Pera Joins Project 1’s Porsche GTE-Am Lineup

Team Project 1 has named the drivers of its No. 56 Porsche 911 RSR-19 for the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship, with Riccardo Pera joining the German squad.

Pera will team up with Egidio Perfetti and Matteo Cairoli for the six-round campaign which begins on May 1 at Spa-Francorchamps.

The 21-year-old Italian contested his first full season in the WEC’s GTE-Am class last term with fellow Porsche outfit Dempsey-Proton Racing, sharing a car with Christian Ried and Matt Campbell.

Ried and Campbell are now teaming up with Jaxon Evans in the No. 77 Proton machine, while Pera has switched over to Project 1 which captured the Am teams’ title in 2018-19.

Perfetti, who was one of the drivers involved in that championship run, is back for his third season with the team while Cairoli is poised for his second after joining from Dempsey-Proton at the start of the 2019-20 campaign.

The pair had several different co-drivers throughout the season including Laurents Hoerr, Larry ten Voorde and Joerg Bergmeister who joined for the Bahrain finale. 

Cairoli is also driving a Dinamic Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R in Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup this year.

Project 1 has yet to announce the full lineup of its No. 46 WEC Porsche, with only Dennis Olsen named on the entry list for the Total 6 Hours of Spa curtain-raiser.

The team conducted its first test with the newly eligible customer Porsche 911 RSR-19 at Paul Ricard late last month.