42 Cars For ELMS Paul Ricard Season Opener
42 cars will take to the track for the opening round of the 2022 European Le Mans Series at Circuit Paul Ricard, the track in the South of France has been a permanent fixture on the ELMS calendar since 2013 and thee circuit hosts the official pre-season test again this season too next Monday and Tuesday.
LMP2 features 17 entries with Algarve Pro Racing the only two-car team on the class grid.
Reigning drivers’ champions Yifei Ye and Louis Deletraz are back on the grid but in different teams. Ye will be driving the #37 Cool Racing Oreca and Deletraz the #9 Prema Racing Oreca, on elf a number of debuting teams this season.
Deletraz will be joined at Prema by reigning FIA WEC LMP2 champion Ferdinand Habsburg and ex F2 racer Juan Manuel Correa.
Seven of the 17 LMP2s are entries in the LMP2 Pro/Am Trophy – each car featuring at least one bronze-rated driver, with reigning champion John Falb returning to defend his title in the #47 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca.
Team Virage and Nielsen Racing will also make their LMP2 ELMS debut, stepping up from LMP3. Nielsen Racing start the ELMS season as the 2022 Asian Le Mans Series LMP2 Champions, with Ben Hanley, Matt Bell and Rodrigo Sales.
Haas F1 reserve driver Pietro Fittipaldi will start his first full season in the ELMS alongside Fabio Scherer and David Heinemeier-Hansson in the #43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca, the Polish team adding n ELMS effort alongside their WEC commitment.
After becoming the first female driver to stand on an ELMS overall podium in Portimão last October, Sophia Floersch will race alongside Dutch driver Bent Viscaal in the no19 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca.
Former ELMS LMP2 champions on the 2022 grid include Phil Hanson (2020) in the #22 United Autosports Oreca, Paul Lafargue (2019) and Paul Loup Chatin (2019 and 2014) in the #28 IDEC Sport Oreca and Memo Rojas (2020 and 2017) in the #30 Duqueine Oreca.
LMP3 welcomes 13 entries at Paul Ricard
Reigning champions DKR Engineering return with a new driver line up of Tom Van Rompuy, Sebastian Alvarez and Alexander Bukhantsov.
Three timeLMP3 Champions United Autosports, 2018 LMP3 Champions RLR MSport, 2019 Champions (and 2020 runners up) Eurointernational, and 2021 runners up Cool Racing will each run two cars in the LMP3 category.
DKR Engineering, late additions 360 Racing and reigning Michelin Le Mans Cup Champions Nielsen Racing will each run a single car entry.
DKR Engineering will be the only entry with the Duqueine M30-D08-Nissan, the car they won the championship in 2021.The rest of the field will run the Ligier JS P320-Nissan.
Kay Van Berlo became the youngest ever winner in the ELMS in 2018 at the age of 17.He returns to the ELMS with United Autosports this season.His brother Glenn is racing for Eurointernational.
LMGTE sees a 12 car entry at le Castellet after the late withdrawal of the original season-entered #74 Ferrari.
That leaves a still very strong grid of 7 Ferrari F488 GTE EVO, 3 Porsche 911 RSR-19 and 2 Aston Martin Vantage AMR.
Reigning champions Iron Lynx return with two Ferrari F488s, with 2021 drivers’ champion Matteo Cressoni in the #60 Ferrari alongside Claudio Schiavoni and Davide Rigon.
The #80 Iron Lynx Ferrari will be the Iron Dames car with Rahel Frey, Michelle Gatting and Sarah Bovy.
2018 and 2020 Team Champions Proton Competition will field two Porsche 911s.The #77 car will feature 2020 champion Christian Ried alongside Gianmaria Bruni and Lorenzo Ferrari.The #93 Porsche will see Michael Fassbender start his third season in the ELMS, alongside Richard Lietz and surprise addition Canadian Zacharie Robichon.
Hong Kong flagged team Absolute Racing will make their ELMS debut with 2020 LMGTE Champion Alessio Picariello ljoining Andrew Haryanto and Martin Rump
Oman Racing with TF Sport will become the first Omani flagged team in the ELMS with two Aston Martin Vantage AMRs.Former FIA WEC World Champion Marco Sorensen will join Ahmad Al Harthy and Sam de Haan in the no69 Vantage, while 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Jonny Adam will lead the driver line up in the #95 car alongside John Hartshone and Henrique Chaves
2021 Championship runners-up Spirit of Race, return as one of the longest established crews in the field.
Longest of all though is the JMW Motorsport team with the #66 Ferrari crewed by a multinational line-up: Giacomo Petrobelli joined by Singaporean racer Sean Hudspeth and Kiwi Matthew Payne.
with 2013 Champion Matt Griffin at the wheel alongside David Perel and Duncan Cameron once again.
Entrance to the circuit for the duration of the event will be free. Spectators will have access to the Xtrem Park from Monday 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. Saturday: 9 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. Sunday: 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
And the race will again be live strand free on YouTube with a returning commentary team headed up by Jonny Palmer and featuring DSC Editor Graham Goodwin with Hayley Edmonds patrolling pit lane.