Morand LMP2 team unlikely to race in Silverstone WEC opener

No formal announcement has been made, but AUTOSPORT has learned that key members of team staff have been told not to travel to the UK for the race and others who were already present advised to return home.

It is understood that a sale of the team to data encryption company Kairos Technologies that would have guaranteed its WEC assault with a pair of Morgan-Judd/BMW EVOs has so far failed to reach completion.

Kairos is still going through the due diligence process, but it appears unlikely that this will be completed in time for Morand to race at Silverstone where its trucks were not present on Wednesday evening.

Team boss Benoit Morand, who has entered into partnership with Japanese entrant SARD to mount a two-car LMP2 assault on the WEC, was not available for comment.

Morand said at the official WEC test at Paul Ricard one week later that the sale "had saved everything" and that the team would be "100 percent owned by Kairos".

He revealed earlier this week that the contractual negotiations had been taking more time than expected and that he hoped the team would be at Silverstone.

The two Team SARD Morand WEC entries are due to be driven in the WEC by Christian Klien, Koki Saga and Zoel Amberg, and Oliver Webb, Pierre Ragues and Tristan Vautier.

Morand has announced plans for a TV reality show entitled Raceto24 in which it would pick a driver from 24 hopefuls to take the seat initially filled by Vautier for Le Mans and the remainder of the WEC.