The World Endurance Championship has released details on a list of 39 cars for the entire season, including two of the brand new Peugeot 9 × 8 hypercars.
However, Peugeot, which launches as Peugeot TotalEnergies, is unlikely to be launched until the 6 Hours of Monza in July as it continues an extensive testing program that began just before Christmas with a preliminary shakedown. This means that it would not be present on the flagship model of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The hypercar class includes six entries with an Alpine and a Glickenhaus joining the Toyotas and Peugeots.
But there’s no room for the ByKolles operation, which aims to prepare a non-hybrid hypercar for the race in 2022. This project is now in doubt as the WEC rules insist that only participants registered for the season can race.
The Germany-based but Austrian team reportedly had plans to reintroduce the Vanwall name to their new car.
Colin Kolles is believed to have secured the Vanwall trademark to baptize the team’s new car as Vanwall Vandervell in reference to the former Formula 1 designer who co-founded nine Grand- Brought prix wins.
The 2022 WEC season will kick off at Sebring in March and will include a record-breaking LMP2 entry with 15 vehicles and a GTE engagement for the entire season of the Corvette Racing stable as it tries to do it with Ferrari and Porsche with Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy to contest.
Robert Kubica has moved to the new Prema sports car team, supported by Orlen, and is supported by his 2021 WRT European Le Mans Series and his Le Mans team-mate Louis Deletraz and Formula 3 race winner Lorenzo Colombo.
Kubica, Deletraz and Yifei Ye won the ELMS title together last year.
Penske is carrying out an LMP2 entry for 2022 in preparation for the new Porsche hypercar project next year and has the veteran Emmanuel Collard – winner of the Sebring 12 Hours in 2008 with a Penske-operated Porsche RS Spyder – for the innovations that have already been announced won Porsche works drivers Dane Cameron and Felipe Nasr.
Another new team to join the LMP2 this season is Silverstone-based Vector Sports, which recently signed Sebastien Bourdais and Nico Mueller to share the cockpit with Ryan Cullen.
Ex-Sauber and Haas F1 driver Esteban Gutierrez will make his WEC debut for the Dutch Inter Europol Competition squad alongside regular drivers Jakub Smiechowski and Alex Brundle.
The reigning LMP2 champion WRT will have former Jota driver Sean Gelael and two other nominated drivers compete in his title-winning ORECA. The Belgian team will field a second car under the Real Team by WRT banner for the Portuguese racing driver Rui Andrade.
Jota has replaced retired Anthony Davidson with ex-Marussia F1 driver Will Stevens, while the UK team for the sister car that drove with Gelael, Tom Blomqvist and Stoffel Vandoorne last year includes former IndyCar driver Ed Jones, Jonathan Aberdein and ex-HWA Racelab F3 driver Oliver Rasmussen.
United Autosports has again signed up with two cars with the partnership between Filipe Albuquerque and Phil Hanson and Will Owen. The American previously drove in the ELMS for Zak Brown and Richard Dean’s team from 2017 to 2020.
In the sister part of United Autosports, Alex Lynn, the class winner of Le Mans and Sebring, joins the former Mazda IMSA driver Oliver Jarvis and the American teenager Josh Pierson, who was the youngest Le Mans in June at the age of 16 and 117 days – Wants to be a starter of all time.
Richard Mille Racing is staying in the WEC for a second season as French racing driver Lilou Wadoux has signed up for the entire campaign in an all-female car for all but one of the last seasons.
As in 2021, the LMGTE Am category comprises 13 entries.
2018 class champion Nicki Thiim is returning to the WEC after a season break, sharing an Aston Martin Vantage with Paul Dalla Lana and former British GT and VLN driver David Pittard.
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