Zanardi to be remembered pre-race
A round of applause will be held before the national anthem ahead of today’s race, in honour of Alex Zanardi, who passed away earlier this week aged 59.
Lammers to wave green flag
1988 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Jan Lammers will wave the green flag to signal the start of the formation lap for the 4 Hours of Le Castellet.
Lammers’ son, René, is competing in the Eurocup-3 support series this weekend.
Minassian explains IDEC Sport’s qualifying infringement
IDEC Sport’s #18 ORECA 07 – Gibson LMP2 had all of its lap times deleted following yesterday’s qualifying session, after the car was found to be underweight.
“After removing the video and camera units following free practice, as per the regulations, we made the mistake of not compensating for the weight to meet the required standard,” said sporting director Nicolas Minassian.
Valerio Rinciella had initially qualified fourth in the Genesis Magma Racing Trajectory Programme-backed entry, but the car will now instead start from the back of the LMP2 field.
Vector Sport handed drive through for tyre infringement
Vector Sport’s LMP2 Pro/Am-entered #7 ORECA will have to serve a drive through penalty during today’s race,
The British outfit utilised a set of tyres in both Friday’s Bronze Driver Collective Test and Saturday’s Free Practice 2, which is not permitted.
Lietz “big fan” of retro livery
Proton Competition’s #75 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992.2) LMGT3 livery, which celebrates Porsche’s maiden appearance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, can count driver Richard Lietz amongst its many fans.
“Matt [Kurzejewski, co-driver] asked me what I thought of the livery, and it was clear that we all fell in love immediately with this idea,” Lietz said.
“It’s always nice to represent some historic liveries. Porsche, this weekend in IMSA, is also back with a classic retro livery. I think it’s a good way to implement some good historic moments in the modern racing times. And I’m a big fan of these designs.”
Lietz, Kurzejewski and Tom Sargent start today’s race at Circuit Paul Ricard in the LMGT3 championship lead, having claimed class honours at Barcelona.
Panis’ Forestier relationship off to a strong start
Defending LMP2 champion Panis Racing has already felt the benefit of its new partnership with Forestier Racing, which has seen the TDS Racing-run outfit enter as ‘Forestier Racing by Panis’ this season, through its testing programme ahead of the 2026 campaign.
“It’s great to have [Yves Forestier] with us,” Esteban Masson said. “We’ve been testing this winter because of his help, and we managed to arrive at the start of the season with a lot of mileage.”
Louis Rousset, Oliver Gray and Masson gave the relationship the perfect start at Barcelona, as the #29 ORECA overcame multiple penalties to secure victory. The French squad is well placed to build on this today, after Masson secured pole position yesterday.
Wadoux: “The target is the championship”
After missing Barcelona due to a clash with her GT World Challenge Europe programme, last year’s LMGT3 runner-up Lilou Wadoux has set her sights firmly on delivering the teams’ championship for the #50 Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 Evo she shares with Custodio Toledo and Riccardo Agostini.
The #50 Ferrari finished fifth in the season opener, placing Wadoux at a 10-point deficit to her co-drivers she is unlikely to be able to overhaul and effectively ending her drivers’ title chances for this season.
“To be honest, the target is the championship,” she said.
“Maybe I can’t be champion, but at the end, for the team and for my teammates, the target is the championship, so we will do the best to fight for it.”
The expectations, therefore, have been raised significantly for the #50 Ferrari crew’s second year in the ELMS. As an all-rookie trio, they won two races last year, including at Circuit Paul Ricard, and led the championship into the finale.
“We were a little bit surprised about the result [last] year,” Wadoux admitted.
“We had a good season last year, but we had a lot of ups and downs. At the end, we finished P2 but we lost a few points at Barcelona [where they finished ninth]. I think we are pretty happy to come back all together.”
How to watch
Today’s 4 Hours of Le Castellet can be streamed for free on FIAWEC+. The race is set to get underway at 12:00 local time in France.
Images courtesy of David Lord and European Le Mans Series
