Mathey Racing has revealed its complete driver line-ups for the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship. The Meuspath, near Nürburg-based team will be campaigning two Porsche 911 GT3 Rs in the championship, entered as Manthey EMA and Manthey PureRxcing.
The #91 Manthey EMA entry will be piloted by Richard Lietz, Morris Schuring and Yasser Shahin while the sister #92 Manthey PureRxcing entry will be driven by Klaus Bachler, Alex Malykhin and Joel Sturm.
Yasser Shahin and Alex Malykhin are the two Bronze-rated drivers.
Australian pilot Yasser Shahin began his racing career over ten years ago in the domestic Sports Racer series. After four seasons competing in Radicals, Shahin graduated to the Australian GT Championship in a Lamborghini Gallardo. Shahin now has considerable GT and prototype experience with 2023 seeing the chairman of Australia’s Peregrine Corporation competing in the GT World Challenge Australia series and the Asian Le Mans Series.
“I’m looking forward to contesting a WEC season,” said Yasser Shahin. “I’ve always enjoyed the endurance format and believe it offers the greatest challenge and opportunity for a driver. To compete in it with Manthey and Porsche is truly a privilege and a race driver’s dream.
“Representing the Bend Motorsport Park and EMA Motorsport on the world stage will be fantastic. It won’t be easy though – the sheer volume of driving and stints in the WEC will be physically demanding. But our WEC driver line-up is fantastic. We have excellent driver chemistry and everyone is looking forward to the start of the new season.”
Alex Malykhin had a very busy 2023 with outings in the Asian Le Mans Series, the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe and Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East.
“We are expecting exciting battles for the title in the WEC season,” said Malykhin. “Therefore it is important to give our best at every race and especially at Le Mans to score as many championship points as possible. The handling of the new Goodyear tyres will also play an important role.
“Klaus, Joel and I are very different types of drivers which ensures that our driver line-up is well-balanced. We proved this last year with top results for Pure Rxcing and hope to build on that this this year.”
Mathey Head of Racing Patrick Arkenau is delighted to be returning to the WEC.
“It’s great to be back in the WEC after a year of absence and we’re looking forward to new challenges,” said Arkenau. “For example, the change from the former GTE-Pro to a Pro-Am class. At the same time, we are also very happy that we have two promising driver pairings. Our expectation is that we will compete for the championship – with both cars.”
The 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship gets underway with the Official Prologue on February 24 – 25 in Qatar with the opening round at that circuit on March 2.
