Everything is ready at La Sarthe for the official test of the 89th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. A test session embedded in the same week of the race that will kick off one of the most important events of the year. With the decision to include the official test on a date so close to the start of the competition, the list of registrants for this test session is used to define the latest changes within the participants. In this aspect, two GTEs and the Box 56 LMP2 present novelties in their driver line-ups for the queen of the WEC.
Without a doubt, the most relevant news is the absence of Davide Rigon in the Ferrari # 52 of the LMGTE-Pro class. Injuries after his heavy accident at the 24 Hours of Spa prevent Rigon from joining forces with Miguel Molina and Daniel Serra at La Sarthe. Sam Bird will be in charge of replacing Rigon in the official GTE of the Italian brand. In addition, within the LMGTE-Am class there is also a driver change in one of Proton’s Porsche. Briton Harry Tincknell replaces Patrick Long in Porsche # 99, the result of the collaboration agreement between Multimatic and Proton to align this fifth GTE at Le Mans.
As in the case of Davide Rigon, an injury to François Heriau has forced the SRT41 team to modify the adapted LMP2 driver line-up that will compete in Box 56. Matthieu Lahaye to partner with Nigel Bailly and Takuma Aoki, pilots with different spinal injuries. What’s more, Robby Foley pulls up in Project 1’s Porsche # 46 in LMGTE-Am, while Jody Fannin replaces him in the Ferrari from JMW Motorsport. On the sidelines of the race actor and driver Michael Fassbender is among the additional drivers who will participate in the official Le Mans test. Fassbender will theoretically drive Proton’s # 77 Porsche.