The announcement on Wednesday of the provisional entry list for the 2021 Asian Le Mans Series kicked off the countdown to the season's opening race, scheduled for Dubai on 13 and 14 February. Seven Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020s will contest the championship, which will be condensed into two consecutive weekends, the second being at Yas Marina.
The thirty-six crews are divided into the LMP2, LMP3 and GT classes. The latter, the most crowded with 19 teams, promises to be particularly hard-fought partly because it offers an automatic invite to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. After the announcement in recent weeks of the Rinaldi Racing crews with Davide Rigon, Rino Mastronardi and David Perel in car no. 55, and Christian Hook, Manuel Lauck and Patrick Kujala in no. 66, the other line-ups in the Maranello cars were also officialised.
AF Corse's well-established crew of Alessandro Pier Guidi, Francesco Piovanetti and Oswaldo Negri Jr, will be joined by the FIA WEC LMGTE Am class crew of Giancarlo Fisichella, Thomas Flohr and Francesco Castellacci.
Kessel Racing will field two cars on its return to the series after some years out. The first will carry Car Guy's colours and will see 2019 champion Takeshi Kimura flanked by Côme Ledogar and Mikkel Jensen, reuniting the crew that took part in last season's closing race. Giorgio Roda and Francesco Zollo will drive car no. 27.
Formula Racing will be making its debut in the category with a Danish line-up led by Nicklas Nielsen. His teammates will be Frederik Paulsen, the Ferrari Challenge Europe champion in the Trofeo Pirelli Am, and Johnny Laursen.