Joest “Highly Motivated” for SCG Partnership, Le Mans Return

Joest Racing is “highly motivated” for its FIA World Endurance Championship partnership with Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus, according to the German team’s head of projects Jan Lange who reckons a 24 Hours of Le Mans victory “isn’t out of the realm of possibilities”.

As first reported by Sportscar365 on Monday, 15-time Le Mans winner Joest is providing operational support to SCG’s two-car WEC program with the in-development 007 LMH.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Joest declared that it is “very happy to return to the global pinnacle of endurance racing”.

Lange added that Joest, which last appeared in the WEC in 2016 as Audi’s LMP1 program partner, is particularly looking forward to returning to Le Mans where it achieved 11 outright victories alongside Audi and four with Porsche machinery.

The non-hybrid SCG 007 is set to be rolled out this month, with a driver lineup expected to be announced in mid-March ahead of the car’s race debut in round two at Spa.

The car has been chiefly developed by SCG’s long-term engineering partner Podium Advanced Technologies.

“Announcing this technical partnership with Podium Advanced Technologies within the SCG FIA WEC racing program is a great start into 2021 for Joest Racing,” said Lange, who was an engineer on the Audi Sport Team Joest LMP1 program.

“Every team member is highly motivated to make this endeavor a success.

“This co-operation has been ongoing for a little while now and I must say that working with the highly competent and motivated team at Podium Advanced Technologies in Italy has been a pleasure.

“We are particularly happy about returning to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which is somewhat ‘home grounds’ [for] Joest Racing and where we’ve been able to take overall victories multiple times.

“Considering that Glickenhaus will field two impressive Le Mans Hypercars, I feel that it isn’t out of the realm of possibilities that the list of winners of the 24 Hours of Le Mans may feature the name ‘Glickenhaus’ following the 2021 edition.

“Joest Racing shall do its utmost in playing its part to achieve this goal for this partnership.”

Joest’s support adds further Le Mans pedigree to the SCG project, which also has 1989 winner Sauber on board to develop the 007’s aerodynamics in its wind tunnel.

“Having the chance to work with one of the most winning teams in endurance racing history strengthens our lineup and finalizes our strategy to be a strong competitor in our first year in FIA WEC and Le Mans,” said SCG’s WEC team principal Luca Ciancetti.

“The recent cooperation is already giving us great results and we are looking forward to the first shakedown of the 007 LMH.”