Nicolas Lapierre to race KCMG ORECA at Le Mans
Nicolas Lapierre will race for the KCMG team in the Le Mans 24 Hours and the FIA World Endurace Championship round at Spa, Motorsport.com can reveal.
Photo by: Toyota Racing
The Toyota Racing contracted driver has agreed terms with the winner of last year's COTA, Bahrain and Interlagos LMP2 races.
Lapierre will replace Nick Tandy at Spa and Le Mans, when the Briton will be racing in a third Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1 car with Nico Hulkenberg and Earl Bamber.
Lapierre joins Richard Bradley and Matt Howson, who were already confirmed for the entire FIA WEC season at KCMG.
"I'm excited to be competing for KCMG in Spa and Le Mans.Thanks to KCMG, TOYOTA and ORECA of course," said Lapierre.
"I am really keen to get back to racing again and the 'Prologue' will be a good opportunity to become familiar with the ORECA 05, which is a very promising car. I'm motivated and ready to contribute to KCMG's Le Mans challenge this year."
Back after long break
The 31-year-old has not raced since last year's FIA WEC race at COTA in mid-September.
The Frenchman was an original member of Toyota's return to top line endurance action in 2012 but failed to appear after COTA in what Toyota Racing described initially as 'personal problems'.
Motorsport.com revealed earlier this month that Lapierre is still a contracted Toyota driver and could still have a part to play with the Japanese manufacturer in 2015.
Toyota is expected to announce its official test and reserve driver at the FIA WEC test next week.
It is still unclear as to what Lapierre's activities are with the team. A statement from Toyota Racing is also expected later today regarding Lapierre's future.
Bradley and Howson will drive at the official Paul Ricard 'Prologue' test this week where more laps will be put on the brand new ORECA 05 which made its public debut at the same track earlier this month. Lapierre will also be at Paul Ricard to get his first laps in the new KCMG Oreca 05.
KCMG Founder Paul Ip said of the announcement this morning: "We are happy to finalize our line up with the announcement of Nicolas as our fourth driver.
"The team is pleased to have him on board this season and I'm confident that he is a great addition to the team's assault at Spa and Le Mans.
"Many thanks to Toyota Racing for permitting Nicolas to take part in our LMP2 program this year, and to Oreca for helping facilitate this agreement."
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