being bought by Lawrence…

Hertz Team JOTA has announced another three drivers for their 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship programme. When the FIA WEC entry list was revealed two weeks ago, we already had Will Stevens confirmed in the Porsche 963 #12. He will be joined by Callum Ilott and Norman Nato. Ilott is a former Ferrari Junior driver, but left that programme, when there was no obvious chance of a Formula 1 seat for him. He did get a taste of sportscar racing prior to leaving the Italian brand, including competing at the…

Alpine has announced their six drivers for the upcoming Hypercar programme in the FIA World Endurance Championship 2024. There is no surprise about three of the names, since those drivers has been attached to Alpine on/off during the resent past. Nicolas Lapierre, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Charles Milesi has been part of the French team for some time, and has been part of the development of the new Alpine A424, which is build by ORECA, and based on the LMDh regulations. The three new names to the team is Ferdinand Habsburg, Paul-Loup…

Floyd Vanwall Racing Team #4 already has received the first penalty for the FIA World Endurance Championship race in Bahrain. Esteban Guerrieri was heading back towards the pit, towards the end of the FP3, but with just over 5 minutes remaining, the Argentinian decided to loosen his seat belts already in Turn 11 – i.e. way way before he had entered the pitlane. The whole episode was caught on the onboard camera from the car, and was even broadcast live on the YouTube feet. And such a thing, will be…

The Qualifying session for the FIA World Endurance Championship will be changed for the 2024 season. The changes comes into force, in an already big change of the race format, with LMP2 and GTE Am dropping out, and being replaced by the new LMGT3 category. Those are the well known GT3 cars from other championships, but with iluminated numbers, and the three colors dots on each side of the car, indicating top 3. But that in itself has nothing with the qualifying to do. The change is that Hypercar will…