Collective shot released
Sunday afternoon saw the entire 44-car field for the 2025 ELMS season assemble for the annual pre-season collective shot. As ever during the current era, it’s a sight to behold!
New Race Start Times
The European Le Mans Series is set to see a new start time for all bar the season finale in 2025.
Barcelona, Paul Ricard, Imola, Spa Francorchamps, and Silverstone will all see the 4-hour races start at midday local on the Sunday.
Portimao will stay as a Saturday race starting at 14:30.
Laurent returns
The DKR Engineering garage saw an unusual reunion on Monday morning, with the team’s #3 ORECA 07 Gibson – famously Chassis #05 from 2017 – matched once again with a driver who drove it last in 2020 when it was still in the stewardship of GRAFF.
“Yes, I drove the car back then, here in the ELMS. It’s pretty strange to be coming back after a few years away, driving a car that I last drove half a decade ago,” 26-year-old Thomas Laurent told DSC.
He is back aboard a full-season LMP2 car in the series for the first time since 2022, when he was part of the Alpine Endurance Team effort.
The Frenchman is delighted to be back in the saddle after a fairly barren period that followed a meteoric rise from teenage sensation in LMP3, all the way to race success in LMP1 with Rebellion and a role as Toyota Gazoo Racing’s test and reserve driver.
DKR flying the Ginetta flag
Yorkshire sportscar brand Ginetta is also a returnee to the ELMS this week. It has a car on the grid for the first time since the 2016 season opener at Silverstone, when Murphy Prototypes fielded a first-generation P3 car whilst awaiting the delivery (somewhat in vain) of its planned Ave-Riley.
This season, Ginetta’s new G61-LT-P325 EVO Toyota is in the hands of multiple LMP3 title-winning team DKR Engineering. The team’s previous titles (four consecutive in Le Mans Cup) all came with Norma/Duqueine, now it looks to add to its success with the British make.
It will also operate a second Ginetta this year in the Le Mans Cup, with visible support from CMR (Classic & Modern Racing), which has been running the 2020-spec Ginetta in Ultimate Cup.
When asked by DSC about the level of expectation, team owner Kendy Jenclaes said: “We’ll see. We believe the car has got pace, but we know we have hard work to do on development. We are about to find out, for the very first time, how we stack up to the competition.”
Over the course of Day 1, the car completed 124 laps of the circuit and set a best time of 1:39.813 with Wyatt Brichacek installed during the morning.
Six Dames
Whilst not a unique occurrence, the appearance on the ELMS bill this weekend of no fewer than six Iron Dames is nonetheless notable, not least because all six are racing in Porsche machinery.
The ELMS trio of Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting and Celia Martin will crew the #85 Proton Huber-supported Porsche and (now Bronze-ranked) Vanina Ickx and Marta Garcia will take on the Le Mans Cup in the #83 Porsche.
In addition, Karen Gaillard, part of last season’s Le Mans Cup effort, begins her campaign in Porsche Carerra Cup France, having won the female Junior shootout and a Porsche-supported drive for the 2025 season.
Interestingly, 50-year-old Ickx last appeared in an ACO rules race over a decade ago, at Le Mans in 2011, finishing seventh in the Kronos-run Lola Aston Martin.
That is the same car in which she finished fourth overall in the 2010 Le Mans Series standings when the car was run by Signature Plus. That campaign added two podium finishes in the Le Mans Series to the three she earned back in 2005 aboard a Rollcentre Racing Dallara.
Beyond the Iron Dames, there are a further seven female drivers here this weekend. Former FIA WEC class winner Lilou Wadoux is named against the Richard Mille Ferrari in the ELMS LMGT3 class, Jamie Chadwick will drive for IDEC in the Genesis Magma ORECA and Léna Büler will drive the 23 Events Ligier in Le Mans Cup.
In the Ligier European Series, Cindy Goudet is back in M Racing’s #68 JS 2R, Laura Villars is in Team Virage’s #1 JS P4 and the Al-Qubaisi sisters, Hamda and Amna, will also drive for Virage in the #8.
Support paddock building
The support paddock was a hive of activity throughout today, as the Ligier European Series and Le Mans Cup teams arrived and began setting up their awnings ahead of the weekend.
The LES grid, which has expanded to 26 cars this year, will take on two races this Saturday.
Meanwhile, the new-look Le Mans Cup field, with its new set of LMP3 cars (including a Ginetta and a pair of ADESS AD25s (featured)) and additional category, will go racing on Saturday, too, after a pre-season test on Wednesday.
Ticket sales strong
DSC understands that we should expect a strong turnout of fans once again here in Spain for the ELMS opener.
More than 6,000 tickets have been sold for race day, and additional fans are expected to add to that number at the gate later this week.
Anyone looking to purchase tickets ahead of a visit to the circuit can do so for as little as 8 Euros HERE >>>
Meet Spike!
Fans here in Spain will have the opportunity to get up close and personal with ‘Spike’ the LMP2 dragon on Wednesday in Granollers at the Plaça Corona next to the circuit.
Reigning ELMS Champion Louis Delétraz will join local drivers Daniel Nogales and Fran Rueda Mateos to sign autographs, take pictures and chat with the fans.
The 2025 ELMS season is the first for AO’s fire-breathing mascot, though the AO team was represented by partner TF Sport in 2024, winning the title with different branding.
