Bickley named endurance racing manager at Goodyear
Goodyear welcomes Stephen Bickley as its new endurance racing programme manager this week in Barcelona.
Bickley takes over the role previously held by the tyre constructor’s director of global strategy, Mike McGregor, and will oversee its operation at all ELMS and WEC events going forward. He joins the sportscar division after previously serving as a senior engineer in the moto side of the business.
McGregor, meanwhile, will continue to attend sports car races regularly as part of his new role, as the American brand develops and launches new products for GTs and prototypes in the coming years.
Increasingly, though, his travel schedule includes events outside the endurance sphere as part of the company’s wider push to expand its motorsport portfolio.
Jakobsen attends Danish training camp
Ahead of the start of the European season, Peugeot Hypercar driver Malthe Jakobsen attended a fitness camp organised by the Dansk Automobil Sports Union.
There, he took part in a variety of activities to get sharp for the year.
“I tested at the beginning of March with Peugeot, and then straight after, I went to Lanzarote. It was a lot of fun, and there were eight or nine of us on the trip. It’s the third time they’ve done it, but the last two years it didn’t fit with my schedule,” he told DSC.
“We did a lot of road cycling, running, swimming, canoeing, beach volleyball, high rocks, and paddle tennis. It was a hard workout, but a good chance for us drivers to know each other and kick off the season.”
Christodoulou returns to ACO racing
Nürburgring specialist Adam Christodoulou made for a surprise addition when the entry for Barcelona was released last week. The Briton is set to race the #62 Team Qatar by Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG LMGT3, for his first ACO rules race since 2011.
Christodoulou contested that year’s Le Mans Series with CRS Racing, driving its Ferrari F430 alongside Phil Quaife and Klaas Hummel in the very first year of LMGTE Am.
“The last time I drove in an ACO championship it was 2011 in a Ferrari GT2, with a sequential gearbox. It’s been a while!,” Christodoulou said.
“To get the call for this made me super happy. Drivers, we do it because we love it, so when Andrea called and Mercedes-AMG gave the thumbs up it was great.
“We need to get used to some of the regulations and it’s my first time this week running on Goodyears. Our driver line-up is strong, I just hope we can get good results. I hope we’re competitive and fighting for wins.
Christodoulou is well aware that its consistency which wins titles, as is his Iron Lynx team – the Italian squad scored multiple podium finishes in LMGT3 last year, but three retirements meant they were unable to mount a championship challenge.
“You just never know, we might not have the quickest car but we had a meeting before the test and Andrea (Piccini) told us if we finished fourth last year at every race you’d have finished second in the championship and missed it by two points. So we just have to make sure we see the chequered flag every time and get on the podium when we can.
“At the moment, it’s a see how it goes year for us, but I’m able to adapt and not afraid to get my hands dirty. Hopefully, it goes well, and we continue to work for many more years.”
Huub van Eijndhoven set for double-duty
Huub van Eijndhoven is also set to contest both the European Le Mans Series and GT World Challenge Europe races this weekend, joining Lorenzo Fluxá and David Perel in making several trips between Barcelona and Le Castellet.
Even more impressively, not only is the Dutchman set to pull double-duty, he will be making his debut in both series!
Van Eijndhoven will race Herberth Motorsport’s #91 Porsche at Circuit Paul Ricard, having been added to the German squad’s crew last week, before switching his focus to Proton Competition’s #77 Porsche for the ELMS race the following day.
Lietz: ELMS return “a bit like coming home”
Porsche factory driver Richard Lietz is making his ELMS return this weekend, following a two-year break from the series. The Austrian is back with Proton Competition, where he will share the #75 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992.2) LMGT3 with Matt Kurzejewski and Tom Sargent.
“It’s a bit like coming home,” Lietz says. “You see a lot of familiar faces from the last years, you see a lot of familiar faces from the WEC family. It’s highly competitive, a bit more traffic than I’m used to in WEC. A lot of challenges, for sure.”
This week’s challenges include Goodyear’s Hard compound tyre, which is being used for the one and only time this season.
“It’s an extra new bit we have to understand and try to find solutions and work with it,” he says. “So definitely more to do than expected, but we are always a great team, great drivers, so we accept the challenge, but at the moment, it’s still a challenge.
The arrival of the hard tyre is one of several variables that the LMGT3 field is having to contend with in Spain. As the first full-grid running of the year, the track is behaving very differently from how it would in a private test, especially thanks to the abrasive nature of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
“It’s a proper test here,” Lietz explains. “We have the correct rubber on track, we have the complete field here. We are working on set-up issues we are not used to, and at the end, you never know if it’s maybe the tyre or if it’s maybe a real issue.
“We are trying to get used to something which we will not use anymore after this weekend, but it’s the same for everyone. It’s a challenge, and we accept it and we work with it, but it is work.”
The ELMS season opener will be Lietz’s second race with the new Evo-spec 992 Porsche, following on from this year’s 24 Hours of Daytona. The 42-year-old certainly sees the potential with the new package, but admits that the German marque is still finding its footing with the new car.
“We had a rough start, to be honest,” he says. “We had some small software issues at the beginning, but in the end, the car started to drive. We are not 100% there yet, but we are working on it. The Evo version for sure will work, but we have to put it all together now.”
