Luca Persiani: 11 April 1984 – 20 August 2024
News broke on Tuesday of the tragic death in an off-roading accident of Luca Persiani, latterly a renowned driver coach for Prema Racing, Iron Lynx and Ferrari. He was previously a very able race driver in his own right too, who had an ELMS race win in GTC to his credit with SMP Racing back in 2014 at Red Bull Ring.
More recently he had returned to the driving seat in Lamborghini Super Trofeo in the USA where he also took the reins, managing the Dream Racing Lamborghini GT and one-make programmes.
Iron Lynx marked his passing with a statement:
“It is with great sadness that we learn about the passing of our longtime team member, Luca.
“He was such a lively and positive person who always brought joy and made the people around him feel good. In Luca we have not only lost a team member, but a wonderful friend. A person who filled the space around him enormously, so much so that it is hard to imagine him being gone.
“We send our deepest condolences to Luca’s family and friends and everyone in the motorsport industry whose lives were touched by the positivity Luca brought everywhere he went.
“This weekend, we’ll be racing for you, Luca!”
DSC joins Iron Lynx, and everyone else in the paddock in passing on sincere condolences to all of Luca’s family and friends
Nielsen Driver Switch
Nielsen Racing has confirmed a driver change for the remainder of the ELMS season for its #27 ORECA, with Will Stevens and David Heinemeier Hansson now joined by 2023 IndyCar racer Benjamin Pedersen.
The 25-year-old Dane replaces Nico Pino in the car as the team looks to turn around a season that has seen no points-scoring results thus far for the car.
“I was at an IndyCar race weekend and Nielsen called me, they knew who I was even though I didn’t have previous sportscar experience and asked if I had clashes with any other ELMS races,” Pedersen told DSC. “So they offered me a chance to try the ORECA with a test, and I left within a day to go to Mugello to test. That was my first time in a P2 car.
“It went really well and they offered me a chance to finish the year, I didn’t have conflicts and so I agreed. It’s a new world for me, I’ll be doing my first driver changes and first endurance race.
“The ORECA is a great car, I felt one with it right away. The transition has been easy because of how it behaves at high speeds.”
Will this lead to a future in sportscars for Pedersen?
“There’s a lot of good drivers here and in the states most drivers are up to speed with the quality here in ELMS. It’s just a different mindset coming to this and it’s cool to experience things like this.
“Right now I’m still looking at IndyCar, the dream is to go back to a full programme there and doing other races like this on the side, that’s what a lot of IndyCar guys do.
“Everything is still unfolding and we will see what happens.”
Le Mans Cup Pit Stop Handicaps
Three Bronze-rated drivers will serve additional pit-stop handicaps during Saturday’s Michelin Le Mans Cup race.
Bretton Racing’s Jamie Faye will serve a chunky 50-second additional time in the pits with R-Ace GPs Fabien Michal dealt 25 seconds and Cool Racing’s Adrian Chila 15 seconds.
The values added apply at present to Spa only.
Caygill In For Guintoli At Steller
Steller Motorsport have a driver change in the #42 Duqueine with United Autosports WEC McLaren driver Josh Caygill joining Sennan Fielding.
The change comes as Sylvain Guintoli has curtailed his season for personal reasons.
Virage Driver Moves
There are multiple driver changes at Team Virage for both ELMS and Michelin Le Mans Cup.
Tristan Vautier and Wayne Boyd are confirmed alongside Tony Wells in the team’s #19 LMP2 Pro-Am ORECA replacing Matt Bell (IMSA at VIR) and Nelson Piquet Jr.
This is the first time the incoming pair have shared a paddock since racing together on the ‘Road To Indy’ package in the USA in 2010! Vautier confirmed to DSC that his seat is a Spa-only deal.
In Michelin Le Mans Cup meanwhile, Jamie Falvey (see above) moves from Team Virage to Bretton Racing, the Briton’s seat in the #44 Ligier taken by Greek racer Georgios Kolovos.
In turn Falvey joins the #26 Bretton Racing effort with Dan Skočdopole, replacing ben Stone who moves to the sister #62 Ligier.
No 2025 Calendar News
It appears there will not be a 2025 ELMS calendar announcement this weekend, with multiple paddock sources suggesting that a final decision was set to be made between two circuits.
Interest In 2025 ELMS Booming
Multiple high profile teams new to LMP2 are understood to be planning or actively evaluating LMP2 programmes for 2025.
After a relatively lean period on the ‘new prospects’ front the extension of the current ruleset has re-ignited interest.
DSC is aware of interest from DAMS, R-Ace GP and MP Motorsport amongst others in joining ELMS next season.
Deletraz Tops Testing
Yesterday’s collective test day saw the teams get their first taste of the Spa circuit’s newly-resurfaced sections. Times are expected to improve significantly throughout the weekend as the drivers test the boundaries.
The quickest time of the day in LMP2 came from AO by TF’s Louis Deletraz, who set a 2:00.674 during the afternoon running.
Should it stay dry laptimes from the top class are widely expected to dip below the 2:00 mark, which will make for some interesting comparisons to the current crop of Hypercars which last took to the circuit on a WEC weekend back in May.
The best LMP3 time was set by Wyatt Brichacek in the #4 DKR Duqueine, while the #50 Formula Racing Ferrari topped LMGT3 with a 2:15.618.
There were multiple red flags and FCYs across the ELMS and Le Mans Cup test sessions throughout the day, with two significant incidents reported in the ELMS field. The #88 Inter Europol Ligier suffered rear end damage after an off at the end of the Kemmel Straight and the Duqueine ORECA sustained front-end damage from an off-track excursion.
Both cars have since been repaired and are ready for practice action tomorrow.
