Bahrain Rookie Test Entry List Revealed With 18 Cars

The entry list for this weekend’s FIA World Endurance Championship rookie test has been released, with a total of 18 cars signed up to run at Bahrain International Circuit.

Several drivers have been confirmed in the entry reveal, including BMW GT3 specialist David Pittard and IMSA GT Daytona front-runner Roman De Angelis.

The pair form part of a large group of drivers named in a trio of Aston Martin Vantage GTEs that are registered for the post-season test on Sunday, Nov. 7. 

Kenton Koch, Valentin Hasse-Clot, Nicolai Kjaergaard, Dylan Murry, Scott Huffaker, Florian Latorre and WEC full-timer Andrew Watson will also get seat time in the fleet of Aston Martin machinery from AMR, TF Sport and D’station Racing.

De Angelis, Koch and Kjaergaard are all candidates for the British marque’s annual young driver Academy prize.

Hasse-Clot was the Academy initiative’s 2020 graduate and has been receiving Aston Martin support this year during his program in Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS, where he has shared a Garage 59-run Vantage GT3 with Kjaergaard.

Murry comes from Porsche Carrera Cup North America presented by The Cayman Islands, while Latorre has been scoring podiums in the French equivalent this year.

A total of four Ferrari 488 GTE Evos, split between two each from AF Corse and Iron Lynx, are also signed up for the test.

Recently-crowned Italian GT Endurance class champion Simon Mann will share the No. 51 GTE-Pro car with his father Peter, as well as Christoph Ulrich.

A quartet of young drivers feature in the Iron Lynx cars, including Stock Car Brasil competitor Bruno Baptista and Indy Lights driver Alex Peroni.

Team WRT Audi GT3 regular Benjamin Goethe and TCR Europe ace Franco Girolami are also on Iron Lynx’s list of testers.

Two Porsche 911 RSR-19s are on the rookie test entry, along with the six drivers that will represent the manufacturer in Saturday’s 8 Hours of Bahrain GTE-Pro contest.

Six LMP2 cars will be at the rookie test courtesy of Richard Mille Racing, WRT, Racing Team Nederland, Realteam Racing, DragonSpeed and JOTA.

Notable additions include Sophia Floersch in the WRT Oreca alongside Robin Frijns, who drives the car full-time in the WEC, and Jazeman Jaafar who will return to driving JOTA machinery having raced for the British team in the 2018-19 campaign.

A handful of rookie test participants were named in advance of the entry list reveal, such as rallying legend Sebastien Ogier who will sample the Toyota GR010 Hybrid.

LMP2 ace Charles Milesi is also with Toyota as one of two WEC-selected testers, while Sebastien Buemi and Mike Conway will support the Frenchman and his compatriot Ogier.

Elsewhere in the Hypercar class, Nicolas Lapierre is set to turn laps in the Alpine A480 Gibson.

The lineups for the Richard Mille Racing and DragonSpeed Orecas, the former including the top-two from this year’s W Series and the latter including Sebastian Montoya, were announced previously.

There are still a handful of TBA slots on the entry list in the TDS-operated LMP2 entries from Realteam and Racing Team Nederland.