WEC confirms 36-car grid for 2018/19 super season
The FIA World Endurance Championship will feature an expanded 36-car grid for the 2018/19 'super season' after a rise in numbers for three of the series' four classes, including a boom for the top LMP1 tier.
Following Porsche's decision to end its LMP1 programme after the 2017 season, Toyota has been left as the sole manufacturer in the WEC's premier class, but will be joined by eight privateer operations for the 'super season' and 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The FIA World Endurance Championship will feature an expanded 36-car grid for the 2018/19 'super season' after a rise in numbers for three of the series' four classes, including a boom for the top LMP1 tier.
Following Porsche's decision to end its LMP1 programme after the 2017 season, Toyota has been left as the sole manufacturer in the WEC's premier class, but will be joined by eight privateer operations for the 'super season' and 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Rebellion Racing and ByKolles will both return to LMP1 for 2018/19, with additional entries Manor, SMP Racing (both two cars) and DragonSpeed (one car) lifting the field to 10 cars.
GTE-Pro will feature 10 cars as planned, with Ford, Ferrari, Aston Martin, BMW and Porsche each fielding two full-season entries. Ford and Porsche will bring an additional two cars from the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, while Corvette will make its annual double-entry to the race. A third Ferrari will also feature at the Circuit de la Sarthe courtesy of AF Corse.
In GTE-Am, there will be an increase to nine full-season entries, with the #98 Aston Martin Racing entry returning to defend its title up against rival customer teams running Ferrari, Porsche and Aston Martins. Four extra GTE-Am cars will race at Le Mans.
LMP2 is the only class to experience a fall in numbers, triggered by teams moving up to LMP1, with just seven full-season cars. However, an additional 13 will join the grid for Le Mans, lifting the class to 20 entries for the endurance classic at the Circuit de la Sarthe.
The Le Mans grid is set at a maximum of 60 entries for the 2018 running, split 30-30 between LMP and GTE cars.
