WEC - Big Grid and Epic Battles for Final Race of 2015
The grid will consist of 32 cars, representing 10 different nations, and 90 drivers from 19 countries all around the world.
LMP1: Who will be 2015 Driver World Champions?
All eyes will be on the nine car LMP1 grid. At the last round in China Porsche scored its fifth straight win and third 1-2 finish of the season to secure the 2015 FIA World Endurance Manufacturers’ Championship, joining Audi (2012 and 2013) and Toyota (2014) as World Champions.
This leaves the World Endurance Drivers’ Championship still to be decided in Bahrain, with Porsche’s Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard holding an 11 point advantage over Audi’s André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer. After winning the last four races, the advantage lies with the Porsche trio, but 6 hours is a long time in endurance racing and the 2012 World Champions will not give up the fight until the chequered flag is waved.
Both sets of drivers can expect 100% support from their teammates, with the no18 Porsche 919 once again driven by Romain Dumas, Marc Lieb and Neel Jani and the no8 Audi R18 driven by Lucas di Grassi, Oliver Jarvis and 2013 World Champion Loïc Duval.
This will be Toyota’s last race as reigning World Champions and the team’s eyes are firmly set on a positive return with a new, more competitive, car in 2016. However, outgoing champions Anthony Davidson and Sébastien Buemi, along with Kazuki Nakajima, will be hoping for a return to the podium in Bahrain to end their year with the number ‘1’ on the Toyota TS040 HYBRID on a positive note. The same determination will also apply to the no2 car’s crew of Alex Wurz, Stéphane Sarrazin and Mike Conway who will be hoping to go one better than their best placed finish of fourth at Silverstone.
In the LMP1 Privateer category it was all smiles in the Rebellion Racing garage in China as Nicolas Prost and Mathias Beche in the no12 Rebellion R-One-AER secured the Team and Driver trophies for the category with their second win of the year. They are now 33 points ahead of Pierre Kaffer and Simon Trummer in the no4 Team Bykolles CLM-AER and, with just 25 points available in Bahrain, cannot be overtaken.
Prost and Beche will be re-joined by Nick Heidfeld in the no 12 car, while Alexandre Imperatori, Dominik Kraihamer and Matheo Tuscher will concentrate on overhauling the four points difference to the Bykolles duo to finish second overall in the no13 Rebellion R-One.
LMGTE Pro: Porsche v Ferrari
If the title race for the LMP1 drivers is not yet over, the battle for the GT Manufacturers and Drivers World Championships will be equally exciting. Three time World Champions Ferrari have a slender 4-point advantage over Porsche and, with 44 points still available, both teams will have to go on maximum attack to secure the FIA World Cup for GT Manufacturers.
The drivers’ championship race is currently headed by Richard Lietz in the no91 Porsche Team Manthey 911 RSR, with the Austrian 18 points ahead of his Danish teammate Michael Christensen who missed the Spa round due to a racing commitment for Porsche in the USA. However, Christensen cannot challenge Lietz as they will score the same points in Bahrain, so the nearest challengers are the Ferrari duo of James Calado and Davide Rigon in the no 71 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia, lying 20 points behind the championship leader.
Reigning champions Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander, in the no51 AF Corse Ferrari, are a further 2.5 points behind their teammates and, with a maximum of 26 points still available, they are mathematically still in with a chance of taking the title. However, both Ferrari crews know that the advantage lies with the Porsche driver and nothing less than victory and a large slice of luck will do on Saturday evening in Bahrain.
The no 92 Porsche Team Manthey 911 will be once again an all-French line up with Frédéric Makowiecki and Patrick Pilet behind the wheel and, after four podium finishes in the last four races, they will be hoping for another strong finish to round off the 2015 season.
The all Danish no95 Aston Martin Racing Vantage of Christoffer Nygaard, Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim rejoin the grid in Bahrain after missing the 6 Hours of Shanghai. They will line up alongside the no97 Vantage of Darren Turner and Jonny Adam and the no99 Aston Martin of Fernando Rees, Alex MacDowall and Richie Stanaway, the young New Zealander looking forward to his LMP1 Rookie test with Audi on Sunday after the race.
