Jarvis Promoted to Full-Season Drive, Rast Joins Audi for 2015

Photo: Audi

Oliver Jarvis has been promoted to a full-season drive with Audi Sport Team Joest, taking the seat of nine-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen in next year’s FIA World Endurance Championship.

The 30-year-old Englishman will join Lucas Di Grassi and Loic Duval in the second Audi R18 e-tron quattro next year, having moved up from the team’s third entry that has taken part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the last two years.

Audi GT standout, Rene Rast, meanwhile, has been named as Jarvis’ replacement in the third car, as the Nurburgring 24 and Spa 24 winner steps up to a factory LMP1 drive for the first time.

The announcement of the lineup reshuffle was made Wednesday evening at Audi’s end-of-year dinner in Neckarsulm, Germany.

The remainder of Audi’s lineup for 2015 remains unchanged, with Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler returning in the first car, having claimed their third Le Mans victory in the last four years.

Rast will be joined by Marco Bonanomi and Filipe Albuquerque in Audi’s third entry for Le Mans, as well as the Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in May.

Audi will again enter two R18 e-tron quattros for the entire FIA WEC season, although the car is expected to feature a number of updates, following a challenging season for the turbo diesel-powered hybrids.

The German manufacturer has yet to reveal technical details of the 2015-spec machine.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John