ELMS unveils 2016 schedule : bigger and better !

Today at Paul Ricard, the 2016 ELMS schedule and the expansion of the series was announced during a press conference with Gérard Neveu, ELMS CEO and Pierre Fillion, President of the ACO.

The European Le Mans Series will expand to a six race calendar in 2016 with the addition of the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in September.  2016 will start as usual with the prologue, the official 2 day pre-season test on March 29-30.  The first race of the season will be at Silverstone on Saturday 16 April, sharing the weekend with the WEC.  After that it's off to Italy and Imola on May 15, and the Red Bull Ring in Austria on July 17.  The race at Paul Ricard is being rescheduled to the end of August (28th), on September 25th the ELMS will return to the mythical Spa-Francorchamps for the first time since 2011.  The season finale will be run at Estoril in Portugal in October 23rd.

European Le Mans Series Provisional 2016 Calendar

Prologue 29/30 March - TBA
Round 1 15/16 April - Silverstone (UK)
Round 2 13/15 May - Imola (IT)
Round 3 15-17 July - Red Bull Ring (AUS)
Round 4 26-28 August - Paul Ricard (FRA)
Round 5 23-25 September - Spa-Francorchamps (BEL)*
Round 6 21-23 October - Estoril (POR)
(* TBC)

Next year the ELMS will be joined for the majority of the 6 events by 2 support series : the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 and the RS01 Renault Sport Trophy, giving the fans a regular support race package to enjoy throughout the season.  Both series will run at the Red Bull Ring, Paul Ricard, Spa-Francorchamps and Estoril, the RS01 Sport Trophy will also be in Imola.  With the addition of both a single seater and a GT series, all kinds of racing will be represented during an ELMS race weekend.  This also brings together drivers from different generation, and might give the youngsters the chance to get up to endurance racing from formula or GT racing.

All raceweekends in 2016 will be spread out on 3 days instead of 2 in the past years.  First free practice session will be run on Friday, second practice and qualifying on Saturday and the 4 hour race on Sunday.  General entry will be free at all races, tickets for paddock acces will be sold at modest prices.

Pierre Fillion, President of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest : "The 2016 calendar represents the next step in the growth of the European Le Mans Series.  The 4 hours of Spa-Francorchamps is an important addition to the ELMS, while the other five races, held on the same tracks at the same time of year, are well established and growing in popularity."

Gérard Neveu, European Le Mans Series CEO : "We are very happy to welcome the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 and RS01 Renault Sport Trophy and our thanks go to Renault Sport Technologies for their full support.  The addition of these two high profile single seater and GT race series will enhance the popularity of the ELMS weekends and give the fans two more reasons to join us for an exciting 2016 season.

Kristof Vermeulen. 

ELMS – 4 Heures du Castellet, Friday news and updates

Round 4 of the ELMS season this weekend, at the Paul Ricard circuit in the south of France. The High Tech Test Track that has been re-opened to the public in 2009 is situated in the Var region between Marseille and Toulon.   5.861 meters long, 11 corners and the impressive Mistral straight of 1,8 km, simulating the Le Mans Hunaudières straight together with an impressive backdrop in the mountains behind the cote d'Azur make this track one of the teams and drivers favourites.  Le Castellet has been on the ELMS schedule since the beginning and has always given us exciting races.

JOTA Sport announced this morning the addition of a full season WEC entry to their program in 2016.   The British team will compete in the LMP2 class with an Oreca 05-Nissan. Given their succesful entry's in WEC at Spa and Le Mans in the past years, and an impressive track record in the ELMS, this will be stiff competition for the other LMP2 teams in WEC.  Next to their new WEC entry, JOTA Sports stays loyal to the ELMS championship with the Gibson 015S-Nissan in 2016.  No words yet on possible drivers, but there's no doubt Simon Dolan & co will have a very competitive line-up next year. 

Ibanez Racing withdrew its 2 cars for Paul Ricard, but will be back at the last race in Portugal mid-October. The updated entry list now shows a grid of 27 cars for the weekend. SMP Racing changed its name into AF Racing from now on, and will race their 2 BR01-Nissans with #20 and #21. They will also change to Dunlop tyres from this race on instead of Michelin.

A few driver changes for the weekend : Olivier Pla takes the wheel of the Krohn Ligier again this weekend, after driving the car at Daytona and Sebring. Eurasia Motorsport adds Richard Bradley to its line up at Le Castellet. Bradley won the LMP2 class at Le Mans and the Nürburgring last week at the wheel of the KCMG Oreca05. 2 new faces at JMW Motorsport in the Ferrari F458 Italia : Jonny Cocker and Rory Butcher will drive together with Robert Smith.

Gérard Neveu will announce the provisional 2016 ELMS schedule on a press conference tomorrow, together with some “exciting changes for next season”.

United Autosports first Ginetta LMP3 has been delivered, and had his shakedown at Blyton Park in Gainsborough this week. Countdown to 2016 to see this car added to the ELMS startgrid.

