A trio of Silver Cup squads have tweaked their driver line-ups ahead of this weekend's Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS event at Circuit Paul Ricard.
The fourth stop on the full-season schedule and the second Fanatec Endurance contest, the annual trip to the south of France tests competitors in a long-distance race that begins in daylight and ends in darkness. An expanded 54-car field will tackle the event, which will see three regular teams make changes to their crews following April's season-opener at Imola.
Thomas Drouet will slot into the #87 Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG alongside Casper Stevenson and Tommaso Mosca, taking the place of Konstantin Tereshchenko. This should be a seamless transition: the French driver is a firmly established member of the Akkodis squad and was a class winner at Circuit Paul Ricard last season. Drouet is also part of the team's Fanatec Sprint and FFSA GT French Championship line-ups.
At fellow Mercedes-AMG outfit Madpanda Motorsport, Franco Girolami will make his series debut by stepping into the seat previously occupied by Dušan Borković. The Argentine joins compatriot Ezequiel Perez Companc and Britain's Sean Walkinshaw at the Barcelona-based team. Girolami has predominantly raced in TCR series, enjoying success at home before expanding to international competition.
Tyler Cooke completes the trio of changes by joining Lamborghini squad Leipert Motorsport. The American replaces Jordan Witt and will share the #27 machine with Dennis Fetzer and Brendon Leitch. Recently named among Lamborghini's 2022 junior roster, North Carolina-born Cooke is also set to make his series debut at Circuit Paul Ricard. His previous experience has largely come in the U.S., though he has recently added a number international outings.
A further change to the driver line-up was announced last week, with Joe Osborne linking up with JP Motorsport to drive the #112 McLaren. This weekend's event also includes a new entry from Singha Racing Team TP 12 and additional cars at Allied Racing and Herberth Motorsport. Live coverage will be available across a variety of online platforms, including the GT World YouTube channel, with commentary in English, French, Italian and German.
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TIMETABLE
FRIDAY 3 JUNE
09:00 – Bronze Test
14:20 – Free Practice
18:10 - Fanatec Esports GT Pro Series LIVE
19:20 - Pre-Qualifying
SATURDAY 4 JUNE
11:30 - Qualifying LIVE
18:00 - 1000km Race LIVE