WEC: Gibson, Wolf opt not to apply for LMP2 licenses

Things have changed rather dramatically among the list of companies that DailySportsCar.com spoke to in the run-up to the deadlines for submissions for the four proposed LMP2 chassis manufacturers licenses:

Of the nine companies (and/or collaborative ventures) that had confirmed an intention to submit a proposal, or that they were actively considering doing so, two have now confirmed to DSC that they have opted not to progress their expressions of interest.

Wolf’s Ivan Bellarosa confirmed at Le Mans that their proposed Tornado LMP2 coupe would not now be a contender, the Italian outfit apparently convinced that a bid from Dallara will make any bid from a smaller Italian concern pointless. And today came final confirmation from Gibson that they have opted not to progress their proposal.

“It was not going to be financially viable within our business plan,” Gibson’s John Manchester confirmed. The Derbyshire, UK-based company is awaiting the details of the single-make engine tender to decide whether to bid on that part of the new ruleset.

Among the remaining known players, Ginetta has now formally confirmed the news revealed exclusively on DSC on the Le Mans Test Day that they are submitting a dossier, joining Onroak (Ligier), ORECA and SMP Racing (BR Engineering) on the list of full confirmations of submission.

Bill Riley is understood to have submitted a bid from Riley Technologies together with an unconfirmed collaborative partner (believed to be Multimatic)

The ACO has yet to confirm the number of companies that have entered Stage 1 and there is no confirmation as yet of submissions from either Dallara or HPD, both of whom were considering submission of an expression of interest. In HPD’s case that prospect centered around interpretation of the clause in the process that specifically excluded concerns with a direct link to a major manufacturer.

One clarification that was given, though, was that there will not be any more than four licenses eventually issued whatever the quality of the submissions.

Originally on DailySportsCar.com