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32 Full Season Entries for WEC

Field of 32 revealed for 2016 WEC season…

Photo: Vision Sport Agency

Photo: Vision Sport Agency

The field of 32 full-season entries for the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship season has been revealed Friday in Paris, with no major surprises.

The breakdown of WEC entries is 9 in LMP1, 10 in LMP2, 7 in GTE-Pro and 6 in GTE-Am.

READ: 2016 24H Le Mans Entry List Revealed

There are no surprises within LMP1, and the new numbers for Audi and Toyota got revealed. Both had used 7 and 8 in the past with the other taking the champions’ 1 and 2, but Porsche takes those two numbers this year.

Audi now will have Nos. 7 and 8, with Toyota having 5 and 6 next season. The Audis, notably, shift to being called just Audi R18s rather than Audi R18 e-tron quattro as in recent years.

Team ByKolles has also joined Rebellion Racing in switching to Dunlop tires for next year.

The LMP2 grid looks quite a bit different from last year.

G-Drive now works with Jota, what had been OAK Racing’s crew is now with Tequila Patron ESM, SMP Racing adds two cars, RGR Sport debuts with Morand, DC Racing makes its debut and with KCMG now out of the class, there’s a lot of change.

Manor has also been confirmed, the ex-Formula 1 team led by Graeme Lowdon and John Booth with an Oreca 05 Nissan.

Signatech Alpine and Strakka Racing are the relatively unchanged entries compared to previous years. Even so, Strakka now starts the season with its Gibson 015S rather than the Dome Strakka S102 as last year.

In GTE-Pro, it’s still a seven-car grid, but slightly altered from 2015. The two Ford GTs are the biggest arrivals, with Nos. 66 and 67.

Meanwhile AF Corse has two new 488 GTEs and a new driver lineup with Sam Bird joining Ferrari’s factory roster, Aston Martin scales back from three cars to two updated Vantages and Porsche, notably, drops its works effort to a works-supported effort for Richard Lietz and Michael Christensen.

GTE-Am has also been in flux and features only a six-car grid for the season. Porsche leads the way with three entries, including KCMG listed with Christian Ried as the nominated driver and with Gulf Racing UK also stepping up.

Meanwhile Aston Martin, Corvette and Ferrari have one additional car apiece.

As ever, all 32 cars will make up the bulk of the grid for the now 60-car grid at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Le Mans entries and those for the ELMS were also revealed Friday in Paris.

LMP1 (9 Entries)
1 – Porsche Team – Porsche 919 Hybrid – Timo Bernhard
2 – Porsche Team – Porsche 919 Hybrid – Romain Dumas
5 – Toyota Gazoo Racing – Toyota TS050 Hybrid – Anthony Davidson
6 – Toyota Gazoo Racing – Toyota TS050 Hybrid – Stephane Sarrazin
7 – Audi Sport Team Joest – Audi R18 – Marcel Fassler
8 – Audi Sport Team Joest – Audi R18 – Lucas di Grassi

4 – Team ByKolles – CLM P1/01 AER – Simon Trummer
12 – Rebellion Racing – Rebellion R-One AER – Nico Prost
13 – Rebellion Racing – Rebellion R-One AER – Matheo Tuscher

LMP2 (10 Entries)
26 – G-Drive Racing – Oreca 05 Nissan – Roman Rusinov
27 – SMP Racing – BR Engineering BR01 Nissan – Nicolas Minassian
30 – Extreme Speed Motorsports – Ligier JS P2 Nissan – Scott Sharp
31 – Extreme Speed Motorsports – Ligier JS P2 Nissan –
Ryan Dalziel
35 – 
Baxi DC Racing Alpine –
 Alpine A460 Nissan – 
David Cheng
36 – Signatech-Alpine – Alpine A460 Nissan – Gustavo Menezes
37 – SMP Racing – BR Engineering BR01 Nissan – Vitaly Petrov
42 – Strakka Racing – Gibson 015S Nissan – Nick Leventis
43 – RGR Sport by Morand – Ligier JS P2 Nissan – Ricardo Gonzalez
44 –
 Manor – Oreca 05 Nissan – Tor Graves

GTE-Pro (7 Entries)
51 – AF Corse – Ferrari 488 GTE – Gianmaria Bruni
66 – Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Team UK – Ford GT – Marino Franchitti
67 – Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Team UK – Ford GT – Olivier Pla
71 – AF Corse – Ferrari 488 GTE – Davide Rigon
77 – Dempsey Proton Racing – Porsche 911 RSR – Richard Lietz
95 – Aston Martin Racing – Aston Martin Vantage – Nicki Thiim
97 – Aston Martin Racing – Aston Martin Vantage – Richie Stanaway

GTE-Am (6 Entries)
50 – Larbre Competition – Corvette C7.R – Yutaka Yamagishi
78 – KCMG – Porsche 911 RSR – Christian Ried
83 – AF Corse – Ferrari F458 Italia – Francois Perrodo
86 – Gulf Racing UK – Porsche 911 RSR – Michael Wainwright
88 – Abu Dhabi Proton Racing – Porsche 911 RSR – Khaled Al Qubaisi
98 – Aston Martin Racing – Aston Martin Vantage – Paul Dalla Lana

Tony DiZinno (@tonydizinno) is Sportscar365's North American Editor, focusing on coverage of the IMSA-sanctioned championships as well as Pirelli World Challenge. DiZinno also contributes to NBCSports.com and other motorsports outlets. Contact Tony

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