Yahoo Autos 62-car field for Le Mans Test Day
The entry list for Sunday’s Le Mans Test Day has been revealed ahead of Scrutineering today and tomorrow in the city center. It features all 62 cars entered in the race from the three classes.
As usual, the list of drivers differs from the full entry list for the race itself next weekend, as reserve drivers are called into action for factory teams and drivers with clashing commitments are scratched. As such, in Hypercar there are a number of names in the fourth and fifth driver columns, as the teams gunning for overall victory look to maximize track time and rotate drivers.
At Porsche Penske Motorsport, Dane Cameron is listed for all three 963s. The American is the nominated reserve for Porsche at this event following the selection of Mathieu Jaminet, Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy from its IMSA stable in the third car.
Meanwhile, Toyota’s roster sees Ritomo Miyata (who will race in LMP2 with COOL Racing) placed against both GR010 HYBRIDs for his first Hypercar run in public. The Toyota team is also making use of the fifth driver column for its entries as full-season drivers Mike Conway and Sebastien Buemi are listed against both cars too.
The BMW’s M Hybrid V8s will be steered by IMSA RLL drivers Nick Yelloly and Jesse Krohn in addition to WRT’s regular WEC sextet. Notably, Sheldon van der Linde, Rene Rast and Marco Wittmann are all expected to take part in the DTM round at Zandvoort this weekend too.
Lamborghini, like Toyota and BMW, has also nominated five drivers for each car for the first day of track action ahead of its first Le Mans with the SC63. Andrea Caldarelli, Jordan Pepper, Edoardo Mortara and Daniil Kvyatt are named against both the No. 19 and No. 63.
While Ferdinand Habsburg is down to make his return to Alpine for the first time since the opening round at Qatar after recovering from his injury sustained in testing before Imola, reserve Jules Gounon is set to feature. After filling in for the team at Imola and Spa, Gounon is down as a fourth driver for the No. 35 A424.
And finally, 20-year-old Peugeot reserve Malthe Jakobsen is named against both 2024 Peugeot 9X8s as well as the No. 37 COOL Racing ORECA which he is set to share with Lorenzo Fluxa and Ritomo Miyata for the race.
There are also some notable blank spaces on the entry due to the clashing IndyCar Series round at Road America this weekend.
In the full-season WEC Chip Ganassi Racing-run Cadillac Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn will drive without their guest third driver Alex Palou. IndyCar teammate Scott Dixon is also not available to drive the No. 3 IMSA Ganassi Cadillac, so Tristan Vautier will replace him after being nominated as a reserve for the event.
“We are pleased to have Tristan join us as a reserve driver for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Tristan has been part of the Cadillac family in the past and has been friends of CGR for quite some time,” said Mike O’Gara, Chip Ganassi Racing director of operations. “With a race as important as Le Mans, you can never be over-prepared. Having Tristan on stand-by will only make our program stronger.”
In LMP2, Kyffin Simpson will also not be present to test the No. 24 Nielsen Racing ORECA he will share with Fabio Scherer and David Heinemeier Hansson and the No. 22 United Autosports ORECA is down to two drivers due to Nolan Siegel’s absence.
Three cars remain on the reserve list, all with a driver named. These are the No. 79 Proton Porsche 963, and two LMP2 ORECAs from Inter Europol and Staysail, with Gianmaria Bruni, Clement Novalak and Michael Dinan nominated to drive.
