The United Autosports LMP2 team, has been left disappointed after the ACO has given their second entry only a reserve place for this years 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Richard Dean, United Autosports Team Principal was “having difficulty understanding” the decision.
“You have to presume that as a team that finished on the second place podium at Le Mans last year that we would have got an entry this time.” he told Motorsport.com.
“The entry we gained for winning the Asian series has effectively cancelled that out, so in fact we haven’t gained anything.”
Dean then implied that the decision would give the wrong impression to teams entering the Asian Series, as it offers four guaranteed places at Le Mans.
He was also keen to point out that last season the outfit fielded 11 entries across the ACO fleet of championships, including the European Le Mans Series, the Michelin Le Mans Cup and the Asian Le Mans Series.
“It says in the entry criteria that teams supporting ACO series will be looked upon favourably when it comes to Le Mans entries,” he said. “I’m not sure there is another team out there that has supported the ACO more than we have.”
“We’ve won races outright and the LMP3 title in the ELMS, been on the podium at Le Mans, and bought drivers of the calibre of Juan Pablo Montoya and Paul di Resta to the 24 Hours, which makes it difficult to understand why we have not been rewarded for that.”
However when the final 18 cars were announced, ACO president, Pierre Fillon, admitted there would be some disappointment.
“We had to set ourselves a roadmap and follow it,” he said. “For LMP2, the first decision was to field as many different teams as possible before considering any second cars. We wanted to reward teams that have been loyal to the race. All selection processes entail rejections.”
