Endurance Weekly: March 31st

Written by Aaron Carroll, Benjamin Crundwell and Sharifah Zaqreeztrina, Edited by Sasha Macmillen

This week on Endurance Weekly, the DIVEBOMB endurance team will be taking a look ahead to the opening round of the ELMS (European Le Mans Series) championship in Barcelona, and look at all of the breaking news stories from the past week.

ELMS preview - 4 Hours of Barcelona

The European Le Mans Series gets underway this weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with a packed grid of 44 entries. 21 of those will be Oreca 07 LMP2 cars, split into LMP2 (13 cars) and LMP2 PRO/AM (8 cars). There will also be 10 entries from LMP3 teams and 13 from LMGT3.

Despite being seen as a championship used as a pathway to the WEC (World Endurance Championship) and Le Mans, ELMS has no shortage of talent on its entry lists.

This year, LMP2 and LMP2 PRO/AM will feature big names from the world of single seaters such as Théo Pourchaire, Jamie Chadwick, Marino Sato, Clément Novalak and many more. They will be competing against and alongside some biggest names from sportscar paddocks too; Dane Cameron, Alessio Rovera, Dani Juncadella and Tom Blomqvist are just a few of the names to look out for this season.

The opening round on the 4.657 km (2.894 mi) track will be run across 4 hours, beginning at 12pm local time on Sunday. The grid will first be set with four separate qualifying sessions (one per class) on Saturday evening. The cars will receive plenty of running before then too, with free practice taking place on Friday and Saturday morning and official testing on Monday and Tuesday.

LMP3 will feature a new generation of car, the third since its inception in 2015. The new cars will feature a Toyota V35A engine, built and prepared by Oreca, with chassis from one of four manufacturers: Ligier, Duqueine, Ginetta and Adess. The overall structure of the cars will be the same, except for some safety updates and 15 extra horsepower from the engine, now totalling 470 hp.

The newest addition to the ELMS grid, LMGT3, will enter into its second season, after a thrilling 2024, with the title going down to the wire in the final round in Portimão. The 13 entries from six manufacturers (McLaren, Porsche, Ferrari, Mercedes, Corvette and Aston Martin) will all be in contention for wins and podiums this season due to the competitive nature of the class.

Teams will be competing fiercely all year long for titles in each class, with the winner of each class and the runner-up in LMP2 receiving an invitation to next year's Le Mans 24 Hours in the respective classes (LMP3 teams receive an invitation to race an LMP2 car).

With all four championships going down to the wire in the final race last season and more of the same expected this year, ELMS in 2025 is a must watch for any racing fan.

Breaking news: LMP2 chassis tender process begins

As expected after last week's powertrain tender (read more in last week's edition) the FIA and ACO have released a chassis tender for the new generation of LMP2 cars arriving in 2028. In the current set of LMP2 regulations, four manufacturers are permitted to construct chassis - ORECA, Dallara, Multimatic and Ligier - but as of 2028 that number will halve to two.

Each interested manufacturer must submit their interests and designs by the 9th of May, with an official decision to be made on the 10th of June, the same date as the powertrain announcement is set to be made.

Pascal Wehrlein steps up to Le Mans - read the full report here

Porsche Penske Motorsport will enter a third car to the most famous race on the WEC (World Endurance Championship) calendar: the Le Mans 24hrs. Reigning Formula E champion Pascal Wehrlein will join Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy in the No.4 Porsche, both of whom have significant experience in the top class of endurance racing.

This won’t be Wehrlein’s first outing in the Porsche 963, where he was the fourth driver in the JDC Miller Porsche. The German driver helped his team finish in sixth place overall, an impressive outing for his sportscar debut.

Porsche will hope to take home the 963’s first win at the great race with one of three star studded lineups.

