Team LNT has confirmed the six drivers that will be competing for the team in the opening round of the 2019/20 FIA World Endurance Championship.
The British team will be entering a pair of Ginetta G60-LT-P1 – AERs into the LMP1 class, with the team previously having confirmed factory drivers Charlie Robertson and Mike Simpson.
Robertson will be driving the #5 car, to be joined by Ben Hanley and Egor Orudzhev. Both men have experience racing LMP1 machinery in the WEC. Hanley previously competed with Dragonspeed, while Egor Orudzhev spent the 2018/19 Super Season racing for SMP Racing. Both Dragonspeed and SMP Racing ran BR Engineering machinery during the Super Season, but exited the championship after Le Mans last May.
“Whilst I know LMP1, and the AER engine well, the Ginetta was an unknown quantity to me at the Prologue and I have to say it was a very pleasant surprise," said Orudzhev.
“The speed came easily and quickly and it is already clear that the package has a massive amount of potential – and with a much, much better hand dealt this season by the rulemakers in equalising the pitstops, it will be very interesting to see just how close we can get to the Toyotas.
Simpson will be partnering the experienced duo of Chris Dyson and Guy Smith in the #6 car. Dyson and Smith previously raced together from 2005 to 2013, while Smith won the 2003 24 Hours of Le Mans with Bentley.
“It was great to get behind the wheel of an LMP1 car again, the game has moved on very significantly in a very short time," Smith commented. "The Ginetta is a very impressive car, the power from the AER and the pace we saw in testing really lit the fire underneath me to do this again."
Orudzhev and Smith were some of the various drivers that tested the G60-LT-P1 at the WEC Prologue last month, while Dyson had a recent test outing with the car at Paul Ricard. Ben Hanley is the only driver in the new line-up that did not join the team at the Prologue.
Stephane Sarrazin, Luca Ghiotto, Mathias Beche and Stephane Richelmi also tested for the team at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, but were not selected to be part of the line-up.
“We’re really excited to show what the Ginetta can do this season," said Team LNT Principal Lawrence Tomlinson. “The mix of experience, consistency and raw speed that we are announcing for Silverstone has a great chance of helping us to show what the car is capable of in a field of really quick cars and world-class drivers."
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