For the Russian G-Drive Racing team the 2014 season has been a very positive one to date. Since the beginning of the season, the team surprised with a strong performances and lead in almost every race. In the past six World Championship races, the trio put their car on the LMP2 pole position. On four of these occasions they have managed to turn the strong starting position into a start-to-finish victory. Currently, the team from Russia is just 8 points of of the lead in the LMP2 teams championship and is working flat out to try and beat SMP racing to the title. However at this late stage in the season, both teams are looking into options for next season.
According to AUTOSPORT.com the Russian squad is looking into a full season entry of 2 cars for 2015. Shortly before the start of the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year, the development department of OAK Racing (OnRoak Automotive) announced that it was to enter into a partnership with the Russian team to test the new Ligier JS P2. The car debuted at Le Mans with a very strong showing. The team fielded 2 cars at the French round as a one off and has continued to run just 1 for the rest of the WEC season.
The performance of the new Ligier surprised with its intimidate pace and the team management decided to use the new Ligier for the rest of the year and to send the long serving Morgan chassis into retirement. After the decision to move full time to the ‘future’ of LMP2 with the coupe Ligier, it is clear was clear that G-Drive were planning opportunities for 2015 and most likely to continue to use the OnRoak chassis. Now it becomes clear that the intentions are to run a second JS P2 for the entire year.
Roman Rusinov said in an interview with AUTOSPORT that they are currently working hard on this project to get it ready in time for next season. However, they also need to consider a variety of factors that must be taken into consideration to be able a start at Silverstone with two Ligiers. At the present time, however, it looks very positive and there should be no difficulty in the project ahead of 2015
No information has yet been released about the drivers planned for the 2015 season except for the possibility of Roman Rusinov. Roman’s two team-mates, Olivier Pla and Julien Canal are currently contractually bound to OAK Racing but it is still unclear whether both will resign for 2015. You could look to G-Drive’s drivers in the Blaincpain Sprint Series as potential drivers for the second car, but although it would be fantastic to see Stephan Ortelli back at Le Mans it would, at this stage seem unlikely.
Picture Credit: Walter Schruff
Source: Autosport.com