Antonio Felix da Costa to join AF Corse LMP2 Pro-Am effort at Le Mans

Antonio Felix da Costa will complete the driver lineup in AF Corse in the LMP2 Pro-Am category at the 2025 edition of 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The 2019-20 Formula E Drivers’ Champion will pilot the No.155 Oreca 07-Gibson alongside Matthieu Vaxiviere and Francois Perrodo. This will be his seventh Le Mans start, as he returns to the iconic French enduro after a year of absence whilst he was competing in Formula E.

Since 2018, the 33-year-old has made a total of six Le Mans appearances for BMW in GTE and JOTA Sport in LMP2. Teamed up with Will Stevens and Roberto González, the drivers of the Oreca 07-Gibson went on to emerge as Le Mans winners for the LMP2 category with Jota Sport in 2022. That achievement led the trio to also win that year’s overall Drivers’ Championship for the same category.

"I am very happy to be back at Le Mans after a one year absence," da Dosta commented. "In my last LMP2 appearance, I won the class. That’s my goal again this year. I can’t wait to attack alongside my teammates in June."

‘Rexy’ to be driven by Laurens Vanthoor and Jonny Edgar at Long Beach

The Grand Prix of Long Beach will take place on the 11-12th March, with an experienced driver lineup for AO Racing. Fan favourite ‘Rexy’ will be piloted by Porsche Penske Hypercar driver Laurens Vanthoor and Jonny Edgar, who is usually behind the wheel of AO Racing’s LMP2 car - ‘Spike’.

This announcement comes due to GTD PRO’s absence on the IMSA calendar, so ‘Rexy’ will instead be entered in the GTD class.

Haupt Racing reveal DTM driver lineup and liveries

Haupt Racing Team (HRT) have revealed their new Ford Mustangs for the 2025 DTM season. The No.36 entry will be piloted by Arjun Maini and will sport the traditional HRT blue and yellow colors, with a Mustang horse found above the rear wheel arches. The second car - No.64 driven by Fabian Scherer - will feature a very similar livery, except in a striking red and black livery.

Haupt Racing managing director, Ulrich Fritz, showed confidence in the new lineup and car. “With regard to our two fast drivers and the experienced crew, I am confident that we can achieve good results over the course of the season.” said Fritz after the launch of the new liveries.

Scherer and Maini will have their first chance to try out their new DTM entries in a test in Oschersleben this Wednesday, before taking to the track for the DTM season opener three weeks later at the same venue.

Land Motorsports announce single car Audi entry for DTM

Land Motorsport announced on Monday that they will field a single Audi R8 GT3 car in the DTM this season, to be driven by Swiss driver Ricardo Feller.

Feller, who joined the Porsche factory program after Audi announced they would be leaving sportscars to focus solely on Formula One, was meant to be driving a Porsche from Allied Racing in the DTM this season, but the team unexpectedly pulled out of the championship, leaving Feller without a drive.

Feller and the Land squad have previous experience together, previously winning the ADAC GT Masters title in 2021. Being the only Audi on the grid, Feller and Land will be looking to show good performance in the DTM in 2025.

Daniel Morad and Ralf Aron promoted to Mercedes factory lineup

Mercedes-AMG have announced that Daniel Morad and Ralf Aron will be promoted to their lineup of factory drivers. The pair will join a team of 14 drivers including; Lucas Auer, Philip Ellis, Maro Engel, Maximilian Goetz, Jules Gounon, Mikael Grenier, Maxime Martin, Fabian Schiller and Luca Stolz.

This announcement sets the AMG squad up for the 2025 GT season, where they will deploy all 14 drivers across their factory programs all across the world.

Robert Megennis and Jenson Altzman to drive No.66 Ford GTD

Gradient Racing have announced that their No.60 Ford Mustang GTD entry will be piloted by Robert Megennia and Jenson Altzman for the upcoming IMSA round at Long Beach and the rest of the sprint rounds in this year's championship.

That concludes this week’s Endurance Weekly round-up. Tune back in next Tuesday to catch up on all the latest news in the endurance racing world.