47 Cars To Start The Season
The season will see a starting grid of 47 cars after the pre-event withdrawal of the #41 Phantom Global Porsche, the team unable to field a Bronze-rated driver after a last-minute change of circumstance.
The entry then will be composed of 16 x LMP2, 10 x LMP3 and 21 x GT3 cars.
Entry List Changes
An updated entry list shows several additions and one replacement to the version published last week.
In LMP2 Bernardo Sousa has arrived and will complete the crew of the #22 Proton Competition Oreca alongside Jones Ried and Felipe Laser.
In LMP2 both Team Virage entered cars, presented in near identical Ajith Redant Racing livery have seen a third driver added, Team Virage team boss Julien Gerbi joins Ajith Kumar and Marian Karthikeyan in the #1 Ligier whilst Aditya Patel joins the sister #8 Ligier crew alongside Vic Stevens and Romain Vozniak.
United Autosports meanwhile completed their #59 McLaren lineup with Aussie pairing Garnet Patterson and Mark Rosser joining the already confirmed Wayne Boyd.
The #89 EBM Aston Martin meanwhile has seen the addition of Martin Berry and Matisse Lismont alongside Jamie Day with Marco Sorensen, initially listed in the car, not set to race at Sepang.
DKR Debut New Oreca
There’s news of a significant change at DKR Engineering meanwhile, their long-time frontline Oreca – chassis 05, ex Graff Racing, has served them well taking the Asian LMS Championship back in 2023 despite being the oldest 07 chassis still in competition (it completed the ELMS again in 2025).
Now though, as Team Principal Kendy Janclaes confirmed, the team has a brand new Oreca on strength:
“We have moved from having the oldest car in the race to the very newest, this is chassis #140. We are keeping the #05 though for possible use in the future!”
Family Values
There are two Father/ Son combos in the field with Gregory and Carl Bennett in the #50 Ferrari and Horst and Horst Felix Felbermayr in the #88 Proton Competition Oreca.
Add to that no fewer than three sets of brothers (though each in different cars: Prince Jefri and Prince Abu Bakhar in the #99 and #66 JMR Corvettes respectively, Jonas and Lenny Ried (sons of Proton boss Christian), in the #22 Oreca and #26 Bretton Racing LMP3 Ligier and Lorenzo and Lucas Fluxa in the #88 Proton Oreca and #26 Bretton Ligier.
TCR To LMP2
Reigning TCR World Tour Champion and two-time winner of the World Touring Car Cup Yann Ehrlacher pilots the #44 ARC Bratislava Oreca this weekend and is one of a number of LMP2 debutants here this week.
This the Frenchman’s first outing in a Sports Prototype (with the exception of a one-off Ultimate Cup run in 2023) since 2019. It’s also his first Sportscar outing not in a car run by his uncle Yvan Muller!
ELMS Entry Coming
The release of the entry list for the 2026 European Le Mans Series is expected next Wednesday, 17 December and there are some chewed fingernails here from multiple teams.
Whilst no major new names are expected in LMP2 on the teams front there looks likely to be something of a reshuffle amongst the current squads with several drivers looking to switch teams.
Amongst things to watch for are whether Romain Dumas’s RD Limited squad receive a first entry, whether High Class Racing are allowed to return to the class in ELMS, and indeed how many entries the 2025 multi car teams are dealt.
One reason why the LMP2 numbers are under pressure is believed to be increased pressure on LMGT3 numbers with pretty much the whole 2025 field looking to return (including United Autosports who are understood to have requested a solo McLaren with an unchanged 2025 driver line-up). 2025 runners TF Sport and Iron Lynx meanwhile are both believed to have requested a pair of cars apiece for their Corvette and AMG efforts respectively.