LMP2: Nine cars and two championships to play for
The LMP2 Driver and Team titles will be a two-way fight in Bahrain, with the no26 G-Drive Racing Ligier of Roman Rusinov, Sam Bird and Julien Canal holding a 16 point lead over the no47 KCMG ORECA of 24 Hours of Le Mans LMP2 winners Matt Howson and Richard Bradley, who will be joined once again by overall Le Mans champion Nick Tandy.
The Latin American crew in the no28 G-Drive, Ricardo Gonzalez, Pipo Derani and Gustavo Yacaman, can no longer challenge for the title after a rare non-finish in China, and are currently lying in third place 18 points behind the KCMG ORECA. However, the trio will be eyeing the Vice Champion slot and will be challenging hard to give G-Drive a 1-2 in the championship at the end of 2015.
Double European Le Mans Series Champions, Signatech Alpine, have enjoyed a strong end of the season with second place in Japan and then victory in China for the no36 crew of Nelson Panciatici, Paul-Loup Chatin and Tom Dillmann. With no championship to win, the all-French team will be going for win number two in Bahrain to end the year on a high note.
The two Extreme Speed Motorsport HPD powered Ligiers will run with unchanged driver line ups in the Middle East. Scott Sharp, Ryan Dalziel and David Heinemeier Hansson will run in the no30 Ligier and the all-American crew of Ed Brown, Johannes van Overbeek and Jon Fogarty in the no31 car.
The all-British no42 Strakka Racing Gibson will be crewed by Danny Watts, Jonny Kane and Nick Leventis and the no43 Team SARD Morand Morgan will be driven by Pierre Ragues, Oliver Webb and Christopher Cumming.
For this final round of the season, an additional entry will join the eight LMP2 regulars as the Russian AF Racing BR01-Nissan that has finished on the podium in the 2015 European Le Mans Series steps up to the WEC with Mikhail Aleshin, Nicolas Minassian and David Markozov.
LMGTE Am: Ferrari v Ferrari
The no72 SMP Racing Ferrari of Victor Shaytar, Andrea Bertolini and Aleksey Basov still holds the upper hand in the race to the LMGTE Am titles, with a lead of 19 points to the winners of the 6 Hours of Shanghai, the no83 AF Corse Ferrari of Rui Aguas, François Perrodo and Emmanuel Collard. The gap could have been closer after a poor start by the Russian team in China, but a hard fought third place garnered 15 valuable points and they know they are on the verge of adding the world title to the 2014 European Le Mans Series crown and the 2015 LMGTE 24 Hours of Le Mans title.
The Abu-Dhabi Proton Racing Porsche features the only driver from the Middle East on the 2015 WEC grid. Emirati Khaled Al Qubaisi will be joined by Klaus Bachler, with Italian Marco Mapelli replacing Christian Ried, who moves to the no77 car for the final race of 2015. Al Qubaisi will be looking for a repeat of the success in Texas, when he stood on the second step of the podium, to round off his season in the WEC’s visit to the Middle East.
The no98 Aston Martin Racing Vantage of Paul Dalla Lana, Mathias Lauda and Pedro Lamy has taken four pole positions, two wins and three further podiums this year but, after failing to score at Le Mans, are no longer in the title chase. They will be hoping for a return to the top step in Bahrain to round off the 2015 season nicely.
The no77 Dempsey Proton Racing Porsche of Patrick Long and Marco Seefried has enjoyed increasing success this year, finishing second at Le Mans and winning in Japan at the 6 Hours of Fuji; they are currently lying fourth in the overall championship standings. Christian Ried joins Long and Seefried, replacing Patrick Dempsey as the American actor has filming commitments.
The no50 Larbre Competition Chevrolet Corvette has been enjoying a return to form in the last two races. Italians Gianluca Roda and Paolo Ruberti are rejoined for the final race of 2015 by 2014 LMGTE Am champion Kristian Poulsen, who replaces fellow Dane Nikolai Sylvest.
The line up for the 32 car grid is completed by the no96 Aston Martin Racing Vantage of Francesco Castellacci, Roald Goethe and Stuart Hall
The 6 Hours of Bahrain will take place on 19-21 November. Starting at 15h00, the race in the Middle East will be the second 6-hour event on the WEC calendar that will finish under the stars following Lone Star Le Mans, and the atmosphere within the impressive Bahrain International Circuit will be electric.
The weekend is an action packed feast of racing, which includes single seat action with the Formula One supporting GP2 and GP3 series, the Formula 2000 MRF Championship, which each have two races during the weekend, and two races by the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge.
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