WEC: Ginetta Pulls Factory Programme for 2021

British manufacturer Ginetta has announced it will not participate in the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship with a factory team.

The announcement comes after saying it will downscale its involvement in the 2019/20 season. The Ginetta Team LNT LMP1 team will race just a single Ginetta G60-LT-P1 at the delayed 2020 Le Mans 24hrs, and won’t participate in either the first WEC race since the COVID break in Spa next month nor the Bahrain finale in November.

Ginetta boss Lawrence Tomlinson said he simply does not enjoy racing in the WEC anymore, "In terms of racing the cars ourselves in the WEC, that ship has sailed. I do things that make me money or make me happy, and racing in the WEC does neither."

The announcement goes against a past statement that indicated Ginetta would continue a factory effort if no customer teams would step forward to run the cars. However Tomlinson still believes that the G60 will still be a viable car for a privateer team to run in 2021, when LMP1 cars will be allowed to compete against the new LM Hypercar category in the WEC.

He also said that current Ginetta LMP1 driver Chris Dyson could revive his Dyson Racing team to put a programme together to run the Ginettas next year, "Chris is keen on a WEC programme and we'd be happy to support him run a car or, even better, two."

The American Dyson Racing team won the American Le Mans Series in 1999 and 2011.

However, Tomlinson called for ‘clarity and assurances’ on how the LMP1 machinery will be balanced against the new LM Hypercar cars next year.

So far, Toyota and ByKolles are the 2 LMP1 teams who will enter new cars for the LMH regulations, with boutique car manufacturer Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus also entering the series under the new regulations.

Peugeot and Aston Martin are also set to enter, however Peugeot plan to enter in 2022 while Aston Martin, who initially set out to enter the 2021 season, has put the programme on hold as it continues to develop the Valkyrie hypercar.