WEC unveils 32-car entry list for 2016

In the fifth year since the championship's inception in 2012, 19 prototypes - nine in LMP1 and 10 in LMP2 - will be joined by 13 GT cars, with seven entries in GTE-Pro and six in GTE-Am.

The headline LMP1 class features the same nine entries that completed the 2015 season, with the Dunlop-shod ByKolles Racing team again joining fellow privateers Rebellion Racing and the six factory prototypes from Porsche, Audi and Toyota.

In LMP2, SMP Racing's brace of BR01s have been entered for a full season, while a second Signatech Alpine - entered under the 'BAXI DC Racing' banner - and an ORECA from Manor join last year's entries.

As revealed by Motorsport.com, KCMG has withdrawn from the class, while G-Drive Racing is down to a single car as part of its tie-up with JOTA Sport.

GTE entries

Ford Chip Ganassi Racing's pair of all-new GT machines balance out Porsche's withdrawal from the GTE Pro ranks as a factory team, although the German manufacturer will still be represented by the Dempsey Proton team, which steps up from GTE Am.

The Aston Martin works team, meanwhile, drops from three GTE Pro cars to two, keeping the number of class entries at seven, with the British marque entering a sole car in the Am class, down from two in 2015.

Larbre Competition, AF Corse and Abu Dhabi Proton Racing all return from last year, bolstered by KCMG and European Le Mans Series graduates Gulf Racing, although SMP Racing's withdrawal limits the size of the class to just six full-time cars.

Full entry list:

N°	Team	Car	Confirmed drivers
LMP1
1	Porsche Team	Porsche 919 Hybrid	Timo Bernhard  Mark Webber  Brendon Hartley
2	Porsche Team	Porsche 919 Hybrid	Romain Dumas  Neel Jani  Marc Lieb
4	ByKolles Racing	CLM P1/01 - AER	Simon Trummer
5	Toyota Racing	Toyota TS 050 Hybrid	Anthony Davidson Sebastien Buemi  Kazuki Nakajima
6	Toyota Racing	Toyota TS 050 Hybrid	Stephane Sarrazin  Mike Conway  Kamui Kobayashi
7	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi R18 e-tron quattro	Andre Lotterer  Benoit Treluyer Marcel Fassler
8	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi R18 e-tron quattro	Lucas di Grassi  Loic Duval  Oliver Jarvis
12	Rebellion Racing	Rebellion R-One - AER	Nicolas Prost
13	Rebellion Racing	Rebellion R-One - AER	Matheo Tuscher
LMP2
26	G-Drive Racing	Oreca 05 - Nissan	Roman Rusinov  Nathanael Berthon
27	SMP Racing	BR01 - Nissan	Nicolas Minassian
30	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Ligier JS P2 - Nissan	Scott Sharp
31	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Ligier JS P2 - Nissan	Ryan Dalziel
35	BAXI DC Racing Alpine	Alpine A460 - Nissan	David Cheng  Ho-Pin Tung
36	Signatech Alpine	Alpine A460 - Nissan	Gustavo Menezes
37	SMP Racing	BR01 - Nissan	Vitaly Petrov
42	Strakka Racing	Gibson 015S - Nissan	Nick Leventis
43	RGR Sport by Morand	Ligier JS P2 - Nissan	Ricardo Gonzalez  Filipe Albuquerque  Bruno Senna
44	Manor	ORECA 05 - Nissan	Tor Graves
LMGTE Pro
51	AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GTE	Gianmaria Bruni  James Calado
66	Ford Chip Ganassi Racing	Ford GT	Marino Franchitti
67	Ford Chip Ganassi Racing	Ford GT	Olivier Pla
71	AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GTE	Davide Rigon  Sam Bird
77	Dempsey Proton Racing	Porsche 911 RSR	Richard Lietz  Michael Christensen
95	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin Vantage V8	Nicki Thiim
97	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin Vantage V8	Richie Stanaway
LMGTE Am
50	Larbre Competition	Chevrolet Corvette C7R	Yutaka Yamagishi  Paolo Ruberti   Pierre Ragues
78	KCMG	Porsche 911 RSR	Christian Ried
83	AF Corse	Ferrari F458 Italia	Francois Perrodo  Emmanuel Collard  Rui Aguas
86	Gulf Racing	Porsche 911 RSR	Michael Wainwright
88	Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing	Porsche 911 RSR	Khaled Al Qubaisi
98	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin Vantage V8	Paul Dalla Lana