Cool Racing has become the latest team to sit out the 8 Hours of Bahrain, the season finale for the 2019/20 FIA World Endurance Championship.
The Swiss outfit follows recent withdrawals from Rebellion Racing and Cetilar Racing to bring the number of entries down to 24.
The squad and its #42 ORECA 07-Gibson made its WEC debut this season, scoring victory first time out at the season opener at Silverstone last year.
In GTE Am, meanwhile, a significant number of teams have been forced to alter their line-ups due to schedule clashes. The Bahrain WEC round clashes with both the Twelve Hours of Sebring for IMSA as well as the GT World Challenge Europe’s season finale at Paul Ricard.
At Team Project 1, Jörg Bergmeister returns to the line-up for the #56 Porsche 911 RSR, with which he won the GTE Am title the previous season. He replaces Matteo Cairoli, who is racing at Paul Ricard.
The same goes for Gulf Racing’s Andrew Watson, whose place in the #86 Porsche 911 RSR will be taken by newly crowned ELMS GTE champion Alessio Picariello.
Matt Campbell, normally a feature in the line-up for Dempsey-Proton Racing’s #77 Porsche 911 RSR, has been replaced by fellow Porsche factory driver Dennis Olsen. Campbell is unable to make it to Bahrain as he is racing with Porsche’s factory GTLM squad at IMSA’s Sebring season closer.
Finally, the line-up for the #88 Dempsey-Proton Porsche has also seen changes. Two-time Dubai 24 Hours winner Khaled al Qubaisi has been inserted into the line-up, joined by former Porsche factory driver Marco Holzer.
Pier Guidi out, Serra in at AF Corse
Additionally, AF Corse has been forced to alter its line-up as a result of the clashing GTWC finale.
Alessandro Pier Guidi, originally set to partner James Calado aboard the #51 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo, is in contention to take the GT World Challenge Europe title.
As a result, Ferrari has opted swap the Italian for Daniel Serra. Serra, Pier Guidi and Calado have partnered together before, most notably taking the GTE Pro class win at Le Mans in 2019.
