FIA WEC teams open doors to thousands at Paul Ricard

Thousands of racing fans have poured into the Circuit Paul Ricard at Le Castellet, France today to enjoy the sights and sounds of competitors and cars from the FIA World Endurance Championship taking part in final pre-season testing before the first round at Silverstone on 12-14 April.

So great was the crowd attendance that championship organisers asked teams to throw open their garage doors for a 30-minute pit walk at lunchtime, and the thrilled spectators got a rare, up-close look at some of the world’s most sophisticated racing prototypes and GT cars.

Fans were invited to pre-register attendance with the track, free of charge, and over 5,000 were expected on the second and final day of testing.  They have been able to enjoy seeing marques such as Aston Martin, Corvette, Ferrari and Porsche from the LMGTE Pro and Am categories and prototypes from global racing experts ORECA, themselves based at Paul Ricard, Morgan, Lola and Honda Performance Development.

Present among the many drivers on testing duties were famous names from F1 and other major series:  Neel Jani, Nicolas Prost, Bruno Senna, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Giancarlo Fisichella to name but a few.  They, together with their team mates gave an impromptu autograph session for the fans present in bright sunshine.

We look forward to welcoming thousands more fans at Silverstone in two weeks' time.

Fiona Miller