Andlauer Completes Proton Hypercar Lineup for Qatar

Julien Andlauer will make his FIA World Endurance Championship Hypercar debut joining Proton Competition as the third driver for the upcoming Qatar 1812km.

Confirmed as part of the pre-event entry list released by the championship on Tuesday, the French racer will team up with Harry Tincknell and Neel Jani aboard the No. 99 Porsche 963 for the season opener at the Lusail International Circuit.

Andlauer has a long relationship with the Christian Ried-led squad in WEC, which included a GTE-Am class win in the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans.

He notably sampled the team’s Porsche LMDh car during last year’s post-season rookie test at the Bahrain International Circuit and joined Proton to finish third in the LMP2 standings in the Asian Le Mans Series, which wrapped up in Abu Dhabi last weekend.

The rest of the 37-car entry list features no notable changes, with most of the lineups listed having confirmed by teams and manufacturers in recent weeks.

As previously reported, Silver-rated duo Antonio Serravalle and Carl Wattana Bennett are set for their world championship debuts alongside France’s Jean-Karl Vernay aboard the No. 11 Isotta Fraschini Tipo 6 Competizione.

Sebastien Bourdais joins Alex Lynn and Earl Bamber as the third driver aboard the No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R, while Nyck de Vries makes his Hypercar debut aboard the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, which will be sporting a new livery this season.

No surprises appear as part of the 18-car field for LMGT3’s series debut, which reflects recent announcements from the likes of United Autosports, The Heart of Racing and Team WRT.

The Qatar 1812km takes place on March 2 and will be preceded by the two-day Prologue on Feb. 24-25.