Tom Dillmann has announced his departure from the Vanwall team with whom he was involved in the FIA WEC this year.
The Frenchman made his decision official a few days after his participation in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Hypercar category, which ended with his retirement after an engine failure in the early hours of Sunday morning.
At the Circuit de la Sarthe, Dillmann shared the wheel of the Vandervell 680 with Esteban Guerrieri and Tristan Vautier, called on short notice to replace Jacques Villeneuve, who split from the team shortly before the event.
Now the team led by Colin Kolles has to start looking for a rider again, given that the next round of the championship will be held in Monza at the beginning of July.
“It’s important to say that I left Vanwall on good terms,” Dillmann told Motorsport.com.
“I’ve ridden many races with the team and felt it was time to try something different. Obviously it’s a risk to leave, as I don’t have anything else at the moment, but I felt I had to do it to try and get a place elsewhere” .
“I think I have done a good job for a team that is struggling in the main category and I want to double my efforts to be in this position. I don’t want to become a star, but I believe I can be an asset to a team. I have shown that I am reliable in all conditions and that you can count on me”.
Tom Dillmann lors du Pesage des 24H du Mans 2023.
“I would never badmouth the team. I have a lot of respect for the effort they put into it. Colin gave me the opportunity to race for the first time at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2018, which is no small thing, and we did many races together”.
“I wish him the best. It’s just that I felt the need to look for an opportunity where I could fight for better results in the short term.”
In four participations in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and at the age of 34, Dillmann has never seen the finish line of the event with the team of Colin Kolles.
However, he does have one LMP2 Class win under his belt in Shanghai in 2015, when he was with Alpine.
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