Private Testing gets underway today at Yas Marina ahead of the season-finale double-header in Abu Dhabi.
The second of the replacement cars for GTs damaged at Dubai is here on-site and complete with the AF Corse #82 Ferrari ready to go, this is after Car Collection completed their replacement #21 Porsche earlier in the week.
That leaves the #8 Dragon Racing Ferrari, the replacement chassis for that car arrived at the team’s Dubai workshop overnight and the team is well into the build, Team Principal Brad Fincham showed DSC his live CCTV feed to the workshop that showed the car with engine already installed.
“We expect the car to arrive here tonight, probably not in time for the night session but we’ll be good to go for Free Practice.”
EBM meanwhile have both of their expanded two-car Aston Martin effort in the garage this morning, the red and black #89 joined by the green #98 (pictured top).
47 cars look likely then for the meeting proper.
Catching up with another of the Dubai dramas, the late retirement of the #11 Proton Oreca was caused either by an engine, or an engine loom issue – the team have opted to change to a fresh Gibson V8 for the weekend.
Watching on throughout the UAE race meetings as a guest of Algarve Pro Racing has been Enzo Trulli, the young single-seater racer, son of ex F1 racer Jarno Trulli is set to test with the team in 2025, eyeing a possible 2026 race programme.
Gen III LMP3 for 2025/ 2026
The Asian Le Mans Series has confirmed that the 2025/ 2026 season will see the Gen III, Toyota powered LMP3 cars replace the Nissan powered Gen II cars, the Asian LMS then becomes the third Championship, after ELMS and Michelin Le Mans Cup for their 2025 seasons, to confirm adoption of the new-for-2025 cars.
Yas Marina Closing In On 2025/ 2026 Return
In the meantime, with no final confirmation yet around the dates and venue for the 2025/ 2026 Asian Le Mans Series finale double header in the UAE, DSC can observe that the pendulum is swinging heavily in favour of Yas Marina.
Every team that DSC has spoken to has expressed a preference for the Abu Dhabi circuit and, in addition, details are emerging of major building plans around the Dubai Autodrome circuit over the next couple of years with the building of three new major trackside tower blocks imminent on drivers left after the main grandstand, potential demolition of the long derelict unfinished development from T1-T3 and further building work looking likely trackside from T3-T5 amongst the planned works.
Those combined works look set to have an impact on the track surface and surrounding roads for the next 1-2 years with other much smaller development works already impacting on track conditions this year.
Championship Standings
Results in Dubai saw the Championship battles compressing in LMP2 and LMP3 and the #81 Winward Racing AMG extend its points lead in GT.
The current points standings are as follows with Auto-Invitations on offer for the LMP2 and GT Championship-winning teams.
Dubai development pic: Union Properties P.J.S.C
