Isotta casts doubt on 2023 WEC Hypercar debut
The Isotta Fraschini Le Mans Hypercar is looking increasingly unlikely to race this year in the World Endurance Championship.
A race debut for the revived Italian marque’s Tipo 6 LMH Competizione at the Bahrain season-finale in November officially remains the target.
But Isotta motorsport boss Claudio Berro has stressed that it will not compromise the development and homologation of the car ahead of its full entry into the WEC in 2024 with the British Vector Sport team.
Sources within the Isotta camp indicate that the chances of the car racing in the Bahrain 8 Hours on 4 November are now negligible.
“We will be in Bahrain at the end of the year, but we don’t know yet if we will race or just test,” Berro told Autosport.
“Racing is the target, but we have go through the homologation procedure and we still don’t have the car in its final specification.”
The Isotta would be required to be fully homologated to take part at the race in Bahrain even though it would be competing on an invitational, non-points basis.
The same applies to the official WEC rookie test the day after the race at Bahrain.
Isotta and Vector, which will become fully embedded in the remainder of the test programme this year, are planning to test in Bahrain in the wake of the WEC round and also go to the Losail circuit in Qatar, which will host the opening round of the 2024 series next March.
Isotta Fraschini Tipo 6 Competizione Hypercar
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
It is expected to join a group test at the beginning of December at which Toyota, Porsche and BMW will run their Hypercar class cars.
Isotta was present at last weekend’s Monza 6 Hours round of the WEC, which it had touted as a possible race debut for the Tipo 6 after its full-season entry for this year was rejected.
Its LMH took to the circuit on Saturday and Sunday along with the track-day version of the car known as the Pista.
Driving duties were shared by Marco Bonanomi, Jean-Karl Vernay and Andrea Montermini, who have all been involved in the test programme with the Tipo 6 so far.
Isotta also showed a model of a road-going variant of the Tipo 6 dubbed the Stradale at Monza.
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