Vanthoor brothers team up at WRT Audi in Blancpain GT

The brothers will share a WRT-run Audi R8 LMS in four of the five rounds that make up the renamed Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup in 2016.

The exception will be the Spa 24 Hours, when the elder Vanthoor will be teamed with fellow factory Audi drivers Rene Rast and Nico Muller.

Laurens Vanthoor told Autosport: "We obviously know each other very well, but I think the key will be to treat him as my team-mate rather than my brother.

"The only difference will be that if he is quicker than me, I will be proud of him rather than being upset."

Seventeen-year-old Formula Renault NEC graduate Dries explained that he was making the switch to sportscar racing after only one year of single-seaters in order to try to become a professional driver.

"I had a good first season, winning one race, but I looked at what my brother has done and decided to follow the same route," he said.

WRT boss Vincent Vosse revealed that he had been impressed by Dries on his first tests in an Audi R8 LMS at Zolder and Barcelona.

"He did a lot better than a lot of drivers on their first time in a sportscar, which was impressive given that he has only done one year of car racing," he said.

He hinted that the brothers could team up for a full season in the Sprint and Endurance Cups that make up the BGTS in 2017.

Dries will also contest the sister BGTS Sprint Cup, sharing one of five R8s entered by WRT in the Pro class with Robin Frijns.

Laurens will race in the Sprint Cup with Vervisch, who has been given a full-time ride with WRT after making his debut with the team in last year's series finale at Zandvoort.

Vosse explained that Frijns and Laurens Vanthoor will no longer share a car because Dutchman has landed a factory contract and it is Audi policy not to place two works drivers together in one car except at Spa.

Britons Michael Meadows and Stuart Leonard, who were part of WRT's winning line-up in the Dubai 24 Hours in January, will contest both the sprints and enduros in a WRT Audi, with Frijns joining them for the long races.

Brazilians Sergio Jimenez, a Blancpain regular with Antonio Hermann's AH Competicoes BMW team, and 18-year-old Rodrigo Baptista will race the fourth Sprint Cup entry, in which Audi factory driver Filipe Albuquerque will be the third driver for the endurance events.

Christopher Mies and Enzo Ide will continue their partnership in the BSS into a second season.

WRT will run four Pro cars in the Endurance Cup, except at the Spa 24 Hours when it expands to five with the addition of a full-factory car for Vanthoor, Rast and Muller.

A fourth endurance car will be driven by Peter Kox, Pierre Kaffer and Belgian Adrien de Leener.