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Team Qatar to make Le Mans 24 Hours debut with big ambitions

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June 9 : Team Qatar will make their Le Mans 24 Hours endurance debut this weekend in a significant step for a small country with big motorsport ambitions.

The team have linked up with Italy-based Iron Lynx to field an LMGT3 Mercedes-AMG entry at the French Circuit de la Sarthe with Qatari driver Abdulla Al-Khelaifi partnering German Julian Hanses and Giuliano Alesi, son of former Formula One racer Jean.

Qatar’s Le Mans entry is part of a plan to grow its local involvement in the sport. The country already hosts MotoGP, Formula One and the World Endurance Championship (WEC) rounds, is a stakeholder in the Audi F1 team via Qatar Investment Authority and is home to Dakar Rally champion Nasser Al-Attiyah.

“The vision for us…is to have Qatari drivers competing at the highest level of motorsports, whether it’s Le Mans or even Formula One,” Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation President Abdulrahman bin Abdullatif Al Mannai told Reuters.

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“Qatari drivers picked up by teams and factories – this is what we’d like to see at the end of it.

“We started very, very small in our national championships and now our regional, continental and now we’re pushing to the worldwide stage.”

‘FIRST CREATE THE EXCITEMENT’

The Hypercar category is the pinnacle at Le Mans, with Ferrari chasing a fourth win in succession after ending Toyota’s five-year run at the top. LMGT3 is the third tier, after LMP2 prototypes run by independent teams. 

LMGT3 is also the largest of the classes, with 25 entries and 75 drivers this year on a 62-car starting grid for what will be the 94th running of the race.

Team Qatar also have a Qatari engineer, another small step towards building the future.

“First of all you need to create excitement, you want people to be excited about this new prospect, and then we start recruiting people, developing them and taking them to these international events,” said Al Mannai.

“One day, hopefully, we will have a fully Qatari team competing.”

The next step would be prototypes, with the GT3 programme continuing to provide a ladder for Qatari drivers.

“When you think of motorsport in Qatar, it is rallies,” said Al Mannai. “We have a lot less experience when it comes to circuit racing. And this is what we are trying to do.

“We have a single-seater programme, we have a rally programme, we have an endurance race programme, and you will see in the coming years more and more Qataris coming up at the international level.”

The Iran war and conflict in the Gulf region forced Qatar to postpone the MotoGP race from April until November, with the opening World Endurance round at Lusail moved from March to October.

That leaves Qatar hosting WEC, MotoGP and Formula One rounds at Lusail within five weeks at the same track outside Doha.

Bahrain and Saudi Arabia had to cancel April F1 races because of the situation and the Qatar and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix that close out the season in November and December remain scheduled but with lingering uncertainty.   

“We’re planning everything as if everything will happen. And we’re just hoping the U.S. and Iran will come to an agreement and things will be better,” said Al Mannai. “In terms of planning, we are ready for these races. We just need the politicians to agree.” 

Source: Reuters

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