D’Station Racing, the GT racing team team owned by Satoshi Hoshino and managed by Tomonobu Fujii, has announced its drivers for the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship season.
Entering its fourth season of WEC competition, the LMGT3 driver line-up will be led by Marco Sørensen who will be joined by Erwan Bastard and Clément Mateu. Satoshi Hoshino will join for the 24 Hours of Le Mans as the Bronze driver.
33-year-old Sørensen began his racing career in karts in 1994 before graduating to Formula Ford Denmark in 2006. After drives in Formula Renault, the German Formula Three series and Formula Renault 3.5 series, Sorensen switched to GP2 in 2014, alongside a role as a Lotus F1 test driver.
Sørensen’s sportscar career began in 2015 when he joined Aston Martin Racing as a full-time factory driver. Sørensen took WEC LM GTE Pro titles in 2018-19 and 2019-20 and took the LM GTE Am title in the 2022 season with TF Sport, winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans that season alongside Ben Keating and Henrique Chaves.
“After a year away from the WEC, I am very excited to be back in the championship,” said Sørensen. “We have won it three times in the past so it is no secret I like this championship. It will be an interesting season with the new Aston Martin and a lot to learn but I am sure we will have a good go at it with my new teammates Clément and Erwan. I am looking forward to working with them.”
Sørensen will be joined by Erwan Bastard as the silver-rated driver and Clément Mateu as the Bronze driver.
Bastard made his debut in sportscars in 2018 when he joined Pierre-André Nicolas in the FOXO Porsche 718 Cayman and contested the Porsche Club Motorsport France Championship. The duo finished second in the standings that season before Bastard moved up to the French GT4 Cup in 2019, racing to third in the in the standings at the wheel of the ANS Ginetta G55 alongside teammate Sylvain Caroff.
After winning the French GT4 Cup in 2022, Bastard graduated to GT3 racing when he joined Christopher Haase and Patric Niederhauser at Sainteloc for the Gulf 12 Hours. The trio finished on the podium in the Gulf 12 Hours after which Bastard graduated to the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup, taking a podium finish in the Silver calss in the 2023 24 Hours of Spa.
“I am very honoured to join D’Station Racing and Aston Martin this year,” said Erwan Bastard. “The World Endurance Championship is a childhood dream I have been working towards for a very long time. To finally have the chance and to be part of the WEC with a manufacture who wrote history within the championship is an unbelievable way to do it.
“I cannot wait to get to Qatar and hit the track with Marco and Clément next month!”
Bronze-rated Clément Mateu has been racing for over 20 years, having begun competing in 2001 in the in the French Formula Renault Elf Campus championship. Mateu first raced in GT machinery in 2007 and the French pilot has finished second in the Pro-Am class of the 2022 Porsche Supercup. Alongside Stéphane Lémeret, Romano Ricci and Stéphane Tribaudini, Mateu won the GT3 Am class at the 2020 24 Hours of Spa.
Clément Mateu said; “I am very excited to enter my first season of the World Endurance Championship with D’Station Racing. Thank you to Hoshino San and Fujii San for this opportunity to compete in the top-tier of international endurance racing.
“I am also happy that it will be in an Aston Martin as it shares a special history with my family business, HEXIS. In 2011, HEXIS was the crowned the FIA GT1 World Champion in the DBR9 so it is wonderful to race together again in 2024 with their latest GT3.”
The 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship gets underway with the Prologue in Qatar on February 24th and 25th before the opening round at the circuit on March 2nd.
