Driver signings round-up
So after a hectic month of driver signings we thought we would cover the main ones: WEC, British GT and Blancpain all in one place!
FIA World Endurance Series
With the press launch and Prologue just around the corner, the teams are gearing up for what will no doubt be another stellar year of driver/car performances.
New team Manor announced their drivers. First up is ex-Formula 1 racer Will Stephens who joins from ‘sister team’ Manor Marrussia F1. He will join the returning James Jakes who drove for the team in GP3 and Formula 3. New faces to the team are Matt Rao, the British F3 Championship runner up and 2015 LMP2 Le Mans winner Richard Bradley. Bradley benefits from having an in-depth knowledge of the ORECA 05 sports car having raced it throughout 2015.
Nelson Piquet Jr will join the Rebellion Racing team in LMP1 as team mate to Nicolas Prost and Nick Heidfield driving the #12 Rebellion R-One. Also in the LMP1 class Oliver Webb joins the other privateer team ByKOLLES in the CLM P1/01 along side Pierre Kaffer and Simon Trummer.
Looking to have her first start in the 24 hours of Le Mans is 25 year old Inés Taittinger who joins the Pegasus Racing team for the ELMS series, so far the only female driver confirmed for the 24 hrs in June. Also in ELMS P2 Frenchman Timothé Buret join forces with Olivier Panis in the Panis-Barthez Compétition Ligier JS P2.
British GT
In the British GT series there has been signings galore in both GT3 and GT4 classes!
Lanan Racing confirmed Joey Foster and Alex Reed will drive the new Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport. Simpson Motorsport will also be running the new Cayman GT4 with Nick Jones and Scott Malvern. Another new car and driver pairing for the GT4 class will be the Ebor GT Maserati GranTurismo MC piloted by Abbie Eaton and Marcus Hoggarth.
Stratton have confirmed a 2 car GT4 entry with an Aston Martin Vantage driven by David Tinn and Robin Marriot, along with an Ex-works Lotus Evora with Robin Shute and Will Hunholz on board.
Meanwhile in the GT3 class former single seater racing Seb Morris is to make his sportscar debut in the Team Parker Bentley Continental GT3. In an Audi R8 LMS GT3, Will Moore and Ryan Ratcliffe will be the drivers for Optimum Motorsports. And last but no means least the Black Bull Ecurrie Ecosse team will return to the championship in the McLaren 650S GT3 with two new drivers – Rob Bell and Alasdair McCaig.
Blancpain GT Series
With 50 cars taking part in the recent two day test at Paul Ricard, this certainly has to be seen as one of the fastest growing GT championships!
Tom Onslow-Cole has joined the Bentley Team Parker Racing outfit and will drive their Continental GT3 alongside Ian Loggie and Callum Macleod for the full season in the Endurance Cup.
Signing a 3 year deal, South African driver David Perel will drive the Ferrari 488 GT3 for Kessel Racing coming to the team after his maiden season of GT racing in the Italian GT Cup. And Kaspersky Motorsport will also compete in the Endurance Cup in a Ferrari 488 GT3, with the support of AF Corse. Their drivers will be Garry Kondakov, Riccardo Ragazzi and Alex Moiseev.
Former British GT Championship winning drivers Leo Machitki and Marco Attard have joined forces with Barwell Motorsport in a Lamborghini GT3 to compete in the Endurance Cup. Both former Barwell drivers Machitski won the GT3 drivers title in 2006 and Attard claimed the crown in 2014.
Also in Blancpain, Sturan Moore will be driving with the McLaren GT Factory Driver line up of Rob Bell, Côme Ledogar, Alvaro Parente and Shane van Gisbergen who will join forces with Moore in the recently announced McLaren GT Driver Academy as part of bold plans by customer team Garage 59 to contest the Blancpain Endurance Series and Blancpain Sprint Series.
With so many drivers and teams to cover you can be sure that we have missed one or two out! However we will be covering all the races in these series this year here on Prescott Motorsport so please check back form time to time, or sign up to our newsletter. You can also follow us on Twitter @FromTheTribune
