38-car grid locked in for 2023 FIA WEC season
The 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship will welcome 38 full-season entries, with 13 cars slated to race in the top HyperCar class.
New factory entries from Ferrari AF Corse, Porsche Penske Motorsport and Cadillac Racing (Ganassi) are set to be added to the returning efforts from Toyota Gazoo Racing and Peugeot Sport.
Glickenhaus Racing are also to return with a single car entry along with ByKolles Racing, entered in the new class under the Vanwall Racing banner with a non-hybrid machine that features 1997 F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve on the driver squad.
In addition, there are a pair of privately-entered Porsche 963 LMDH cars – one apiece for reigning LMP2 champions Hertz Team Jota and long-time GTE entrants Proton Competition. Whilst those two cars are set to join the championship after the first two races, the world championship’s highest tier should still feature a top-class entry into double figures for the opening round at Sebring in March.
The supporting cast comes from 11 full-season LMP2 cars and an impressive 14 GTE AM cars in what is likely to be the final year in the world championship for both classes .
LMP2’s 2023 entry displays why the class is likely to have just a single year left in its current run, with the Alpine, Prema, WRT and Vector Sport entries all having active plans for Hypercar programs in 2024. Jota, defending its 2022 championship, enters a single Oreca 07 ahead of a proposed doubling up of its HyperCar effort next season, too.
Whilst no firm plans have been announced for dual UK- and U.S.-owned United Autosports to move to HyperCar ,it would be a reasonable assumption to expect that its plans might be linked to the ambitions of team co-owner Zak Brown to bring the McLaren brand to the class by 2025.
Highlights in the GTE Am category, which will be replaced in 2024 by the new GT3-based LM GT3, include the appearance of a factory-entered Corvette C8.R for reigning class champion Ben Keating.
The Texan racer will be joined by factory driver Nick Catsburg for the season. He’ll go head to head once again with arch rivals Paul Dalla Lana, the Canadian set to start a ninth-consecutive WEC season with Aston Martin, and the all-female Iron Dames squad, which has switched to Porsche from Ferrari for 2023.
For more information: www.racer.com
For more information: www.racer.com
