LMP2 (10 Cars)
26 | D | G-Drive Racing | Roman Rusinov, Alex Brundle, Rene Rast | Oreca 05 Nissan
27 | D | SMP Racing | Nicolas Minassian, Maurizio Mediani, Mikhail Aleshin | BR01 Nissan
30 | D | ESM | Giedo Van Der Garde, Tom Dillmann, Sean Gelael | Ligier JS P2 Nissan
31 | D | ESM | Ryan Dalziel, Pipo Derani, Chris Cumming | Ligier JS P2 Nissan
35 | D | Baxi DC Racing Alpine | David Cheng, Ho-Pin Tung, Paul Loup Chatin | Alpine A460 Nissan
36 | D | Signatech Alpine | Gustavo Menezes, Nicolas Lapierre, Stephane Richelmi | Alpine A460 Nissan
37 | D | SMP Racing | Vitaly Petrov, Viktor Shaytar, Kirill Ladygin | BR01 Nissan
43 | D | RGR Sport by Morand | Ricardo Gonzalez, Bruno Senna, Filipe Albuquerque | Ligier JS P2 Nissan
44 | D | Manor WEC | Matt Rao, Richard Bradley, Alex Lynn | Oreca 05 Nissan
45 | D | Manor WEC | Julien Canal, Roberto Gonzalez, Roberto Merhi | Oreca 05 Nissan
Even with Alpine being crowned LMP2 Drivers and Teams Champions in China, there’s still plenty to look forward to this weekend when the WEC heads to Bahrain for the series’ finale.
For the class, it’s a big race. This weekend’s 6 Hours of Bahrain marks the end of the current generation of LMP2 chassis, as aside from the Asian Le Mans Series, it’s unlikely we will see any of this year’s set racing next year (and certainly not in the FIA WEC). The current cars will be too slow to compete with the next generation, so it’s highly unlikely we will see any teams grandfathering cars in next season.
Looking back though, the current generation of LMP2 machines has been extremely successful, and should be celebrated. It’s had diversity of both chassis and engines through the years, and has seen the cars progress astronomically in the reliability department. Long gone are the days where half the field would spend most of each race in the garage. Nowadays, the races have been won on the track, and that’s how it should be.
The current generation of LMP2 machines has been extremely successful, and should be celebrated
Since Fuji the momentum has swung firmly to the G-Drive camp, following the team’s pair of wins at Fuji and Shanghai. This weekend they’ve got Rene Rast back in place of Will Stevens, which means there will certainly be no drop-off in talent or ability level alongside Alex Brundle and Romain Rusinov. The team has a real chance of taking a third victory at the Sakhir Circuit, and ending what has been a tough season at times, on a high.
In order to achieve such a feat though, G-Drive will again have to better the rest of the LMP2 field, which towards the end of the season has become as close as its ever been.
For the champions at Alpine, winning a fifth race of the season would serve as a fairytale ending to a fairytale season for Gustavo Menezes, Stephane Richemli and Nicolas Lapierre.
The same could be said for RGR Sport, which missed out on the title, but has turned a lot of heads this season taking the fight to the Signatech team despite their rather more real world Pro-Am line-up.
Outside of the cars which have won races this season, Manor’s Orecas and ESM’s #30 Ligier look most likely to challenge the class’ three front runners.
At Shanghai Alex Lynn impressed once again with his pace throughout the race in the #44, but he, Matt Rao and Richard Bradley’s chances of a podium ended after the car had to be pushed into the garage for repairs after an incident out on circuit. The sister car meanwhile had an even worse time, with Mathias Beche spinning at Turn 1 on the opening lap, collecting the #97 Aston Martin, and retiring from the accident damage.
For Bahrain the driver lineup in the #44 will remain unchanged, while the #45 has seen another shuffle. Roberto Gonzalez will be joined by a returning Roberto Merhi and 2015 LMP2 Champion Julien Canal. That leaves the second car with a very intriguing lineup, with Merhi and Canal combining for a mix of outright speed and experience.
It’s been a very difficult debut season for Manor in the WEC, a podium run this time round would serve as a good sign heading into 2017.
Like the #45 Oreca, ESM’s #30 Ligier will also race at Bahrain with two driver changes. Sean Galael will be joined this time by this year’s Formula V8 Champion Tom Dillmann and Giedo Van Der Garde, which surely has the potential to put a cat amongst the pigeons should Dillmann and Van Der Garde get up to speed quickly?
Much the same can be said for the #31, which has been consistently challenging for podiums all season, but failed to collect a win or two because of the nature of the current pro-am formula. Alongside Pipo Derani and Ryan Dalziel, Chris Cumming has been consistent, but consistency alone is not quite enough to compete for wins against this year’s crop of Silver drivers.
It can’t have been easy for Chang to pit himself against Menezes, as the disparity between silver ranked drivers continues to loom large
For David Cheng’s Baxi DC Alpine effort, the same applies. It can’t have been easy for Cheng to effectively pit himself against the very rapid Menezes, as the disparity between silver ranked drivers continues to loom large as an issue in this and many other paddocks.
That leaves just the SMP Racing squad’s pair of BR01s. For the team, it’s been an underwhelming season, especially since Le Mans. But the BR01 is a quick car in a straight line, and has a chance to match up against the Ligier and Orecas on Barhain’s wide-open circuit.
It’s distinctly possible that we will not see one race in contemporary sportscar racing again after this weeeknd, which is a shame, as it had so much potential and has shown flashes of what could have been at times. Time will tell whether the now public plans of SMP to develop a 2018 LMP1 L with Dallara will see them return with Dallara LMP2s next season.
