First wave of 2019 Le Mans 24 Hours entries revealed
The first 42 cars on the entry list for this year's Le Mans 24 Hours have been unveiled
The confirmed entries are those of full-time competitors in the World Endurance Championship who have gained guaranteed spots in the race, which is the final round of the 2018/19 superseason.
It had originally been announced by race organiser the Automobile Club de l'Ouest that 50 cars would be announced today.
The publication of just 42 entries means that a further 18 cars will be revealed on March 1, along with 10 reserves.
These will include the four entrants that will gain invitations for their success in the 2018/19 Asian Le Mans Series, which climaxes at Sepang on February 24.
It is expected that Corvette Racing, which will be returning to Le Mans for the 20th consecutive year, and the US arm of the Chip Ganassi Ford squad will take four of the 14 spots still up for grabs.
Porsche has already announced a four-car attack for the 2019 race.
The first wave of Le Mans entries is made up of 34 WEC regulars and eight cars that have been awarded race invites for their success in the European Le Mans Series, the IMSA SportsCar Championship and the Michelin Le Mans Cup.
Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button is listed in the #11 SMP Racing BRE-AER BR1 alongside Vitaly Petrov and Mikhail Aleshin as expected.
The Briton's return to the ART-run squad's line-up after missing the next two WEC rounds at Sebring next month and Spa in May had already been confirmed.
Ginetta, which had been a full-season WEC effort, is absent from the Le Mans entries revealed so far.
The entry includes the German ByKolles LMP1 squad, which will be absent from next month's Sebring 1000 Miles WEC round for what the team is describing as reasons for "force majeure".
ByKolles has stated that it will be back in the WEC at Spa on May 4.
The team's sporting director Manfredi Ravetto refused to comment on speculation that the team is about to have a change of engine supplier from Nissan.
"The reason we will not be at Sebring involves a third-party supplier," he said.
"It is a case of force majeure and I cannot comment on it."
The publication of the entry list confirmed that Daniel Serra and Miguel Molina will again be the third drivers in Ferrari's two regular WEC entries run by AF Corse.
Ferrari and Porsche are the only manufacturers to confirm all three drivers for their factory GTE Pro entries.
BMW has only listed one driver in each of its two MTEK-run M8 GTEs.
In GTE Am, Ford will also have its first GT customer team with Keating Motorsports confirmed as running one car.
The rules of the race require teams to nominate only one driver at this stage.
First-time entrants at Le Mans this year include the British RLR Msport.
It will field an LMP2 ORECA-Gibson 07 after gaining an automatic entry for winning the LMP3 title in last year's ELMS.
The ACO has revealed that it received 75 applications for entries for the 87th running of the 24 Hours.
Initial 2019 Le Mans 24 Hours entries
No. | Class | Team | Car | Drivers |
1 | LMP1 | Rebellion Racing | Rebellion R13-Gibson | Neel Jani, Andre Lotterer, Bruno Senna |
3 | LMP1 | Rebellion Racing | Rebellion R13-Gibson | Thomas Laurent, Nathanael Berthon, Gustavo Menezes |
4 | LMP1 | ByKolles Racing Team | ENSO CLM P1/01-Nissan | Tom Dillmann |
7 | LMP1 | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Toyota TS050 HYBRID | Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez |
