Team WRT has confirmed their full driver crew for their FIA World Endurance Championship LMGT3 campaign this year, marking the debuts of MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi and British GT champion Darren Leung.
Rossi has respectively driven for BMW last year across several different GT commitments, including the GT World Challenge sprint and endurance rounds, and the Michelin Le Mans Cup which hosts two 55-minute Road To Le Mans races as part of the 24 Hours of Le Mans support package.
Joining the nine-time world champion for his FIA WEC debut – which was initially confirmed within the #46 in late November – will be Maxime Martin and Ahmad Al Harthy who are more familiar with the championship.
In the sibling #31 BMW, newcomer Darren Leung will be joined by Augusto Farfus and Sean Gelael, who drove in the team’s former WEC LMP2 programme last year.
Leung appeared at the GT World Challenge Nurburgring round last year as well as having claimed the 2023 British GT title with BMW factory driver Dan Harper.
WRT will run two BMW M4 GT3 cars, as well as fielding six more drivers across the #15 and #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 Hypercar entries.
Rossi said: “I am very happy with my 2024 program, and I can’t wait to start.
“In the Fanatec GT World Challenge, I’ll race the Endurance Cup together with Maxime and Lello, two fantastic drivers and I think we can be very strong.
“Additionally, I will be doing with Maxime two races of the Sprint Cup, Misano and Brands Hatch, two tracks where we did very well last year.
“The WEC will be new for me, I’ll be with Maxime and Ahmad, and I’m eager to race in the main event at Le Mans, and at places like Austin and Sao Paulo.
“A brand-new experience for me and hopefully we will be competitive.”
Leung added: “I am very honoured and extremely humbled to be chosen to represent BMW and WRT in the 2024 FIA WEC.
“I am looking forward to working with two very talented and experienced teammates, Augusto and Sean.
“I’m excited to have them with me for my first season in the FIA WEC.
“I have been flat-out preparing and will be until the final round, not letting a single day go to waste. Let’s have it.”
Team WRT are set to commence both of their new WEC programmes in Hypercar and LMGT3 later this month in Qatar: Firstly on 24-25 February with the Prologue pre-season test, followed by the opening 1812 km race on 2 March.
| FIA WEC Hypercar (BMW M Team WRT) | |||
| #15 | Raffaele Marciello | Dries Vanthoor | Marco Wittmann |
| #20 | Robin Frijns | Rene Rast | Sheldon van der Linde |
