On the next Sunday, November 5th, the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain will host the rookies test of the World Endurance Championship (WEC), one day after the end of the season. The lineup of present drivers is already known.
In the Hypercar category, Toyota will only have one car, which will be shared by Ben Barnicoat, Jack Hawksworth (who have been standing out in the IMSA SportsCar Championship in GTD Pro) and Josh Pierson, in addition to the regular driver José María López. Ferrari AF Corse will also have only one car, with Lilou Wadoux and Robert Shwartzman. For the Russian, it will be his first time in a Hypercar, after debuting this year in sportscars. In the same conditions will be Cadillac Racing, whose V-Series.R will be driven by Kyffin Simpson and Nicolas Varrone.
There will be three Porsches: the Porsche Penske with the DTM champion Thomas Preining and an as yet undefined driver; the Hertz Team JOTA with Pietro Fittipaldi, who usually competes in LMP2; and the Proton with Julien Andlauer and René Binder. Peugeot will bring its two 9X8 cars, both with Stoffel Vandoorne: he will share #93 with Mikkel Jensen and #94 with Malthe Jacobsen. There is also the presence of Flyod Vanwal, whose car will be driven by Esteban Guerrieri and Job van Uitert.
There will be five LMP2 cars, but only three have already announced drivers: Inter Europol Competition will have Clément Novalak, who has spent the last few years in single-seaters; United Autosports will line up with Daniel Schneider; and Prema will bet on Harry Tincknell, PJ Hyett, and the two-time champion of the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) Paul-Loup Chatin.
Finally, the LMGTE Am – a category that will disappear in 2023 – will gather four cars. AF Corse will have Christoph Ulrich in one of their Ferraris and Nicola Marinangeli in the other, Corvette will bet on Antoine Doquin and Nicky Catsburg, and Richard Mille AF Corse will have Lorenzo Patrese in a Ferrari. This is the son of former Formula 1 driver Riccardo Patrese.
Entry list at this link.
