Russian company BR Engineering and Italian chassis designer Dallara have announced a new partnership that will see them enter the LMP1 class of the FIA World Endurance Championship from 2018.
As confirmed ahead of the final race of the 2016 season in Bahrain, BR Engineering will ramp up its involvement in WEC after two years in LMP2 designing the car for SMP Racing.
The move comes as a boost to the LMP1 class following Audi’s decision to quit at the end of 2016 and Rebellion’s move down to LMP2.
The deal was agreed between Boris Rotenberg, president of BR Engineering, and Andrea Pontremoli, CEO of Dallara, with French racing marque ART Grand Prix agreeing to head up the development and operational support for the new operation.
“We raised a challenge to ourselves. It was possible to buy a chassis of one of the four manufacturers of LMP2 for a season, it was also possible to leave for good, but we have always chosen our own path,” Rotenberg said.
“Dallara’s name is known to anyone who is familiar with motor racing. Now we have become partners, and BR Engineering’s new project has started here in Italy where the best designers and engineers, both from Russia and from Europe, will create a Russian prototype for Russian team SMP Racing.”