With the LMP2 and LMP2 Pro/Am classes set to expand in the ELMS next season from 18 cars to 22, DSC understands that the other classes in the series (LMP3 and LMGT3, which will replace LMGTE) will need to shrink from 12 to 10 cars apiece to ensure the full-season entry doesn’t exceed the maximum number of 42 cars.
Clearly, this means the selection committee has some tough decisions to make across the board, especially in the top class as DSC believes that more than 30 LMP2 cars are potentially in play for the 22 slots made available.
After analysing LMP2 in a piece earlier today, let’s look at LMP3, which enters a transitional season in 2024 as the teams await the new powertrain for 2025. Most will also require full new cars at that point too, as the majority of the Ligiers and Duqueines in the current ELMS crop are now three to four years old.
10 cars sounds like a less-than-ideal outcome for the teams hoping to compete next season, and in many ways it is, but the fact that the class will serve cars into the double figures is actually good news.
This is because there was plenty of speculation in the paddock about the LMP3 class remaining in the ELMS at all going forward, before conversations in the garages switched to speculation about the total being reduced to just eight cars.
With the organisers believed to have settled at 10 cars, this ensures that the class will still remain competitive, appealing and commercially viable going forward. All at a time when the class has been dropped from IMSA WeatherTech and the automatic Le Mans invitation for the Asian Le Mans P3 champion has been taken away.
So who will be back? There are many unanswered questions, though one point, repeated to DSC by multiple sources during the tail end of the season, is that there will very likely be no two-car teams in 2024.
This would mean that RLR Msport and Eurointernational’s efforts would need to be scaled back. This was almost certainly going to be the case for the latter anyway, as the bottom three cars in the championship – of which Eurointernational’s #10 was one of them – “will not be given priority for entry to the ELMS” by regulation.
It is a similar situation for Nielsen Racing and Team Virage who endured tough campaigns but wish to return, though by winning the Le Mans Cup LMP3 class, Virage should retain its single-car status. This is something that the team has told DSC it is eager to do, in addition to competing in LMP2 and returning to the Le Mans Cup to defend its title.
Of the other teams on the grid this year, DKR is expected back, as is Inter Europol, with both keen to continue to run in the Le Mans Cup too. COOL Racing will defend its title for a third year and Racing Spirit of Leman is believed to be planning to come back.
That accounts for six cars before considering the plans for 360 Racing, Ultimate, CD Sport, WTM by Rinaldi and anyone else from left field.
Moving on to LMGT3, perhaps the most pressing matter is the organiser’s philosophy and criteria when it comes to selecting the 10 cars. Will it reward loyalty to longstanding ELMS GTE teams and brands in a similar fashion to the criteria outlined for the FIA WEC’s LMGT3 class?
Either way, it will almost certainly have to let significant teams down. And with just 10 cars, the prospects for teams looking to join the party with GT3 cars from manufacturers outside the outgoing GTE trio of Aston Martin, Ferrari and Porsche will be slim.
Who from the current group is keen?
Proton Competition is looking for two cars, and that is believed to be more likely with Porsche 911 GT3 R 992s than Ford Mustangs as it stands. This is a change from its earlier plans and stance.
AF Corse too is looking to return, with a pair of Ferrari 296 GT3s, as is Kessel, with an identical two-pronged effort.
Also in the Ferrari family with the 296 for 2024, British teams JMW and GR Racing have expressed to DSC their will to file entries, the latter as a compromise after missing out on the nod from Porsche to run in the FIA WEC.
Formula Racing is the outlier, the Danish team’s plans going forward, running in 2023 with support from AF Corse, are not currently known.
From Aston Martin’s stable, Racing Spirit of Leman is entitled to step up to the ELMS after winning the GT3 class in Le Mans Cup, and TF Sport, with an upgraded 2024-spec Vantage, is seeking a single entry alongside its plans for a two-car LMP2 berth.
On the other hand, Danish outfit GMB Motorsport is believed to be working on joining GT World Challenge Europe after campaigns in the Le Mans Cup with Honda and ELMS with Aston Martin that fell short of its expectations.
Iron Lynx meanwhile, is a prime candidate for ’24, though not with its current GTE make Porsche. Instead, it will switch to Lamborghini, as it plans to in the FIA WEC’s LMGT3 class, to coincide with the debut of the SC63 Hypercar programme. That at the very least would add a brand to the ELMS that has been out of the frame for many years.
That’s already 12 cars, before exploring the interest from teams currently racing elsewhere…
Missed out on DSC’s look at LMP2? Catch up HERE >>>
With thanks to David Bristol
