Lada Sport hoping to leave driver line-up unchanged for 2016

Lada Sport Rosneft has had the most varied driver line-up this season, with three drivers being dropped from Russian manufacturer during the season, but the team hopes to keep its current trio of Rob Huff, Nicky Catbsurg and Nicola Lapierre for 2016.

The team started 2015 with the same line-up as last year of Rob Huff, James Thompson and Mikhail Kozlovskiy. Both Thompson and Kozlovskiy left the team after just three races, with Jaap van Lagen and Nicky Catsburg brought in to replace them, before Nicolas Lapierre was then brought in to replace van Lagen from the Japanese round of the championship.

“I am very happy with the current driver line-up,” said team boss Viktor Shapovalov to TouringCarTimes. “We have three great drivers in Rob, Nicky and Nicolas and they are working well together and with the team. I hope we will retain these drivers for next year.”

Catsburg is understood to have two clashes next year with his American sports car programme, which will mean the Dutchman would need to be substituted for those races, while Lapierre and Huff are able to compete the whole year.

With the Vesta now finishing its debut season, Shapovalov confirmed Lada Sport are studying the possibility of providing cars to independent teams in 2016.

“Of course it is a possibility we are considering at the moment, but a decision has not been taken yet. We need to make sure we can deliver a competitive car to customers, but to be honest seeing more Ladas on the track would be a great addition to our project, as well as the whole World Touring Car Championship. We will see in the future.”