United Autosports and Meyer Shanks Racing say they are shocked and confused after being humiliated from Le Mans entry list.
United Autosports has only one entry in this year's Le Mans race, having received by winning Asian Le Mans Series title last month, with other entries rejected by ACO.
"You have to presume that as a team that finished on the P2 podium at Le Mans last year that we would have got an entry this time," said Dean Richard, Team Boss of United Autosports.
"The entry we gained for winning the Asian series has effectively cancelled that out, so in fact we haven't gained anything."
United Autosports fielded a pair of LMP2s and LMP3s in both Asian and European Le Mans Series and Michelin Le Mans Cup with a plan to extend to WEC for full time for 2019-20 season.
"It says in the entry criteria that teams supporting ACO series will be looked upon favourably when it comes to Le Mans entries," he said.
"I'm not sure there is another team out there that has supported the ACO more than we have."
"We've won races outright and the LMP3 title in the ELMS, been on the podium at Le Mans, and bought drivers of the calibre of Juan Pablo Montoya and Paul di Resta to the 24 Hours, which makes it difficult to understand why we have not been rewarded for that," he added.
They are not the only team to be surprised by the shocking exclusion, as Jackie Heinricher, partner of Meyer Shanks Racing and full-time driver expressed her concerns over the rejection of all-female LMP2 lineup for Le Mans.
The team wanted to bring it's ORECA to Le Mans with Katherine Legge, Bia Figueiredo and Christina Nielsen in an all-female lineup. The trio is not new, as all 3 drivers raced as teammates at Daytona 24 Hours last month.
With the rejection of the team from fielding it's cars in Le Mans, only Kessel Racing has all-female lineup thanks to the team's automatic victory for winning GT class in Le Mans Cup. The team will bring it's Ferrari 488 to GTE category with Rahel Frey, Michelle Gatting and Manuela Gostner, all 3 previously confirmed for ELMS entry in 2019. Meanwhile, the Meyer Shanks Racing entry was listed ninth out of ten in reserve entries.
“I want to express my disappointment,” said Jackie Heinricher to RACER.
“I thought we put together a good package that has been making a positive and successful impact so far here in the States, and we thought it would be successful at Le Mans.
"With our team and partners and drivers, we felt we could have done a very good job. I’m also disappointed that Katherine, who is one of, if not the fastest woman racing in the world, deserved a shot, not to mention the great people at Meyer Shank Racing.”
“While we were very surprised that we weren’t included, even more, we were listed ninth among the 10 alternates who weren’t included — the bottom, basically,” Heinricher said. “It’s very puzzling.”
That means if half of the total 17 entries from LMP2 class don't turn up at Le Mans, only then will MSR be lucky enough to race at the event.
In turn to the teams' frustration, ACO President Pierre Fillon said it was "very difficult" to choose all the applications.
"We wanted to reward teams that have been loyal to the race. All selection processes entail rejections."
"It was tricky in that all applicants were top class and we had to find criteria on which to separate them.
"We examined the applications with a fine-tooth comb. Our choice was based on the appeal of the team in terms of sport and technology and in terms of spectator and media attention. Loyalty was also a factor.
"Of course, there were several heartbreaking moments. Several reserve teams would have made the grid in previous years." he added.
RACER.com contributed to this post.
Comentários