James Vowles will compete in the 12-hour race in Abu Dhabi.

      The Formula 1 season will conclude on December 7, but Williams Racing boss James Vowles will not return to Europe with everyone else; he will stay in Abu Dhabi to start the 12-hour endurance race on December 14.

      The Gulf 12 Hours marathon will be held at the same Yas Marina Circuit, and Vowles is set to pilot a McLaren 720S GT3 alongside his Garage 59 teammates, competing in the Pro-Am category. They are Briton Mark Sansom, Italian Marco Pulcini and Swedish-born-in-Helsinki Alexander West. The three of them have considerable experience in competitions such as GT Open, GT World Challenge and Ferrari Challenge.

      “I’ll be delighted to put on a racing helmet again if the opportunity arises!’’ Vowles commented. “I know the Garage 59 team well from competing together in 2022, and the upcoming 12-hour race is a great event with a fairly strong field. I’m glad I’ll be driving the car with Alex, Mark and Marco and gaining new racing experience.”

      James Vowles has occasionally competed in endurance races since 2015, and in 2022 took part in the Asian Le Mans Series — it was then that his collaboration with Garage 59 began. But this will be his first race since 2023, when he took over as head of Williams Racing.

      The Gulf 12 Hours has been held in Abu Dhabi since 2012 and usually closes the sportscar racing season; on December 14 it will take place for the 15th time. This time it will also feature a new GTX1 class, in which drivers will compete in the most powerful cars from four manufacturers — the Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo, Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2, McLaren Artura Trophy and Porsche 992 GT3 Cup — whose engines develop more than 700 hp.

      The race format is as follows: the first part lasts eight hours, followed by a two-hour break, after which the second, four-hour final part starts.

      Garage 59 is a fairly well-known British team that has competed in GT racing since 2016, and its co-owners are currently Alexander West, Andrew Kirkaldy and Chris Goodwin — Goodwin worked with McLaren for many years as a test driver and later managed the career of Bruno Senna, the nephew of the great Brazilian racer.