8 | LMP1 | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Toyota TS050 HYBRID | Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, Fernando Alonso |
10 | LMP1 | DragonSpeed | BR Engineering BR1-Gibson | Henrik Hedman, Ben Hanley, Renger van der Zande |
11 | LMP1 | SMP Racing | BR Engineering BR1-AER | Vitaly Petrov, Mikhail Aleshin, Jenson Button |
17 | LMP1 | SMP Racing | BR Engineering BR1-AER | Stephane Sarrazin, Egor Orudzhev, Sergey Sirotkin |
26 | LMP2 | G-Drive Racing | ORECA 07-Gibson | Romain Rusinov |
28 | LMP2 | TDS Racing | ORECA 07-Gibson | Francois Perrodo, Matthieu Vaxiviere, Loic Duval |
29 | LMP2 | Racing Team Nederland | Dallara P217 07-Gibson | Frits van Eerd, Giedo van der Garde, Nyck de Vries |
31 | LMP2 | DragonSpeed | ORECA 07-Gibson | Roberto Gonzalez, Pastor Maldonado, Anthony Davidson |
26 | LMP2 | Signatech Alpine | Alpine A470-Gibson | Nico Lapierre, Andre Negrao, Pierre Thiriet |
37 | LMP2 | Jackie Chan DC Racing | ORECA 07-Gibson | David Heinemeier Hansson |
38 | LMP2 | Jackie Chan DC Racing | ORECA 07-Gibson | Ho-Pin Tung, Stephane Richelmi, Gabriel Aubry |
43 | LMP2 | RLR M Sport | ORECA 07-Gibson | John Farano |
50 | LM2 | Larbre Competition | Ligier JSP217-Gibson | Erwin Creed, Romano Ricci |
51 | GTE Pro | AF Corse | Ferrari 488 GTE Evo | Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Daniel Serra |
66 | GTE Pro | Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK | Ford GT | Stefan Mucke, Olivier Pla |
67 | GTE Pro | Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK | Ford GT | Andy Priaulx, Harry Tincknell |
71 | GTE Pro | AF Corse | Ferrari 488 GTE Evo | Davide Rigon, Sam Bird, Miguel Molina |
81 | GTE Pro | BMW Team MTEK | BMW M8 GTE | Nicky Catsburg |
82 | GTE Pro | BMW Team MTEK | BMW M8 GTE | Augusto Frafus |
91 | GTE Pro | Porsche GT Team | Porsche 911 RSR | Richard Lietz, Gianmaria Bruni, Fred Makowiecki |
92 | GTE Pro | Porsch GT Team | Porsche 911 RSR | Michael Christensen, Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor |
95 | GTE Pro | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | Nicki Thiim, Marco Sorensen |
97 | GTE Pro | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | Maximie Martin, Alex Lynn |
54 | GTE Am | Spirit of Race | Ferrari 488 GTE | Thomas Flohr, Francesco Castellacci, Giancarlo Fisichella |
56 | GTE Am | Team Project 1 | Porsche 911 RSR | Jorg Bergmeister, Patrick Lindsey, Egidio Perfetti |
61 | GTE Am | Clearwater Racing | Ferarri 488 GTE | Luis Perez Companc, Matt Griffin, Matteo Cressoni |
62 | GTE Am | Weathertech Racing | Ferrari 488 GTE | Cooper Macneil |
70 | GTE Am | MR Racing | Ferrari 488 GTE | Motoaki Ishikawa, Olivier Beretta, Eddie Cheever |
77 | GTE Am | Dempset-Proton Racing | Porsche 911 RSR | Matt Campbell |
88 | GTE Am | Dempsey-Proton Racing | Porsche 911 RSR | Satoshi Hoshino, Gianluca Roda, Matteo Cairoli |
99 | GTE Am | Dempsey-Proton Racing | Porsche 911 RSR | Patrick Long |
78 | GTE Am | Proton Competition | Porsche 911 RSR | Chen |
84 | GTE Am | JMW Motorsport | Ferrari 488 GTE | Jonny Cocker |
85 | GTE Am | Keating Motorsports | Ford GT | Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen, Felipe Fraga |
86 | GTE Am | Gulf Racing | Porsche 911 RSR | Michael Wainwright, Ben Barker |
90 | GTE Am | TF Sport | Aston Martin Vantage | Salih Yoluc, Eaun Alers-Hankey, Charlie Eastwood |
98 | GTE Am | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin Vantage | Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy, Mathias Lauda |
60 | GTE Am | Kessel Racing | Ferrari 488 GTE | Claudio Schiavoni |
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