United Autosports in Oreca Switch for WEC Program

Photo: United Autosports

United Autosports looks set to make a switch to an Oreca 07 Gibson for its upcoming FIA World Endurance Championship campaign.

Multiple sources have indicated to Sportscar365 that the Anglo-American team is finalizing plans to run an Oreca LMP2 car instead of its planned Ligier JS P217 Gibson entry as as initially registered for the 2019-20 season.

Per WEC rules, teams are allowed one chassis change per season.

The move, believed to be customer-driven, is understood to have no affect on its Ligier entries in the European Le Mans Series or long-term partnership with Ligier Automotive.

United recently ordered new Ligier JS P320 chassis for the 2020 ELMS and Michelin Le Mans Cup seasons and remains the UK importer for Ligier sports and prototype cars, having contributed to the constrictor’s significant growth in the LMP3 market.

Team co-owner and managing director Richard Dean declined to comment on the chassis for its WEC program when asked by Sportscar365.

“There’s a lot of rumors going around but we’re not in a position to comment,” he said.

Phil Hanson, Paul Di Resta and Filipe Albuquerque claimed a fourth place class finish in last month’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, in what was understood to be a perfectly-executed race with the Ligier chassis, which lacked outright pace to the Oreca.

While having given a performance ‘Joker’ to the Ligier, Dallara and Riley-Multimatic chassis for 2018, it’s understood no further concessions will be made by the ACO under the current regulations cycle.

United’s switch would result in seven of the eight full-season WEC LMP2 entries being Oreca chassis, with only Cetilar Racing fielding a solo Dallara P217 Gibson.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John