24 Hours of Le Mans - Eight Ferraris to start the Sarthe classic
09 febbraio 2018
Paris, 9 February 2018 - The Super Season of the World Endurance Championship (WEC), the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) and, above all, the crews entered for the 24 hours of Le Mans in June were presented at the Parc des Expositions of Paris, near the Porte de Versailles, under heavy snowfall.
Eight Ferraris to line up. Eight Ferraris will line up at the start of the most famous endurance race in the world. Three will be in the GTE-Pro class, where the 488 GTEs no. 51 and no. 71 of AF Corse will be joined by Ferrari no. 52 also entered by the Piacenza based team. Five cars will be competing in the GTE-Am class. The new Japanese team MR Racing will filed a car for Motoaki Ishikawa, Olivier Beretta and Eddie Cheever III. British team JMW Motorsport, ELMS winner in 2017 and will have its mainly yellow car on the grid. Two more 488 GTE are the ones of the resident WEC teams Spirit of Race, with Giancarlo Fisichella, Francesco Castellacci and Thomas Flohr, and Clearwater Racing with Weng Sun Mok, Keita Sawa and Matt Griffin. Risi Competizione won’t be competing officially but will support Keating Motorsport with a 488 GTE for Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen.
WEC. In the World Endurance Championship, five Ferraris, two in GTE-Pro class and three in the GTE-Am, will compete in the entire Super Season, which takes place from May 2018 to June 2019. The season straddles two calendar years and includes two editions of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the second of which will close the championship. In addition to AF Corse cars no. 51 and 71, with world champion crew James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi, and Davide Rigon and Sam Bird both back for another season, there will be three 488 GTEs in the GTE-Am class: Clearwater Racing, Spirit Of Race and MR Racing. In the WEC Super Season Ferrari will face competition from major manufacturers such as Porsche, Aston Martin, Chevrolet, Ford and newcomer BMW. The championship opens on 5 May with the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
ELMS. Three Ferrari 488 GTEs are involved in the European Le Mans Series. Reigning champions JMW Motorsport will be there along with Krohn Racing with Andrea Bertolini, Tracy Krohn and Nic Jonsson and Spirit of Race, as usual, crewed by Duncan Cameron, Aaron Scott and Matt Griffin. The ELMS championship starts on 15 April at the Paul Ricard.