Team boss Jim Glickenhaus has revealed that the chances of the Mercedes factory driver, winner of the DTM in 2021, racing one of his two Pipo-engined 007 Le Mans Hypercars entered for the double-points round of the World Endurance Championship on 10-11 June are receding.
“I don’t see it happening, although there are still discussions,” he told Autosport.
“It’s a shame that it’s probably going to happen, but that’s sometimes the way things work out in motorsport.”
Gotz looked set to race for in Glickenhaus’s regular #708 WEC entry alongside Romain Dumas and Oliiver Pla at Le Mans and, by way of preparation, at Spa this month after spending time with the team over the course of both the official WEC Prologue test weekend and the race at Sebring last month.
Glickenhaus hinted that the deal had hinged on an involvement of Gotz’s long-time sponsor BWT.
Team regular Franck Mailleux, the only driver so far listed in the additional #709 Glickenhaus entered at Le Mans, will now drive the regular WEC car a Spa on 29 April alongside Dumas and Pla in place of Ryan Briscoe
Luca Ciancetti, technical director of the Podium Advanced Technologies organisation that builds and runs the Glickenhaus 007s, explained that it was “important to give Franck some seat time before Le Mans so we decided to do a rotation of our drivers”.
Source: Autosport