Racing Team Nederland Switches to Oreca for 2019-20

Racing Team Nederland will run with an Oreca 07 Gibson in the FIA World Endurance Championship next season, after spending the last two years with Dallara.

The Dutch LMP2 squad unveiled its 2019-20 season program on Wednesday, where it confirmed the return of Frits van Eerd, Giedo van der Garde and Nyck de Vries to its driver lineup.

Also present at the launch event was Minardi Formula 1 team founder Giancarlo Minardi, whose organization served as the inspiration for Racing Team Nederland’s livery for next month’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The French endurance classic will be the swan song for the team’s Dallara P217 Gibson package which it ran in the 2017 European Le Mans Series before embarking on a full WEC program for 2018-19.

Its Oreca will be run in partnership with fellow WEC outfit TDS Racing, which took the G-Drive Racing squad to the ELMS LMP2 title last year.

“We have raced since our debut in 2017 with the Dallara, first in the European Le Mans Series and now the world championship,” said team owner van Eerd.

“The Dayvtec team, led by Davy Lemmens, has worked for two years, day and night, to improve the [Dallara]. I’m super thankful to them, because they have performed up, and in 14 races we have reached the finish 14 times.

“However, the Oreca is undisputed as the dominant LMP2 car. In 2019-20, we will therefore appear with Oreca at the start of the WEC.

“That means we have had to choose a new technical team has experience with that car. With TDS, we have one of the best Oreca teams joining us.

“But first we are focusing entirely on the upcoming 24 Hours of Le Mans. We want to achieve maximum performance with Dallara and Dayvtec to close [the partnership] in a beautiful way. “

Racing Team Nederland also announced the launch of a new junior team, which is set to scout young Dutch karting talent for future drives.