WRT to Continue with Two-Car LMP2 Effort Next Season

Team WRT plans to continue with its current two-car setup in the FIA World Endurance Championship’s LMP2 class next season, according to team principal Vincent Vosse.

The Belgian squad, which won the LMP2 title and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in class last year, is set to embark on its third campaign in the world championship, and its second with a pair of Oreca 07 Gibsons at that level.

It means WRT will continue to race in prototypes alongside its undertaking of testing duties with BMW’s LMDh car, which it will run as a factory Hypercar team in 2024.

“We will do a WEC program with two cars,” Vosse told Sportscar365. “That’s exactly what we need to do, to prepare for the 2024 season.”

Vosse specified that WRT will only enter the WEC next season, repeating its approach to this year’s calendar.

WRT joined LMP2 in 2021 and won both the WEC and European Le Mans Series titles, as well as Le Mans. It then streamlined its program for this year by moving the ELMS car over to the WEC.

“We have two separate teams for LMP and GT,” said Vosse.

“If we are thinking about how much we have to do already with seven races in WEC next year, plus LMP2 testing, plus testing the Hypercar, it’s already more than enough for that group of people.”

While WRT is planning to maintain its two-car presence in WEC, the formation of driver lineups for next season is a more complicated matter according to Vosse.

He explained that uncertainties over changes to the FIA driver categorization criteria mean he has not yet confirmed any seats for next year’s LMP2 driving squad.

SRO Motorsports Group last year proposed a now-ratified overhaul to driver ratings that will involve re-classifying the fastest current Silver-rated drivers to Gold status.

It has not yet been announced how that will impact driver combination requirements in the WEC’s LMP2 class.

In July, WRT driver Ferdinand Habsburg expressed intentions to have WRT operate a car under the banner of his new ‘Rebel Team’ initiative to create a fan-owned entry in the WEC.

“For sure, the people I have onboard this year, I would be very happy to keep them on board next year if I am able to,” said Vosse.

“It’s just there is a bit of a question mark around driver categorization.

“All those strong Silvers in SRO championships today are moved into Gold [next year]. What is Silver Cup will be called Gold Cup. So they adapt the pairings to what they did in the categorizations.

“I’m waiting for the same from WEC, to adapt. What is the point to run Platinum drivers where, for me, Platinum drivers are already under contract with manufacturers?

“But if there are no Platinums at all, and you take Silver and Gold [only], you give a chance to the Silvers and Golds of today to show themselves for the future. It makes so much more sense to me.

“This is, for me, a bit of a grey zone so far. I will try in the next few days to understand more. At the moment, we cannot work on next year because you do not know anything.”

WRT’s long-term future in LMP2 hasn’t been determined, with the BMW LMDh program likely making use of the staff who currently operate the two Orecas in the WEC.

Vosse suggested that ELMS could be the only feasible avenue for a Europe-based LMP2 team in 2024 but stressed that nothing has been determined at the current early stage.

“We will see how things are moving,” he said. “As I understand, and as I see just by counting the number of cars, we will hardly have any WEC LMP2 cars in 2024.

“It means doing another championship, which means ELMS.

“For sure not [ELMS] with the people who will do WEC. But you could think that it could be a school to form mechanics and engineers for the next [level]. But I’m not there yet.”