[WEC] OFFICIAL 2012 WEC ENTRY LIST (02/02/12 16:00 CET / 15:00 UK)

[KA]

Originally Posted by The Badger

Gulf Racing Middle East ? ..... thats brilliant news . Hope they have both of them in the one car .

I'm not sure they can?- the ACO driver grading rules say that there has to be a 'Silver' or 'Bronze'-graded driver in each car for LMP2:

Originally Posted by ACO rulebook

For the LMP2 category only: the rule governing the composition of the crews derives from the categorisations of the drivers: a crew of 2 or 3 drivers must include at least one Silver or Bronze driver

I think Giroix was graded 'Gold' last year, and Fatien 'Bronze'?

Johansson will be either a 'Platinum' or 'Gold' depending on his age (According to the rulebook, drivers eligible for 'Platinum' grading are graded 'Gold' if they're over 55- IIRC Stefan is 55), and I'm assuming Charouz would be Platinum as well (he's had a couple of F1 reserve/test driver gigs, so presumably will hold an F1 Superlicence)

How about Maxime Jousse and Keiko Ihara? both with single-seater backgrounds, but as I recall, Ihara didn't do much in British F3 and I know little about Jousse apart from him being Julien Jousse's younger brother..

Just looked Jousse up -6th in Italian F3 last year according to Wikipedia, which if I'm reading the rulebook correctly suggests he may be another Gold, so I'm guessing Ihara must be to be 'Silver' at best?

I thought the entry list as given on Planetlemans had the Gulf pairings as Giroix/Jousse in #28, and Fatien/Ihara in #29?

If I'm interpreting the gradings right ,and they had already announced those pairings, I think they might now need a bit of a reshuffle to put Fatien in one car and Ihara in the other to give their required Silver/Bronze driver in each?

Of course, I could be reading all of this wrongly and talking total garbage...
Either way, putting Johansson and Charouz into the Gulf cars makes them much more interesting contenders in P2...