Strakka Pulls Plug on 2016 WEC Program

Photo: Vision Sport Agency

Strakka Racing has pulled the plug on the remainder of its LMP2 effort in this year’s FIA World Endurance Championship, citing ongoing engine issues for its Nissan-powered Gibson 015S.

The British team experienced its fourth engine-related issue in less than a year in the most recent WEC round at Fuji, which has left them with no spare units for the final two events in Shanghai and Bahrain.

According to the team, customs regulations would have made it “near impossible” to ship another engine to China, and in doing so, would have resulted in an in-race three-minute stop-and-hold penalty for exceeding its engine allocation.

“It’s very sad that we have not been able to complete the championship due to issues beyond our control,” said team principal Dan Walmsley.

“I’d like to thank the WEC organizers, the logistics team and the engineers at Gibson for their efforts to try to get us back out on track but it just wasn’t feasible to get an engine to China and taking the penalty in Bahrain would have seen us nowhere near the rest of the P2 runners.

“We did consider all options, including trying to borrow a unit from another team but the specific fitting kit for the Gibson and the fact we’d still have to take a penalty meant we had to take the tough decision not to race.”

Strakka has yet to confirm next year’s plans but is believed to be closing in on a potential switch to the Blancpain GT Series with a pair of McLaren 650S GT3 cars.

Walmsley said an official announcement on the 2017 program will come by the end of next month.

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