After a three-way title
showdown brought the curtain down on an enthralling 2013 season, the European
Le Mans Series is back for more in 2014, as a bumper 41-car grid prepares to
converge on Silverstone for the season-opener. With
races elongated to four hours allowing for three-driver combinations, several
new teams have been attracted to the five round series, which also takes in
Imola, Spielberg, Paul Ricard and Estoril along the way, in the hope of winning
an automatic entry to the 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours.
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| The ELMS is set for another exciting season, with a record grids planned for Silverstone. (Credit: ELMS Media) |
Signatech-Alpine
and Nelson Panciatici will kick off their title defence at Silverstone with LMPC
champion Paul Loup Chatin and new signing Oli Webb, who got his first
experience of LMP2 with Oak Racing in the Rolex 24 at Daytona after a promising
single-seater career. Philippe Sinault’s
team will again be right
at the sharp end, but fellow French outfit and former champions Thiriet by TDS
Racing will be looking to stop them. The 2012 winners took the title to the wire last season, and have switched from Oreca
to Morgan over the off-season in the hope that their change of chassis will
put Pierre Thiriet, Ludovic Badey and the ultra-quick Tristan Gommendy in
contention for honours once again.
After
splashing their way to victory in a rain-shortened race at Silverstone last
year, Jota Sport’s Zytek will again be in the thick of the action, with Audi ace
Filipe Albuquerque anchoring the lineup as he acclimatises to prototype racing before doing Le Mans in a fully fledged R18 e-tron Quattro. Alongside the Portuguese is the ever-improving Simon Dolan and Formula 3 convert Harry Tincknell, who hopes to draw on the experience of his mentor and manager, Allan McNish, as he begins his sportscar foray.
"His influence and his knowledge of the single-seater world is obviously very vast but in sportscars it’s absolutely invaluable, he really is the man that everyone will listen to and have a lot of respect for," Tincknell says. "He’s been there, done it and got the T-shirt in sportscars, so he knows what it takes to win Le Mans and win championships. He can pass that advice down to me and I'll try to take as much of it on board as I can. Certainly this year there’s going to be lots of new challenges in terms of dealing with traffic, fuel saving and all of the different complexities that the sport throws up, so hopefully I can have a head start on some of the other rookies."
Elsewhere, former ALMS champion Chris Dyson and British pro Tom Kimber-Smith are expected to be joined by 16 year-old Matt McMurry in a strong Greaves Motorsport lineup, while NewBlood by Morand Racing have tied down ex-Formula One racer Christian Klien for the full season in their Morgan Judd, alongside young Swiss Gary Hirsch and experienced GT racer Romain Brandela.
"His influence and his knowledge of the single-seater world is obviously very vast but in sportscars it’s absolutely invaluable, he really is the man that everyone will listen to and have a lot of respect for," Tincknell says. "He’s been there, done it and got the T-shirt in sportscars, so he knows what it takes to win Le Mans and win championships. He can pass that advice down to me and I'll try to take as much of it on board as I can. Certainly this year there’s going to be lots of new challenges in terms of dealing with traffic, fuel saving and all of the different complexities that the sport throws up, so hopefully I can have a head start on some of the other rookies."
Elsewhere, former ALMS champion Chris Dyson and British pro Tom Kimber-Smith are expected to be joined by 16 year-old Matt McMurry in a strong Greaves Motorsport lineup, while NewBlood by Morand Racing have tied down ex-Formula One racer Christian Klien for the full season in their Morgan Judd, alongside young Swiss Gary Hirsch and experienced GT racer Romain Brandela.
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| Murphy Prototypes hope to confirm Berthon this week after his impressive performance in testing. (Credit: ELMS Media) |
“He’s
a great driver, he’s got that speed over one lap that we’ve seen before from
Brendon [Hartley] so he’s very exciting,” said Murphy of Berthon. “After our performance at the test and our win
at Paul Ricard last time out, we have as good a chance as anyone. It’s our home
race, only down the road from where the workshop is and I think the Oreca will
be good around there. If we can just put a few of the final pieces together I
think we’ll be alright.”
Also
don’t discount Sebastien Loeb Racing, which
rejoins the series after a year away with former Aston Martin racer Jan Charouz
leading the line. Frenchman
Vincent Capillaire is confirmed as the team's silver, while Audi-contacted Rene Rast has been
confirmed in the car for Le Mans only, but was present at the Paul Ricard test
and was in the frame for an ELMS programme as e-Racing went to press.
The
GT ranks have swelled considerably this year, with nineteen Ferrari F458 Italias
– including a mammoth 6 entries from AF Corse – entered across the GTE
and GTC categories for Silverstone. Reigning
GTE champion Matt Griffin is back to defend his crown with Duncan Cameron and
Michele Rugolo at AF Corse, with Michael Lyons, Marco Cioci and Piergiuseppe Perazzini
in a second entry, but will have to contend with the blisteringly quick Italian
Andrea Bertolini, who leads the charge for SMP Racing. Other prominent Ferrari entries include the
British JMW Motorsport team, which have signed Daniel Zampieri to partner Dan
McKenzie and George Richardson, while 1998 World Cup winning goalkeeper Fabien
Barthez will campaign another 458 for Team Sofrev ASP, alongside experienced the
Soheil Ayari and Anthony Pons.
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| SMP Racing will enter four Ferrari 458 Italias, including this one for Andrea Bertolini (Credit: ELMS Media) |
GTE-Am Le
Mans winners Imsa Performance Matmut, Crucible Sport and Prospeed Performance will
head the Porsche challenge, and look out for the Gulf Racing UK squad, which
has hedged its bets between
running an Aston Martin V8 Vantage for Stuart Hall, Dan Brown and Roald Goethe,
and a Porsche 911 GT3 RSR for former A1GP champion Adam Carroll and Michael
Wainwright.
The
GTC entry has been boosted by the addition ART Grand Prix, Fred Vasseur's
highly successful GP2 outfit which ran Formula One stars Nico Rosberg, Lewis
Hamilton and Nico Hulkenberg to the 2005, 2006 and 2008 crowns
respectively. The two McLaren MP4-12C GT3s prepared for Britain’s Alex Brundle,
Karim
Ajlani and
WEC LMP2 champion Ricardo Gonzalez in one car and Estonian GP3 convert Kevin Korjus, Yann Goudy and
Gregoire Demoustier, who took two podiums in the Hexis McLarens in a
competitive 2012 FIA GT Series, in the other, will certainly be ones to watch
among the sea of Ferraris, which include star names Mika Salo and Jan Magnussen
at SMP Racing and Formula Racing respectively.
Elsewhere, Sebastien Loeb Racing
have entered an Audi R8 LMS for Henri Hassad and Mike Parisy and Barwell Motorsport join the series in a BMW Z4 for Jonny
Cocker, Leo Machitski and Timur Sardarov. Let the games begin…
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