At a first glance through the entry list for the 82nd 24 Hours of Le Mans, taking place this coming weekend the 14/15th June, it appears that there are a good many ‘rookies’…drivers making their debut in the legendary race.
However, thanks to the meticulous research and record-keeping of the Infos-Course organisation associated with the 24 Hours of Le Mans, we know there are not only 41 debutants in 2014 (primarily from the FIA World Endurance Championship and the European Le Mans Series), but that this varies little from previous years (43 in 2013, 40 in 2012 and 36 in 2011).
So who are the WEC drivers who will now be able to add the fabled race, the third round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, to their racing CV?
In LMP1 there are two drivers who will be experiencing the unique Le Mans experience for the first time – Audi Sport Team Joest’s Filipe Albuquerque, who recently won the ELMS 4 Hours of Imola with JOTA Sport, and Rebellion Racing’s Fabio Leimer.
In LMP2, there are 21 new drivers - the greatest amount through the four classes – and the new drivers include SMP Racing’s Anton and Kirill Ladygin, Albuquerque’s JOTA co-driver from the ELMS Harry Tincknell, the youngest driver in the race Matt McMurry, and KCMG’s Richard Bradley. This class also features the only entry with all three drivers making their first start – the No.41 Greaves Motorsport Zytek Nissan from the ELMS.
Six drivers from the LMGTE Pro category are making their debut at Le Mans, and these include AF Corse’s Davide Rigon and James Calado, Ram Racing’s Alvaro Parente, plus Aston Martin Racing’s Alex MacDowall and Fernando Rees.
The category in the race with the most number of entries, LMGTE Am, has 11 ‘rookies’ competing who represent 8 different nationalities! Team Sofrev ASP’s Fabien Barthez will be trying to ignore the FIFA World Cup in favour of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, while AF Corse’s Mirko Venturi, Sam Bird and Stephen Wyatt also picked up their first 24 Hours of Le Mans commemorative medal when they signed in for the drivers’ briefing today. Experienced GTE drivers Klaus Bachler of Proton Competition and Nicki Thiim of Aston Martin Racing also join the list of new drivers, with Nissan Zeod RC and former WEC driver Wolfgang Reip rounding out the list.
One thing is for sure, the drivers’ first 24 Hours of Le Mans will be an experience that none of them will forget.
Fiona Miller
Photo: CIRCUIT DES 24 HEURES (LE MANS, SARTHE, FRANCE), 24 HOURS OF LE MANS, DRIVER PHOTOGRAPH, TUESDAY 10 JUNE 2014. Kirill Ladygin and Aleksey Basov of SMP Racing will both be making their debut at Le Mans this year (top); James Calado and Davide Rigon of AF Corse.
