Former F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve has been announced to race in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) with the eponymous team of Vanwall, which won F1’s first Constructors’ Championship.
Vanwall will have a new hypercar class non-hybrid vehicle, the Vanwall Vandervell 680, overseen by former F1 team principal Colin Kolles on the project.
1997 F1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve will run a Vanwall car with Bycoles test drivers Tom Dillmann and Esteban Guerrieri in the 2023 WEC.
Vanwall made F1 history by winning its first Constructors’ title in 1958. However, founder Tony Vandervell lost his passion for F1 when driver Stuart Lewis-Evans died as a result of injuries sustained at that year’s season-ending Formula 1 Moroccan Grand Prix.
Tony Vandervell announced in early 1959 that he would no longer fund the team.The team managed only one race in each of the 1959 and 1960 seasons and withdrew from F1 altogether.
Jacques Villeneuve has never won the Monaco Grand Prix, so his first attempt at the 24 Hours of Le Mans will not be a shot at the treble, a feat only Graham Hill has achieved.
But the 51-year-old Canadian might claim another triple crown by adding a victory over Vanwall at the 24 Hours of Le Mans to his Indy 500 victory and F1 World Championship. can.
Vanwall is not the only F1-related team to enter the WEC this season. Ferrari returns to the top class for the first time in 50 years.
Category: F1 / Jacques Villeneuve / 24 Hours of Le Mans / WEC (FIA World Endurance Championship)
