ELMS, 6 Hours Of Le Castellet - LMP2 Rundown

A new season means new faces, new liveries and new regulations at Le Castellet.  Despite having only 21 cars entered for the opening round of the 2012 European Le Mans Series most teams have either changed manufacturers or have wrapped their car in a brand new livery.

Reigning champion Greaves Motorsport will rely on the Zytek Z11SN Nissan again this year, but Alex Brundle and Lucas Ordonez have taken over from Karim Ojjeh and Olivier Lombard. With a revised livery compared to 2011 the British team will start its campaign to defend its title.

Pecom Racing has changed from a Lola-Judd to an Oreca-Nissan and has changed its livery. Luis Perez Companc and Pierre Kaffer have stayed, with Soheil Ayari taking over from Matias Russo. Unfortunately for Ayari an injury means he will not be racing here at Paul Ricard and Gianmaria Bruni has taken his seat for the weekend. It’s been quite a while since Bruni raced a prototype.

New in the European Le Mans Series Status GP only received its Lola B12/80 Coupe Judd HK a couple of days before heading out to France. On Thursday the team announced Yelmer Buurman, Alexander Sims and Dean Stirling as drivers. On Friday the team was working hard to get the car ready for the race weekend.

At Murphy Prototypes the team was working hard to get the car wrapped in its green-white-red livery. Greg Murphy happy with the way things are going at his team – but more on that later this weekend.

Another newcomer is Sebastien Loeb Racing. The team didn’t attend the official test days earlier this month and only completed laps on the Paul Ricard circuit in private test sessions. Sarrazin, Minassian and Marroc all ready for the weekend in a Total-ly new Oreca 03 Nissan.

OAK Racing has brought its new car to Paul Ricard and unlike the Gulf coloured cars that run in the FIA World Endurance Championship the team has reverted to the brilliant pink-black livery it used before that. It’s good to have the ‘classic’  livery back on track.

The Jota Zytek was a work-in-progress as DSC arrived at the track with most parts not attached to the tub. During the day it quickly became a proper racecar with the nice white and black livery making it easy to spot.

Extreme Limite ARIC is the revised name for Extreme Limite AM Paris this season. Some decals have changed but the red-black base colours have stayed the same.

Boutsen Ginion Racing will run its LMP2 Oreca again with the black, orange and white livery. The team has a fully revised line-up compared to 2011, with Jack Clarke and Bastien Briere being joined by Sebastien Buemi here at Paul Ricard. Interesting to note: Buemi drove for Scuderia Toro Rosso in Formula 1, is the current reserve and testdriver for Red Bull Racing and is driving a Marussia F1 Team sponsored car here at Paul Ricard, the track that  set to host an F1 Grand Prix in 2013.

Race Performance will run the car like it was at the test – the only visible change compared to the end of last year being the revised bodywork for 2012 and a new livery.

Thiriet by TDS Racing already ran their Oreca Nissan in its 2012 outfit at the official test days and nothing has changed since then. The livery was great at the test and still looks great.