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Habsburg, Milesi Complete WRT’s LMP2 Lineup

Team WRT locks in driver lineup for maiden World Endurance campaign in LMP2…

Image: WRT

Team WRT has finalized the driver lineup for its FIA World Endurance Championship LMP2 class debut with the signings of Ferdinand Habsburg and Charles Milesi.

Recently-crowned Asian Le Mans Series LMP2 champion Habsburg and former Japanese F3 driver Milesi will share WRT’s No. 31 Oreca 07 Gibson with Dutch star Robin Frijns, who was named on the provisional 2021 season entry list that came out last month.

All three drivers are set for their first full campaigns in the WEC, while 19-year-old Milesi is the only member of the trio to have previously raced at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The Silver-rated Frenchman drove a Graff Oreca LMP2 in last year’s edition of the race. Both Milesi and Habsburg also contested the Rolex 24 at Daytona last month driving for two of WRT’s WEC competitors in Racing Team Nederland and High Class Racing.

Habsburg recently won the Asian LMS championship with his G-Drive Racing teammates Yifei Ye and Rene Binder.

Last year the 23-year-old Austrian competed against Frijns in the DTM, piloting one of Team WRT’s privateer Audis while Abt Sportsline driver Frijns placed third in the standings.

In addition to his DTM drive with the decorated Belgian sports car squad, Habsburg drove a WRT Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo in the most recent edition of the Total 24 Hours of Spa.

Frijns is also familiar with the WRT setup having won the 2015 GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS (then Blancpain) overall title with the team, and the Sprint Cup championship two years later.

“We have put together a great line-up for the FIA WEC, with three talented drivers that combine youth and experience, a mix we do appreciate at Team WRT,” said team principal Vincent Vosse.

“Since 2015, Robin has raced with us every year except in 2020. We know each other well and have tremendous mutual respect. Ferdinand will be with us for the second year, after a successful DTM campaign, and we think he can become a great endurance driver.

“We welcome Charles to the family; he is the youngest of the three but the only one having experience at Le Mans and has shown a very good potential.

“We are well-equipped to face the new challenge ahead of us, and will prepare properly. Both the team and the drivers have a lot to learn, but the objective is to take our marks fast and be able to compete against the very great teams and drivers that are in the WEC.”

WRT is also running an Oreca 07 Gibson in the European Le Mans Series, as part of its expansion into prototype racing from the GT3 and Class One arenas. Robert Kubica’s co-drivers for that LMP2 entry have yet to be announced.

Daniel Lloyd is a UK-based reporter for Sportscar365, covering the FIA World Endurance Championship, Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, among other series.

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