The L’Espace Bienvenue team will expand to field twin entries in next year’s GT4 European Series, with Ricardo van der Ende and Benjamin Lessennes joined by new signings Ravi Ramyead and Charlie Robertson.
The team has regularly challenged for race wins and podium finishes with its Silver duo Van der Ende and Lessennes, and the squad will now fight on two fronts after confirming Pro-Am pairing Ramyead and Robertson for its sister BMW M4 GT4 Evo.
Ramyead and Robertson step up to make their GT4 Europe debut as a pairing after impressing in the British GT Championship this year, finishing second in the overall GT4 class points and celebrating three race wins along the way. British driver Ramyead will enter his third season of GT4 racing next year and has also been runner-up in Ginetta’s 2023 GT Academy series in the UK.
Scottish driver Robertson was a long-term Ginetta driver before making the move to BMW machinery with Ramyead. He made his GT4 Europe debut back in the 2017 GT4 European Series Northern Cup and has been a champion in both LMP3 and the Ginetta GT Supercup and Junior series.
They join the established duo Van der Ende and Lessennes, who return with their eyes set on fighting for the Silver GT4 Europe title. FFSA French GT champions in 2020, the pair stepped up to GT4 Europe as a pairing in 2023, claiming a race win on their debut at Spa-Francorchamps. They won again in 2024 on their way to second in the Silver points and were podium finishers this season.
Van der Ende is also one of the GT4 European Series’ most successful ever drivers. The Dutchman has lifted four GT4 Europe titles – three under the old series format in 2011, 2013 and 2104 and he was also the inaugural Silver champion during the first season of the current format in 2017.
Ravi Ramyead says: “Thanks to our results in British GT we received offers from pther manufacturers, but we love the BMW M4 GT4 and we know how to get the best out of it. So we decided to contact L'Espace Bienvenue, whose performances in the GT4 European Series had caught our attention. We travelled to Barcelona to experience the final meeting of the season, immersing ourselves in the team. We received a very warm welcome and were impressed by the work they put in, particularly in fielding an impeccable car for Race 2 after a collision in Race 1. A test session was organised at the Paul Ricard Circuit where we were able to use data from their Silver drivers to benchmark our performance. Afterwards, we visited the Racetivity workshops – François Gagneux and Arnaud Fouquet’s team and L'Espace Bienvenue’s technical partner – which further reinforced our conviction that we had made the right choice!
Charlie Robertson said: “I started working with Ravi back in 2023, predominantly working on the coaching side, on and off the circuit. It has been a great learning curve. We have had some mega races and results so far, probably the best being winning the British GT Silverstone 500 overall in GT4 this season. We are looking forward to carrying this momentum into GT4 Europe with L’Espace Bienvenue. We prepare pretty intensively between events, it is a mixture of on track testing and simulator work. Going into next season I expect the simulator to be a big part of our preparation, as most of the circuits will be new to Ravi and some to me. GT4 has been a fantastic proving ground so far, the nature of the car’s regulations mean we can improve race craft at a significant pace. GT4 Europe will be a big step up in terms of the close racing side, with 40+ cars on track. We need to be clever this season, as there is no prize for overall in GT4 Europe. We will be competing in Pro-Am, which has been very competitive the last few seasons. We have an aim, and that is to win the Pro-Am title. I am confident that with the partnership Ravi and I have, combined with the experience and knowledge of L’Espace Bienvenue we can achieve this.”
Racetivity’s André Grammatico added: “Our crews won't be fighting amongst themselves, but they will push each other to reach the top as we’ll have double technical feedback, which will help our engineers to more easily define the final optimisation of the set-ups. Our new drivers are very professional; they asked us very insightful questions. They are extremely demanding, and we are honoured by their decision to invest in L'Espace Bienvenue. We also felt that the atmosphere was relaxed, which is very important because, beyond the sporting aspect, we’ll be spending a lot of time together over the next few months. On that note, I'll finish with a little anecdote about the meal we all had together in Toulouse during our visit to Racetivity's facilities. There were snails on the menu, but Ravi and Charlie weren't too keen on trying them. However, they promised to give it a go if we win the European title!”
The 2026 GT4 European Series begins at Circuit Paul Ricard over the weekend of April 11-12.
