G-drive pulls out over FIA’S Russia stipulation

Russian entrant G-drive Racing’s sportscar programmes have been put on hold as a result of the fallout from the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. That means it won’t be competing in the World Endurance Championship, the European Le Mans Series or at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

The move was confirmed last weekend by Roman Rusinov, team principal and driver with an operation that has competed in top-line sportscar racing since 2013 and won the WEC LMP2 class in 2015. He said in a short statement on his private Instagram account that members of the team “won’t compete for GDR” in 2022, and that “we are already looking at different projects to develop motorsports in our country”.

Rusinov explained that he was unwilling to agree to the conditions laid down by the FIA for the participation of Russian competitors in international motorsport following the country’s invasion of Ukraine at the end of last month. But the back story to the disappearance of the solo G-drive ORECA-GIBSON 07 LMP2S from the WEC and ELMS entry lists is almost certainly more complicated.

It is unclear whether Rusinov’s statement was designed to pre-empt the release of the Le Mans entry list, which had looked likely to come on Monday of this week. It is unlikely that a team named after a brand of the state-owned Gazprom energy company, which is therefore facing sanctions from around the world, would have been allowed to compete at Le Mans or in either of its two allied series. What options Rusinov was given to race under a different team name are unknown.

G-drive was returning to the WEC full-time this year with ex-formula 1 driver Daniil Kvyat among its line-up, while a second car was due to run in the ELMS and was also entered for Le Mans. There is also another entry under the G-drive Racing by APR banner in the ELMS, which was effectively an entry by the Algarve Pro Racing squad, G-drive’s technical partner.

G-drive’s withdrawal, enforced or otherwise, combined with the decision of Peugeot not to contest Le Mans this year has left a shortfall in entries for the French enduro in June. The full 62-car entry was originally due to be announced early last week, but was delayed as race organiser the Automobile Club de l’ouest monitored the world political situation and waited for guidance from the FIA.

The entry looked likely to come out this Monday, only for the

ACO to announce at 3pm that it was reopening entries for a 48-hour period.