More teams, including reigning WEC champions Porsche and Signatech Alpine Elf, have confirmed their driver line-ups for the virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans set to be contested on rFactor2 in June.
Porsche, a frequent contender in various recent esports series, is entering the virtual French endurance classic with a total of four Porsche 911 RSRs, much like it would have done in the real race before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the US-based entries to be withdrawn.
The four entries are each driven by two real Porsche works drivers and two e-sports stars. The German manufacturer is bringing plenty of star power, with no fewer than four previous Le Mans winners in its line-up.
The #91 Porsche 911 RSR will be driven by triple Le Mans winner Andre Lotterer and his Formula E team-mate and 2016 Le Mans winner Neel Jani, alongside Mitchell Dejong and Martti Pietilä. The #92 car will be driven by Porsche junior Jaxon Evans and 2018 GTE Am class winner and factory driver Matt Campbell, joined by Mack Bakkum and Jeremy Bouteloup.
Nick Tandy and Ayhancan Güven, who recently had a strong performance for the German brand in the IMSA iRacing Pro Series, team up with Josh Rogers and Tommy Ostgaard. The fourth and final car will driven by factory driver Patrick Pilet alongside Formula E test driver Simona de Silvestro and Martin Krönke and David Williams.
“Under the current circumstances, the virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans offers an excellent opportunity to reach many fans around the world,” said Pascal Zurlinden, Porsche Director of Factory Motorsport. “Le Mans is considered the most traditional long-distance race and the digital version can now attract a completely new target group to professional motor racing. I’m curious to see how the combination of works drivers and elite sim racers will work.”
Reigning LMP2 champions Signatech Alpine Elf have also confirmed their four-man line-up for the race, consisting of their current real-life LMP2 trio of Andre Negrao, Pierre Ragues and Thomas Laurent alongside Team Vitality e-sports star Nicolas Longuet.
Their rivals and current LMP2 WEC points leaders United Autosports will be contesting the race with LMP2 stars Filipe Albuquerque, Alex Brundle and new signing Job van Uitert along with LMP3 driver Tom Gamble. ByKolles will be contesting the race with the pairing of Tom Dillmann and Esteban Guerrieri alongside sim racers Jernej Simončič and Jesper Pedersen.
Finally, Belgian DTM and GT3 privateers Team WRT have confirmed that they will be entering with Audi factory stars Dries Vanthoor and Kelvin van der Linde partnering up with Fabrice Cornelis and Arne Schoonvliet.
