Saintéloc Junior Team has revealed its driver line-ups for the 2023 season, which will see the Audi squad continue to run a full Fanatec GT Europe programme with multiple cars.
It follows a strong 2022 for the Saint-Etienne-based outfit, with an Endurance Cup victory at Hockenheim putting the 2017 CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa winner back on top of the overall podium. Consistency is the watchword for the upcoming campaign, with five of the squad's six drivers having previously worn the Saintéloc colours.
In the Fanatec GT Endurance Cup, the team will field a full complement of Audi Sport factory talent in its flagship #25 machine. The experienced duo of Patric Niederhauser and Christopher Mies remain on board, both having played an instrumental role in last year's win at Hockenheim.
They will be joined by Simon Gachet, who was recently added to Audi Sport's factory line-up for the year ahead. His first assignment is a return to the Saintéloc squad, with whom he began his GT3 career and subsequently earned the Fanatec GT Sprint Cup Silver class title in 2020.
The sister #26 car will see Erwan Bastard, Grégoire Demoustier, and Paul Evrard compete for Silver Cup honours in the long-distance series. Bastard steps up from the GT4 European Series after clinching the 2022 title with Saintéloc. Evrard, who moves from the FFSA GT French Championship, is the only newcomer to the team.
Demoustier returns to Fanatec GT Europe after a long absence during which he has raced extensively in touring cars and more recently FFSA GT. The Frenchman was an Endurance Cup race winner in 2014, triumphing at Monza in an ART-run McLaren, and made a one-off appearence with Saintéloc in 2015.
The same pool of drivers will be spread across a three-car Fanatec GT Sprint Cup effort. Niederhauser and Bastard will share the #25 Audi (Pro), while Gachet teams up with Evrard in the #26 (Gold Cup) and Mies partners Demoustier in the #27 (Pro).
Led by Sebastien Chetail and Fred Thalamy, Saintéloc Junior Team is among the longest-serving squads on the Fanatec GT Europe grid. It will be on-track next week at Circuit Paul Ricard for the official test days, which take place on 7/8 March.
