Abril replaces Meyrick in works Blancpain Endurance Series Bentley
Andy Meyrick will be replaced in the M-Sport Bentley team's Blancpain Endurance Series line-up by Vincent Abril in 2016
Twenty-year-old Abril, who won this year's Blancpain Sprint Series together with factory driver Maximilian Buhk aboard an HTP Bentley, will be a direct replacement for Meyrick in M-Sport's lead factory Continental GT3 in the five-event BES.
That means he will be teamed with Steven Kane and Guy Smith, who finished runner-up in the BES together with Meyrick in 2014 and '15.
Bentley motorsport boss Brian Gush told Autosport: "This move is in line with our policy of moving young talent through the programme; Vincent did well for us this year with HTP Motorsport and showed he is a contender."
Abril, who is managed by ex-Formula 1 driver Olivier Panis, won the BSS with the works-supported HTP team in 2015 in only his fifth season of racing.
The Frenchman started racing in the French SEAT Leon Supercopa in 2011 and moved into the international arena with a BSS assault with the WRT Audi squad last year via the French GT Championship.
Gush stressed that Meyrick would not be ending his association with Bentley.
"Andy will be doing some races with our customer teams, maybe in Asia or the USA," he explained.
He likened Meyrick's continuing role with Bentley to that of Duncan Tappy, who was placed with the Absolute squad in GT Asia after losing his factory deal for 2015.
The line-up in the second M-Sport Bentley in the BES will be retained for next season: Buhk will again be partnered by Andy Soucek and Maxime Soulet.
"The drivers in car #8 have started to gel really well and we expect big things of them," said Gush.
Abril will make his debut with M-Sport in the Sepang 12 Hours on December 13.
Bentley is fielding two factory cars in the Malaysian event, which has been taken over by Blancpain series organiser the Stephane Ratel Organisation for this season.
"Asia is an important market for us and then the same cars will move on to Bathurst for the 12 Hours in February," explained Gush.
The M-Sport Bentley team joins an entry for Sepang that already includes WRT, which announced its driver line-up last month.
SRO has revealed that it already has 13 GT3 cars entered for Sepang.
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