There have been a raft of announcements ahead of this week's official test days at Circuit Paul Ricard, with a quartet of teams representing McLaren, Lamborghini and Ferrari firming up their 2023 plans.
French squad AGS Events will continue in the Fanatec GT Endurance Cup with a new crew of drivers. Léonardo Gorini, Antonin Borga and Nicolas Jamin will share the wheel of the #8 Lamborghini, contending for class honours in the Bronze Cup. The team has also announced that Yann Belhomme has been appointed team principal.
“After a first year of learning in the category last season, it was important to give a new dynamic to the GT3 team," said owner Nicolas Gomar. "I appointed Yann for the structuring of the team in its entirety. When we see this line-up, we can only have high hopes for 2023.”
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7TSIX will add a new name to the grid after confirming plans to step up to the Fanatec GT Endurance Cup with a McLaren. The squad was formed last year and debuted in the Intelligent Money British GT Championship.
"It has been a really exciting journey so far for 7TSIX, and we are only one year in with plenty more to come," said team owner Joe Edge. "I think we have surprised a few people with our performances so far, and we are looking to keep that going into 2023.
“We are currently reviewing the options to put together the most competitive line-up for the season, deciding which class we will challenge for and open to talking to other drivers. The one thing we are sure of is that we will not be here to simply make up the numbers. You only really see how you compare to the best when you race directly against them, and we will be looking to fight at the front.”
7TSIX will miss this week's official test days due to conflicting activities. More details of their driver line-up and class entry will be confirmed in the coming weeks.
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Grasser Racing will return to the Fanatec GT Endurance Cup with a two-car Lamborghini entry. The Austrian squad, which claimed the overall series title in 2017, has named the composition of one crew, with Clemens Schmid, Glenn van Berlo and Benjamin Hites set to pilot the #85 machine in the Silver Cup class. The sister #58 car will be driven by Ricky Capo, Sam Neary and Gerhard Tweraser at the tests days, though a final decision on the line-up has not yet been made.
"The new Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 is a strong package that, in combination with our line-up, should be competitive in every respect," said team principal Gottfried Grasser. "Clemens combines speed with experience and we are proud to be working with him again this year. With Benjamin and Glenn we have two hungry young talents on board, from whom we have great hopes. We are in good spirits after the final decision to be able to come up with a powerful trio in the sister car via the second driver pairing."
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Finally, Samantha Tan has confirmed plans to contest the full Fanatec GT Europe season in collaboration with the returning Rinaldi Racing. The Canadian driver – who made her series debut at last year's CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa – will run the full campaign in a new Ferrari 296 GT3, competing for Silver Cup honours.
The official Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS test days take place on Tuesday and Wednesday (7-8 March) at Circuit Paul Ricard. The Endurance season launches at Monza on 21-23 April, while the Sprint campaign gets under way at Brands Hatch on 13-14 May.