Reigning System 2 champion Theo Pourchaire will get his first run in a sportscar prototype when he joins Peugeot for the World Endurance Championship’s Bahrain rookie take a look at subsequent month.
Pourchaire is likely one of the two drivers to be chosen by the French producer to drive the 9X8 2024 LMH on the Bahrain Worldwide Circuit on 3 November, alongside together with his former F2 rival Clement Novalak.
Pourchaire had beforehand revealed his ambition to race within the WEC, telling Autosport that he “watches nearly each race” and that the Le Mans 24 Hours is an occasion that he “wish to do at some point”.
Nevertheless, there will probably be no instant alternatives out there at Peugeot’s Hypercar squad, which has already locked in its line-up for 2025 after selling Malthe Jakobsen to switch new Porsche manufacturing facility driver Nico Muller.
“For Workforce Peugeot TotalEnergies, these Rookie Assessments in Bahrain convey a recent perspective, though reconditioning the vehicles after the race requires plenty of work from your complete group,” mentioned Peugeot technical director Olivier Jansonnie.
“It’s all the time very motivating and rewarding to see younger drivers arrive with broad eyes, discovering the group, the automotive, and so on.”
“We chosen two completely different profiles. Theo is single-seater-oriented with an already spectacular observe document and is recognised as one of many single-seater hopefuls.
“Clement has extra endurance expertise with notable leads to ELMS, significantly a second place in LMP2 on the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans. His statistics on this self-discipline impressed us. I feel it is an attention-grabbing mixture.
#93 Peugeot Totalenergies Peugeot 9X8: Mikkel Jensen, Nico Muller, Jean-Eric Vergne
Picture by: JEP / Motorsport Photos
“They are going to be guided by Paul di Resta and Malthe Jakobsen, who additionally went by means of this course of earlier than being appointed full-time subsequent season. It’s all the time very attention-grabbing for us to get technical suggestions from recent views.”
Pourchaire remains to be looking for a drive subsequent 12 months after admitting not too long ago that he would not have a “lot of cash to placed on the desk”.
The Frenchman began the season within the Tremendous System collection with Workforce Impul, however ended up splitting with the squad after only one spherical when a possibility got here to enter IndyCar with Arrow McLaren.
Nevertheless, his relationship with Arrow McLaren in IndyCar additionally turned out to be short-lived, because the group changed him with Indy NXT graduate Nolan Siegel at across the mid-way level of the 12 months. Pourchaire returned to the outfit for a one-off look at Toronto rather than Alexander Rossi, however has been out of motion since then.
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Novalak, who beforehand raced towards Pourchaire in F2, additionally left the class after 2023 in favour of a brand new profession in sportscar racing.
Competing for InterEuropol Competitors in an ORECA-Gibson 07, he completed on the rostrum within the latest European Le Mans Collection occasion at Portimao. A maiden outing at Le Mans yielded a second-place end within the LMP2 class.
