Team boss Jim Glickenhaus has revealed that the chances of the Mercedes factory driver, winner of the DTM in 2021, racing one of his two Pipo-engined 007 Le Mans Hypercars entered for the double-points round of the World Endurance Championship on 10-11 June are receding.
“I don’t see it happening, although there are still discussions,” he told Motorsport.com.
“It’s a shame that it’s probably going to happen, but that’s sometimes the way things work out in motorsport.”
Gotz looked set to race in Glickenhaus’s regular #708 WEC entry alongside Romain Dumas and Olivier Pla at Le Mans and, by way of preparation, at Spa this month after spending time with the team over the course of both the official WEC Prologue test weekend and the race at Sebring last month.
Glickenhaus hinted that the deal had hinged on an involvement of Gotz’s long-time sponsor BWT.
Team regular Franck Mailleux, the only driver so far listed in the additional #709 Glickenhaus entered at Le Mans, will now drive the regular WEC car a Spa on 29 April alongside Dumas and Pla in place of Ryan Briscoe.
Luca Ciancetti, technical director of the Podium Advanced Technologies organisation that builds and runs the Glickenhaus 007s, explained that it was “important to give Franck some seat time before Le Mans so we decided to do a rotation of our drivers”.
The plan is then for Briscoe to return to the cockpit of #708 alongside regular team-mates Dumas and Pla for Le Mans.
Glickenhaus explained that he is still negotiating with what he called “sponsored drivers” to join Mailleux at Le Mans, but he stressed that there would “absolutely be two cars at the 24 Hours”.
He reiterated his position that the future of Glickenhaus in the WEC beyond this year is dependent on the team attracting sponsorship.
The benefits of racing in the series for the fledgling Glickenhaus marque have been questioned by its team owner, who didn't commit to continuing in the WEC this year until December.
He suggested that competing at the Nurburgring 24 Hours with its SCG 004C GT car and in off-road events such as the Baja 1000 with its so-called Boot have more value for the marque.
