Juncadella adds Blancpain program

Mercedes DTM driver Daniel Juncadella will contest selected rounds of the Blancpain Endurance Series around an attack on the Spa 24 Hours in July.

The Spaniard, who was reserve and test driver for Force India in Formula 1 last year, will race a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG for the German Rowe Racing squad in the Pro Cup class of the BES. Although the 23-year-old will contest this weekend's series opener at Monza, the rest of his GT program around his DTM campaign with Mucke Motorsport has yet to be defined.

"Daniel will do Spa and some races to prepare," Rowe team boss Hans-Peter Naundorf told AUTOSPORT. "His program is still up for discussion and he could do Silverstone [round two in May]."

Naundorf explained that the deal had not been brokered by Mercedes, rather that it had come at the behest of one of Juncadella's sponsors.

Juncadella will share his Rowe Mercedes with Formula 3 graduates Indy Dontje and Nicolai Sylvest. The pair finished third and sixth respectively in last year's German F3 Championship. The other Rowe Mercedes will be driven by two-time American Le Mans Series champion Klaus Graf, who will be contesting his first full season of racing in Europe since the early 2000s, Stef Dusseldorp and Nico Bastian.

Rowe, which was established in 2011, is switching to the BES for this season from ADAC GT Masters. Naundorf said he wanted to take a team that was formed for the Nurburgring 24 Hours and the VLN long-distance championship on the Nordschleife back to its endurance roots.

Originally on Autosport.com