BR Engineering and Dallara have launched their new LMP1 challenger, the BR1, to the FIA WEC media in Bahrain this evening.
Boris Rotenberg, president of BR Engineering was on hand to take the wraps off the new car, the programme for which, was originally announced on-site in Bahrain a year ago and has involved Dallara, Russian engineers and students who have competed to be part of the project. 2017 ELMS LMP2 champion DragonSpeed was also announced as a customer team, alongside the expected SMP Racing programme, which is set to become the first ever Russian-flagged LMP1 WEC effort.
SMP Racing’s pair of cars, set to be campaigned by ART Grand Prix, will feature the AER P60 twin-turbo V6 engine, whilst DragonSpeed, customer team for the third chassis, will run a normally aspirated Gibson V8.
At the launch, Rotenberg said that DragonSpeed will take the third BR1 chassis, and explained that five drivers have tested the Dallara-built chassis prior to the launch at Motorland Aragon. Ex-F1 driver Vitaly Petrov, IndyCar regular Mikhail Aleshin (sporting a broken arm after a recent cycling accident), Sergei Sirotkin, Kirill Ladygin and Viktor Shaitar have all driven in testing so far, where the car completed well over 1000km over two days.
