Bahrain Thursday Notebook

***Alpine driver Mick Schumacher says he’s still evaluating his options for next year, having been strongly linked with a move to the NTT IndyCar Series. The German completed a test with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course last month ahead of a possible American switch.

***Should Schumacher decide to return to single-seaters next year, he says he won’t combine that with sports car outings. “I would just really like to focus on one thing at a time,” he explained. “[With] dual series, I don’t want to spend my time flying around just changing back and forth [between very different cars].”

***Peugeot Sport technical director Olivier Jansonnie says that the French marque is interested in signing an additional test driver beyond Jean-Eric Vergne, who is stepping back from his race seat in 2026 to focus on his ABB FIA Formula E World Championship duties for sister Stellantis Motorsport brand Citroen. Both Alex Quinn and Mathias Beche will sample the 9X8 in Sunday’s rookie test.

***Jansonnie told reporters: “At the start of the season, JEV will be very busy. We can’t really count on him as a reserve at the start. If something happens and we have to have him in the car, we know we can find a solution, but one of the things we are doing in this rookie test is to investigate possibilities for the coming years.”

***Asked by Sportscar365 about Peugeot’s motivation for trying out 39-year-old Beche, who has extensive WEC experience in LMP1 and LMP2, Jansonnie replied: “We need somehow to have people that have experience. His last two Le Mans were exceptional in terms of pace in LMP2. We have very little running with the car between now and Qatar, so we need people that can be ready also.”

***Proton Competition team boss Christian Ried confirmed to Sportscar365 that his team will continue to run the Ford Mustang GT3s, which will become EVOs, in the WEC next year. Sportscar365 understands the operator for 2026 was initially in question but has gone back to the German squad.

***Genesis Magma Racing recently completed another test with its GMR-001 Hypercar at Magny-Cours, which was impacted by rain. A statement released by the team that the outing at the former French Grand Prix venue “broadened the focus to include maximizing performance for the first time” as opposed to the previous emphasis on endurance running.

***Sporting director Gabriele Tarquini commented: “We are continuing to develop the GMR-001 Hypercar, but we are also working on a different area and starting to think about performance. We need to build a sort of ‘tool box’ for the set-up in all conditions making sure the drivers are able to adjust the car to always be able to be push in any condition.”

***Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor organized a dinner with the entire No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport crew at the team’s based in Mannheim, Germany last month, following on from a previous event held last year that included Andre Lotterer, as a ‘thank you’ for three seasons as a team. Bahrain marks the final WEC outing for the team, which were all given ‘No. 6 Forever’ t-shirts that are also for sale on Vanthoor’s web shop. All proceeds go to ‘The Larry Foundation.’

***Estre said: “We thought towards the end of the year it would be nice to have some time together to thank them. We were really grateful of the time we had as a team, as a crew, the No. 6. We had the idea of having some sort of event in the evening and then a dinner and doing some limited t-shirts. Everyone was really happy and glad. Everyone is super motivated and wants to finish this year and era well with the WEC No. 6.”

***Vanthoor admitted that the possibility of winning consecutive drivers’ world championships with Estre would not make up for the disappointment of coming up short in this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, a race that the program was unable to win after three attempts. “After winning a world championship, from a driver’s perspective, obviously you want to win Le Mans,” said Vanthoor. “In a way no, but two world championships against Le Mans, I would still preferred to have one world championship and Le Mans. That would have been the dream.”

***Toyota driver Nyck de Vries is hopeful the Japanese manufacturer’s strong record at Bahrain — it has a perfect record of wins at the track since 2017 — will allow it to end a difficult season on a high note, in what will be the final outing for the GR010 Hybrid in its current form.

***De Vries told Sportscar365: “Historically, Bahrain has been a pretty good track for the team. The characteristics of the circuit suit our package pretty well. Last year we managed to win the race in car 8 and were on with a very good result for car 7 as well until we had some technical setbacks. It’s been a challenging season and we’re happy to come here and hopefully finish it off on a positive note.”

***Francois Heriau admitted the fact he is set to test Manthey’s Porsche 911 GT3 R in Sunday’s rookie test is “weird” considering his No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari crew is battling the German squad for the LMGT3 title in Bahrain this weekend.

***Heriau told Sportscar365: “It’s my second year in the paddock, and my profile seems to be interesting to several teams now. For me it’s an opportunity to try and get more experience as a GT driver. The situation is a bit weird because it is the car against which we are fighting for the championship, but to get more experience it’s obviously a good choice to go there, because they look super strong.”

***Heriau however wouldn’t be drawn on whether he will join Manthey in the WEC this season. “My plan is to come back to WEC, obviously,” said the Frenchman. “There’s a good chance you’ll see me again. That’s all I can say.” Sportscar365 understands that there are multiple other Bronze-rated drivers in contention for the seat that will likely be vacated by Ryan Hardwick, who will switch his focus back to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

***Ben Keating told Sportscar365 that he’s committed to returning with TF Sport for another season with its Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R although is set to feature two new co-drivers. “I’m 95 percent sure what it’s going to be but It’s all up in the air a little bit,” he said.

***Sportscar365 understands that Keating and the Tom Ferrier-led team decided on Keating’s yet-to-be-announced Silver-rated co-driver before the final FIA driver ratings were released, which confirmed that both Jonny Edgar and Alec Udell’s initial promotions to Gold have been reversed back to Silver.

***Dani Juncadella, the current third driver in the No. 33 Corvette with Keating and Edgar, meanwhile, will step up to the Hypercar class as part of the new Genesis Magma Racing effort. It’s understood that Nico Varrone was originally in line to take over Juncadella’s seat until he signed a deal to race in FIA Formula 2 next year with Van Amersfoort Racing.

***Kelvin van der Linde said his and Charles Weerts’ opportunity to test the BMW M Hybrid V8 in Sunday’s rookie test following their GT3 success in SRO Motorsports Group competition was a “nice reward” although his busy schedule has seen the South African only get a single sim session in the LMDh car at BMW Motorsport prior to this weekend.

***The duo won both the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS overall and Sprint Cup titles with Team WRT, while van der Linde also picked up the Intercontinental GT Challenge crown with wins at the Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour, Nürburgring 24, Suzuka 1000km and Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS. 

***Van der Linde told Sportscar365: “We’ve had an amazing season together. WRT have really won a lot of big races and most of them I’ve been lucky enough to have Charles by my side. I think it’s chance for him that’s also well deserved.”

***The FIA has issued a clarification regarding eligibility to drive a Hypercar in the WEC following the furore surrounding Connor Zilisch being denied the chance to test a Cadillac V-Series.R in Sunday’s rookie test, owing to the fact he fell short of the criteria needed for a Grade A International Licence.

***The clarification read: “FIA competition licences are issued by FIA Member Clubs, which serve as the National Sporting Authorities (ASN) in their respective countries, rather than by the FIA itself. These clubs issue licences in accordance with the guidelines set out in Appendix L, Article 11 of the FIA International Sporting Code, which defines the minimum requirements for obtaining each level of licence.”

***Yannick Dalmas, the WEC’s long-time safety car driver and driver advisor to the stewards, is stepping away from his role as driver observer after this weekend. The four-time Le Mans winner was given an official appreciation and standing ovation in Thursday morning’s drivers’ briefing.

***Friday’s WEC track action comprises Free Practice 3 at 12 p.m. local time (5 a.m. ET) and qualifying, which begins at 4 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET).

John Dagys & Stephen Lickorish contributed to this report