30 cars at FIA WEC Prologue, 22 teams announced as full-season entries

The Prologue, the first official test of the 2019/2020 FIA World Endurance Championship season, is taking place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. It’s the first visit of the FIA WEC to the Spanish Grand Prix track.

Thirty cars are registered for The Prologue and they will be on the track during four practice sessions over two days. As we previously announced, twenty-two teams will enter the 2019-2020 FIA WEC season with 33 cars.

Toyota Gazoo Racing drivers at The Prologue

The eight-race 2019-2020 season, which will kick-off in September at Silverstone, represents the final competitive action for the championship-winning Toyota TS050 Hybrid, which made its debut in 2016. For the season 2020-2021 and new hypercar era, Toyota is already preparing new GR Super Sport hypercar.

At Barcelona, seven drivers will driver two Japanese LMP1 prototypes. Behind the wheel of the #7 TS050 Hybrid, there is an unchanged line-up of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez. In the #8 car, as a replacement for Fernando Alonso, there will be Brendon Hartley, a former Le Mans winner and WEC champion, joining current champions Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima. The young Frenchman Thomas Laurent will combine his new role as test and reserve driver with an LMP2 race seat with Signatech Alpine.

Porsche GT Team is ready to defend championship title

Of other LMP1 class teams, both Rebellion Racing and Team LNT came to Barcelona with two cars each. Team LNT is new to FIA WEC and will run Ginetta G60-LT-P1 cars with the help of eight drivers, featuring a combination of experienced endurance competitors and sports car rookies.

In other classes, eight LMP2 cars, five GTE Pro crews and eleven GTE Am crews are participating in the official test.

Photos: FIA WEC, Toyota Gazoo Racing,