44 cars for Le Mans Cup opener
44 cars are set to compete in the opening round of this year’s Michelin Le Mans Cup at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, headlined by 24 entries in the top LMP3 category.
The LMP3 field is made up of 19 Ligier JS P325s and five Duqueine D09s.
Absent from Barcelona will be the #42 Steller Motorsport Duqueine, with the British outfit instead competing in the clashing GT World Challenge Europe season opener. Steller will instead make its Le Mans Cup return at Paul Ricard next month.
The majority of the changes from the original season entry list released in February align with those featured on the 58-car Road to Le Mans entry.
This includes the #4 Nielsen Racing Duqueine and #36 Ajith Redant Racing Ligier switching from LMP3 Pro/Am to LMP3, whilst the #16 Ajith Redant by Virage Ligier has moved the other way, and joined an all-Ligier 10-car LMP3 Pro/Am grid.
On the driver front, Nielsen Racing has confirmed Alfie Briggs alongside Matt Bell in its #7 entry, whilst defending LMP3 teams’ champion R-ace GP will field Danial Frost and Enzo Peugeot in its #85 Duqueine, and Zack Scoular and Lena Bühler in its #86 car.
Hadrien David and Hugo Schwarze will not defend their LMP3 drivers’ title, but the reigning LMP3 Pro/Am champions, the #98 Motorsport98 Ligier of Eric De Doncker and Gillian Henrion, is returning as an unchanged combination.
Similarly, 2025 GT3 champions Eliseo Donno and Alessandro Cozzi are staying together aboard AF Corse’s #51 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, where they will face opposition from Aston Martin, Ferrari, McLaren and Porsche machinery in a 10-car field.
Changes on the driver front include the absence of Tom Wood from the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman Vantage AMR GT3 Evo, which will instead be driven by Valentin Hasse Clot. Hasse Clot, therefore, will race for the French outfit in both the Le Mans Cup and ELMS events. Wood will instead be competing in the GT World Challenge Europe round at Circuit Paul Ricard.
Blackthorn present
Following on from its one-off appearance at Portimão last year, Ecurie Ecosse Blackthorn is gearing up for a full-season Le Mans Cup programme this season, with Claude Bovet and Tom Canning set to drive its #91 Aston Martin in GT3.
The team has brought a pair of Vantage AMR GT3 Evos to Barcelona, along with one of the cars for its new International GT Open programme.
Coach Caldwell
Olli Caldwell is not on the entry list for this weekend’s ELMS opener, but he is on-site and working. The 23-year-old British racer is here with Algarve Pro Racing, working as a driver coach.
He explained to DSC that he is still on the lookout for a race seat later in the season.
David Perel on the 296 GT3 Evo
This weekend sees the LMGT3 version of the Ferrari 296 Evo make its debut, following on from a successful start for the 296 GT3 Evo, which claimed its first victory at the 12 Hours of Sebring last month.
“The biggest step is the gearbox,” said David Perel, who will race a 296 in three different series this year, including Spirit of Race’s #55 entry in the ELMS.
“There are changes to the aero, we have more range on the balance of the car, but it’s mostly the [gear] ratios. The 296, the first version, had really long ratios, at almost every track it was stuck in between gears. Now the ratios are dialled in with the tracks in Europe.
“I’ve already used it at the Nordschleife last year, and it’s great. At the end of the day, you make these steps with the car, and then the BoP just pulls you back in, but it is more pleasurable to drive.”
The South African also feels that the Evo kit has reduced the difference between the GT3 and LMGT3 versions of the 296. The LMGT3 formula was introduced one year after the 296 GT3 launched, with the LMGT3 version of the Ferrari introducing several tweaks to the car, which have gone on to be incorporated in the GT3 Evo.
“Last year, the GT3, you could feel it had more downforce. Now they feel the same on the downforce side of things, but LMGT3 still has less power,” Perel explained.
“Also, tyres make a big difference. The Yokohama combo on the Evo at the Nürburgring [which Perel races with Rinaldi Racing] is insane. It’s a confidential tyre made specifically for that car, whereas here we’ve got a hard Goodyear tyre off the shelf. It’s not the same.”
Le Mans Cup set up continues
With Day 2 of the ELMS Prologue underway at Barcelona, the Outer paddock is filling up rapidly as the teams arrive for tomorrow’s Michelin Le Mans Cup pre-season test.
Whilst the opening round will not see the #42 Duqueine of Steller Motorsport, the British team will be racing for the remainder of the season, pretty much the whole of the remaining grid are on site and setting up.
Amongst them are a gaggle of new teams in LMP3, including Benoit Treluyer’s Trajectus Motorsport, stepping up from Ligier European Series, where they ran strongly in 2025.
BrutalFish Campos Racing will debut too with the successful Spanish single seater squad making their first move into the sportscar racing arena.
And Mücke Motorsport make a first appearance in an ACO paddock, the team running an all-pink, BWT-backed Duqueine.
In the GT ranks, there’s a full-season effort from Dinamic GT (Porsche) joining the returning two-car Ferrari efforts from both Kessel and AF Corse, and a single Ferrari from Biogas Motorsport.
A welcome and VERY eye-catching addition to the GT3 ranks comes from SMC Motorsport and a brand new (Chassis #73) McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, the car in a beautifully executed Gulf livery with the team operated by ex-McLaren GT and Two Seas Motorsport man Mark Chittenden.
