WEC 2024: All drivers and teams
Many of the drivers who were in 2023 will repeat this year, with the Cadillac, Porsche, Peugeot, Toyota and Ferrari teams maintaining their lineups to a greater or lesser extent. There are changes, with the arrival of Nyck de Vries at Toyota (since Pechito López will race with Lexus in GT3) or the union of Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Robert Shwartzman in the third AF Corse Ferrari 499P. Alex García and Jean-Karl Vernay will drive the Isotta Fraschini while Jota will drive two cars, with Jenson Button, Will Stevens, Callum Ilott and Norman Nato in their ranks. In Alpine, Mick Schumacher, Charles Milesi and Nicolas Lapierre will share one of the A424s while Daniil Kvyat, Edo Mortara and Mirko Bortolotti will drive the Lamborghini SC63.
The Spanish presence in Hypercar does not change, with Miguel Molina wearing the Ferrari colors after an exemplary season in which he contributed to his team’s third final position with two second places and two third places. Antonio Fuoco and Nicklas Nielsen will once again be his teammates, with Antonio Giovinazzi, James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi in the other official Ferrari.
In total there will be 19 Hypercars running full time – five of them Porsche, with two official units and three private ones, three Ferrari, two Toyota, two Alpine, one Lamborghini, two BMW, two Peugeot, the Isotta Fraschini and the Cadillac that will run all tests. It is expected that a few more cars will be added for Le Mans, up to around 23-24 cars – it is expected that it will be the other two Cadillacs and the third Penske Porsche from IMSA that arrive, as well as some other units. Speaking of the IMSA, these 24 Hours of Daytona have served many drivers who will compete in the WEC in preparation and to get into rhythm for the season. Lamborghini, in fact, has done the previous tests, although it will only run the IMSA endurance races.
As far as LMGT3 is concerned, there are still many seats to be confirmed, although there are very interesting names confirmed such as Augusto Farfus, Marino Sato, Davide Rigon, Michelle Gatting and the rest of Iron Dames, Dennis Olsen, Kelvin van der Linde, ‘Pechito ‘ López, Charlie Eastwood or Marco Sorensen, among others. Without a doubt, one who is going to be a media attraction will be Valentino Rossi, making his debut in the WEC at the controls of one of the WRT team’s BMW M4 GT3.
There will also be a Spanish presence among the LMGT3 as Dani Juncadella will drive the number 82 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, with TF Sport being the team that will field the two Corvettes in the WEC. Juncadella will share a car with Sébastien Baud and Hiroshi Koizumi, with Eastwood, Tom van Rompuy and Rui Andrade driving the other Corvette, distinguishable since they will have different decorations.
With these ingredients, the WEC has in its hands the recipe to be a great competition, both at Le Mans and in the rest of the calendar. In the old days, in the era of the WSCC and Group C, the resistance reached such a point that it made Formula 1 tremble in popularity (until the FIA got involved in 1991, leading to the championship being knocked down only by forcing the teams to have 3.5 naturally aspirated engines just like in F1). Today, the WEC has a rather niche following, even compared to the World Rally Championship…but that may change throughout this year both due to the driver roster and the quality of the races in both categories.
