After the WEC World Endurance Championship, the most important long-distance racing series finally enters the 2024 season. Sunday’s four-hour round in Barcelona, Spain, will be the first of six events on this year’s European Le Mans Series calendar, and fans can definitely look forward to an even battle of ace drivers. Even thanks to the elimination of the LMP 2 class from the WEC, this year’s ELMS season is extremely loaded with big names.
With the massive arrival of hypercars, there is no room for LMP 2 prototypes in the WEC this year, as a result of which this balanced class has been canceled on the world stage. This, however, strengthened the field of LMP 2 cars in the European Le Mans Series, where twenty-two of them will drive the opening event in Barcelona. All teams rely on the dominant Oreca 07 chassis with a Gibson V8 under the hood. Fourteen prototypes will fight for the overall victory, the remaining eight will primarily fight for laurels in the LMP 2 Pro-Am subcategory, where there are also “bronze” amateurs.
British Vector Sport is also a team that was forced to move from WEC to the European Le Mans Series (ELMS). The stable, which was originally supposed to take care of the program of the Italian brand Isotta Fraschini among the hypercars in the WEC, received an interesting reinforcement in the crew. Together with experienced drivers from the sports car scene, Ryan Cullen and Stéphane Richelmi, Felipe Drugovich completes a full season. The 2022 Formula 2 champion, who fills the role of reserve driver for Aston Martin and still hopes for a seat in F1, will hone his racing skills in the four-hour races with heavy traffic on the track.
The American team AO Racing, which joined forces with the British TF Sport for the ELMS and hired Louis Deletraz, Jonny Edgar and Robert Kubica, will definitely strive for the title. The Pole became the champion of the series in 2021 (even then with Louis Deletraz in the same crew) and can therefore attack for his second title. In addition, this year the only Polish winner of the F1 race is concentrating on starts with the Ferrari 499P in the WEC, so Kubica will definitely not be bored as a competitor in the 2024 season.
In addition to Polish pilots, we also have Polish teams on the starting list, the Virage team is competing under a Polish license. With the two Britons in the #19 prototype crew, Matt Bell and Anthony Wells, Nelson Piquet junior will alternate. The son of the Brazilian F1 legend did not leave a very good mark on the “queen of motorsport” and will forever bear the scars of the Singapore scandal, which is now being rekindled due to Felipe Massa’s compensation claim. However, after the infamous end in F1, Piquet himself managed to try a whole range of motoring disciplines, from rallycross to NASCAR and Formula E to his native Brazilian Stock Car. He returns to the European Le Mans Series after last year’s premiere with the United Autosports team, which he helped to third place in Spa in the LMP 2 Pro-Am class.
When we already mentioned the United Autosports team, of course the stable of founders Zak Brown and Richard Dean is not missing from the starting list. The successful formation, which enjoys the ELMS and WEC titles at the team headquarters, deploys three prototypes in LMP 2 this year (car #21 belongs to Pro-Am) and in the driver lineups we can find a combination of stellar experience and predatory youth. We can only randomly mention Oliver Jarvis, Marin Sato, Filip Ugrano or Paulo di Resta from the nine names. And the donkey bridge to the Czech Republic – United Autosports does not feature in the LMP 3 class in the ELMS or Le Mans Cup this year, and one of its Ligiers JS P320 was sold to Tomáš Skočdopole’s Czech team Bretton Racing. As a result, she is fielding two prototypes in the Le Mans Cup, and the attention of Czech fans will be primarily focused on the #26 car of the Dan Skočdopole, Ben Stone crew. You can watch the first race today from 17:20 live on YouTube, the link to the stream can be found below.
Watch live the opening event of the Le Mans Cup with the Czech team Bretton Racing
But back to the European Le Mans Series, where from the first weekend throughout the season, a lot of attention will also be focused on the prototype Oreca 07 Gibson LMP 2 #65 of the stable of former French F1 pilot Olivier Panis. In his crew, the cousin of the former Venezuelan F1 pilot Pastor Maldonado, Manuel Maldonado, and Arthur Leclerc, also from Monaco, will alternate with the fast red-haired Frenchman Charles Milesi. The younger brother of Ferrari’s current F1 star has had to say goodbye (at least for the time being) to his dream of being the “Queen of Motorsport”, so he’s looking for challenges elsewhere. The transition to endurance racing, which currently attracts a lot of attention from car companies, the media and fans, can be described as a logical choice. Maybe one day we will see Arthur Leclerc behind the wheel of a hypercar? This season can tell.
As recently as last year, Dane Frederik Vesti also fought with the younger of the Monaco brothers in Formula 2 races. Last year, he finally lost the fight for the title with Thé Pourchair also due to the failure to finish the second race in Monza, where Vesti’s tough battle for position with Roman Staňek became fatal. This year, Vesti was no longer able to continue in F2, so he moved to the European Le Mans Series. For the Cool Racing team, the Danish talent will alternate with the Mexican Alex Garcia. Paul-Loup Chatin is the third member of Vesti’s crew in Barcelona this weekend, stepping in for the injured Ferdinand Habsburg.
In addition to the battles of more than two dozen LMP 2 prototypes, fans will also be entertained in the ELMS 2024 season by the LMP 3 class with ten prototypes from two manufacturers and the LMGT3 category for GT3 specials. Eleven of them start in Barcelona and the brands Ferrari, Aston Martin, Porsche and Lamborghini are represented. After the opening weekend in Catalonia, the ELMS season will continue with further four-hour races at Paul Ricard (5/5), Imola (7/7), Spa (25/8), Mugello (29/9) and Portimao (19/10). You can watch all qualifications and races live on YouTube!
Live – qualifying for the 4 Hours of Barcelona on Saturday from 14:35
Live – 4 Hours of Barcelona race on Sunday from 14:35
