Vanwall drops ex-F1 champion Villeneuve for Le Mans

Villeneuve used to be set to make his Le Mans go back in June as a part of his pursuit to finish the Triple Crown of Motorsport, however has now been benched for the WEC’s blue riband tournament.

It’s unclear if the 52-year-old will go back for the remainder 3 rounds of the season at Monza, Fuji and Bahrain – even if he is called at the access checklist for Monza.

Villeneuve made a highly-anticipated debut within the Global Staying power Championship this 12 months with the Vanwall Hypercar squad, becoming a member of Tom Dillmann and Esteban Guerrieri in its Vandervell 680 non-hybrid LMH automobile.

On the other hand, he struggled for competitiveness within the opening leg of the season, with a crash within the Sebring Prologue and some other race-ending incident with a Ferrari GTE automobile at Spa compounding his distress.

He used to be additionally interested in some other shunt at Portimao in April, even if that adopted a brake failure in his Vanwall that left him not able to forestall the auto in time to keep away from hitting the limitations.

Villeneuve gained the Indy 500 in 1995 prior to transferring to F1, profitable the championship in his simply 2nd season in 1997 with Williams.

He in the past made two appearances at Le Mans with the manufacturing unit Peugeot workforce in 2007-08, completing 2nd in 2008 within the Peugeot 908 he shared with Marc Gene and Nicolas Minassian.

Villeneuve’s position at Vanwall can be taken via former JDC-Miller motive force Vautier, who raced on the Circuit de los angeles Sarthe ultimate 12 months in an Oreca 07 entered via ARC Bratislava within the LMP2 elegance.

Vautier have been racing with JDC-Miller in IMSA since 2018 and scored his maiden total win at Sebring ultimate 12 months along side team-mates Loic Duval and Sebastien Bourdais.

On the other hand, he wasn’t retained via JDC-Miller following its transfer from Cadillac to Porsche buyer equipment in 2023, with the 33-year-old as an alternative signing with Algarve Professional within the Ecu Le Mans Sequence.

Vautier wasn’t named as a part of Algarve Professional’s Le Mans line-up within the LMP2 elegance, however gets to race at L. a. Sarthe for a 2nd season working after becoming a member of Vanwall.

Dillmann and Guerrieri can be his team-mates for what is going to be the primary Le Mans time out since 2020 for the squad that in the past operated beneath the ByKolles identify.