Four factory drivers will anchor the new Garage 59 McLaren squad’s assault on the Blancpain GT Series this season.
Alvaro Parente, Shane van Gisbergen, Rob Bell and new-signing Come Ledogar will drive one of the two 650S GT3s entered in the BGTS Endurance and Sprint Cups by Garage 59, which has been set up by McLaren GT to field cars for customers in races and on track days.
Van Gisbergen, Bell and Ledogar will team up in the enduros, while Bell will share with Parente in the sprint events.
McLaren academy drivers Struan Moore, Alex Fontana and Andrew Watson will race the second car in the Endurance Cup.
McLaren GT boss Andrew Kirkaldy said that the driver line-up “highlighted the intentions the team has for the season”.
“With a mixture of experience and exciting young talent in the roster of drivers, together with key engineering and strategic support on the pitwall, the team is well-placed to be a true contender in the championship,” he said.
The team will run a second car in the sprints, but has yet to confirm drivers.
Negotiations with Bruno Senna, who was on McLaren’s books last season, are understood to be on-going and could result in him turning out in the Sprint Cup.
Garage 59, which takes its name from the race number of the 1995 Le Mans 24 Hours-winning McLaren F1 GTR, will be managed by former Marc VDS team principal Bas Leinders.
The Belgian was announced as McLaren GT’s sporting manager in January.
Kirkaldy described Garage 59 as a “separate entity” to McLaren GT and “a continuation of what we were doing last year with VonRyan Racing”, which represented McLaren in the Blancpain Endurance Series in 2015.