Sunday's race will be broadcast live on Motors TV and streamed on the ELMS website. For those making the trip to Paul Ricard; general admittance is free, a ticket for the paddock (including pitwalk and autograph session) is priced at a very reasonable 10 euros.   Free practice sessions will be run on Saturday at 10.30h and 15h and qualifying Sunday morning starting at 9 am.  Green flag will be shown Sunday at 13h for the 4 hours of Le Castellet. 

Useful links

Timetable

Entry List

Kristof Vermeulen

Clean sweep for Porsche in LMP1 and GTE-Pro at the Nürburgring.

After dominating the final practice session and qualifying on Saturday, Porsche delivered at their home race in Germany. 62.000 race fans saw them take both top spots in LMP1 and GTE-Pro after a very entertaining 6 hour race.

Neel Jani in the #18 Porsche 919 Hybrid kept his lead into the first corner and managed to create a comfortable gap between him and the #17 sister car of Timo Bernhard. Due to a faulty sensor in the #18, they couldn't manage the fuel flow decently which resulted in 3 stop-and-go penalties (5, 30 and 60 seconds), eventually costing them 2 laps. This opened the way for the #17 car on to their first team victory. Behind the leading Porsche, the 2 Audi's were lapping consistently, but lacked pace to stay close to the 919. In the second part of the race, Marc Lieb and Neel Jani put their foot down and managed to catch both Audi's in front of them with less than an hour to go. Clean sweep for Porsche, ahead of the 2 Audi's, with the #8 letting the sister car through by the end of the race to score maximum championship points.

The two Toyota Gazoo Racing TS040 Hybrids had a steady and reliable pace, but lacked the outright speed to compete with Porsche and Audi. The defending champion came in 5^th with the second Toyota  in 6^th position. Rebellion racing, who entered their first 6 hour race of the season, had quite an eventful afternoon. The #13 car of Abt, Kraihamer and Imperatori hit trouble in the first lap and was the only car who didn't make it to the finish this race, while the #12 driven by Heidfeld, Prost and Beche also had its share of mechanical glitches, getting no further than 20^th after 6 hours. ByKolles got their car at the finish in 18th place overall, even after losing their rear wing on the straight, giving the Austrian team their first points of the season.

Mark Webber who scored his first win in F1 here at the Nürburgring in 2009, was obviously delighted with his maiden win in WEC at the same track. “When I made the decision to continue to drive after my retirement in F1, it was a no-brainer to drive for a famous brand on and off track like Porsche. We're still a new team and learning every day but it's a team effort and racing with these guys is a real pleasure”.

KCMG, with Le Mans winner Nick Tandy at the wheel of their Oreca 05-Nissan, dominated the LMP2 class and took back to back wins after their victory in Le Mans. Leading the race almost flag to flag, except after their first pitstop, they won it over both G-Drive Ligier-Nissans. SARD Morand came in fourth, an encouraging result after their problems on Thursday evening, when the car was impounded for a short time.  The promising debut of the Strakka Gibson didn't get through in the race, with only a seventh place at the finish after speeding in the pitlane twice and a late race contact with an Aston Martin.

In GTE Pro, the Manthey run Porsche works team were eager to get a good result in their backyard. When the pole sitting AF Corse Ferrari #51 of Bruni and Vilander got caught by electrical gremlins after only 15 minutes in the race, the #91 Porsche 911 RSR moved up to take the lead from fouth position on the grid. Michael Cristensen and Richard Lietz continued to lead the GT field thoughout the race . The #92 Porsche's race was less smoothly. Fred Makowiecki had a jump start, with a stop-and-go penalty as result. He came back out in last position and started an impressive charge to the field together with Patrick Pilet. After a mouthwatering fight with the #71 AF Corse Ferrari, they took second place around mid course and never looked back. The #71 F458 Italia held on to third place ahead of the Aston Martin armada, even after they suffered a puncture near the end of the race.

GTE Am was won by SMP Racing with the #72 Ferrari on top with Bertolini, Shaytar and Basov behind the wheel. Second victory in a row for the Russian after Bertolini took the lead nearly half way the race from the #98 Aston Martin. Behind the 2 leaders, Dempsey Proton Racing and AF Corse battled it out for the third spot on the podium. At the end the #83 AF Corse held its advantage, despite a late charge by Patrick Long in the #77 who just came 3 seconds short for a podium finish.

Great (hot) weather on race day, 62.000 fans during the weekend, packed grandstands, great atmosphere in the paddock ... the Nürburgring showed that they deserve their place on the WEC calendar. As Dr. Ullrich said on the startgrid “Germany was waiting for this race. The fans to see those cars on a German track, the local manufacturers to show their cars and technology to their home crowd”. The 2016 schedule will be presented at COTA in a few weeks, let's see/hope there's a place reserved for an extra race at the 'Ring next year.

The WEC now goes overseas and heads on to the Lonestar Le Mans at COTA in Austin, Texas on September 19^th.  But first, we're heading to Paul Ricard this weekend for the fourth round of the ELMS championship.

Kristof Vermeulen.