Following a rather difficult season with McLaren in the French GT championship and the FIA GT Series Sebastien Loeb Racing has announced a switch to Audi for the 2014 season.

Sebastien Loeb Racing won races with its McLaren MP4-12C GT3 in the 2013 season, but was also excluded from the results in Nogaro, Zandvoort, Magny-Cours and Paul Ricard after failing post-race scrutineering due to a problem with the turbo pressure on their car.

After the last penalty, at the FFSA GT Tour season finale at Paul Ricard, Sebastien Loeb Racing team manager Dominique Heintz had already voiced his frustrations towards McLaren.

Today’s announcement shows that no solution was found and the team has opted to race the Audi R8 LMS ultra instead.

“The choice to enter the Audi R8 LMS ultra is the result of a long thought process,” explained Dominique Heintz.

“We’d like to thank McLaren for their close collaboration which gave us the chance to claim several victories in 2013. Our discussions with Audi were very positive and we were convinced by the Audi R8 LMS ultra’s qualities. The car has good performance but also great reliability, as shown by its successes in some of the biggest endurance races such as the 24 Hours of Spa and Nürburgring. We were also attracted to the philosophy behind the car, which can suite both a professional and gentleman driver.”

Although no decision has been made on which series the team will run in Heintz is certain they fit into any GT series, especially with the support of the German manufacturer. Well placed sources suggest a full programme in the ELMS and French GT is the preferred option for the team.

“Audi Sport runs a reknown customer racing program in all series in which it takes part, not forgetting that they are based closest to our own workshops. That’s a detail that could prove to facilitate our team’s work. We look forward now to the start of this new exciting challenge alongside Audi Sport.”