A complete entry list for the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship season-opening 1812km race in Qatar next month has been revealed.
The race will have a capacity grid of 37 full-season cars across the two classes, with 19 cars in Hypercar and 18 in LMGT3.
In Hypercar, the driver list is complete for the race which will serve as the global debut for Alpine’s A424, Lamborghini’s SC63, and Isotta Fraschini’s Tipo 6. It is also expected to be the final race for the ‘wing-less’ Peugeot 9X8, with the 2024-spec model set to debut in Round 2 at Imola.
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Cadillac Racing’s line-up for its single V-Series.R, is formally confirmed here. Ganassi IMSA GTP driver Sebastien Bourdais, as expected, is named alongside Alex Lynn and Earl Bamber. Later in the season the No. 2 is expected to compete with two drivers – Lynn and Bamber – for the races which don’t mandate a third.
Elsewhere, it is notable that the single Tipo 6 in the class is entered under the Isotta Fraschini banner. The Italian marque had requested a name change to Isotta Fraschini Duqueine, to reflect the new sporting partnership between the two organisations. As the request came too late – after the entry deadline – it was rejected by the WEC Committee.
Isotta’s recent driver line-up changes are also reflected on this entry list, with Thai-American teenage racer Carl Wattana Bennett joining Jean-Karl Vernay and Canadian Antoine Serravalle. Initially, 2023 ELMS LMP3 champion Alejandro Garcia was signed up, but Bennett was named as a surprise replacement late last week.
“I am very curious to see how this mix of youth and experience will work in a really competitive championship like the FIA WEC,” Isotta motorsport manager Claudio Berro says of the line-up.
“For Isotta Fraschini, these three drivers in the team are key since they’re going to become ambassadors of the brand in Europe, North America, and Asia, three strategic areas from a commercial point of view.”
Finally, Proton Competition’s Porsche 963 also has a complete driver crew now, with Neel Jani and Harry Tincknell joined by Julien Andlauer, who is fresh from an Asian Le Mans Series LMP2 campaign with the German team.
In LMGT3, after United Autosports named Josh Caygill as the final driver in its roster yesterday, the full list of names is now complete, with three drivers listed against all 18 cars ahead of the Prologue and opening race.
The Prologue (pre-season testing) gets underway in Doha, Qatar, from 24-25 February before the season-opening Qatar 1812km the following weekend (1-2 March).