ELMS releases 42-car entry list for 2022 season

The overall entry is up by one car from the 41 cars that contested the full 2021 season, while the top LMP2 class also sees a one-car increase despite several leading squads downsizing or exiting the series entirely.

These include last year's title-winning team WRT, which is focussing on its two-car assault in the FIA World Endurance Championship this year; United Autosports, which is slimming down from two cars to just one as it adds a second WEC entry; and DragonSpeed, which has also left the series.

This has been made up for by an influx of new teams in the top category, with Prema, AF Corse and Inter Europol Competition all adding single-car ELMS LMP2 entries to their WEC efforts.

Belgian outfit Muhlner Motorsport is also among the new squads for 2022, with ex-Rebellion LMP1 driver Thomas Laurent returning from a year on the sidelines to join Matthias Kaiser at the team.

LMP3 graduates Nielsen Racing and Team Virage are likewise tackling LMP2 for the first time in the Pro/Am class, which has attracted seven entries.

One of G-Drive Racing's two Algarve Pro-run cars, the #25, is also entered in the subclass reserved for teams running at least one bronze-rated driver, along with a new entry from TDS Racing, TF Sport's Racing Team Turkey-branded car, Graff Racing and AF Corse.

Panis Racing has an all-new driver line-up for 2022, with Julien Canal joined by Nicolas Jamin and Job van Uitert, both of whom drove last year for United Autosports.

Duqueine Team meanwhile has signed up Richard Bradley and silver-rated Frenchman Reshad de Gerus to partner Memo Rojas.

TDS has lined up Mathias Beche and Dutchman Tijmen van der Helm, who are both racing for ARC Bratislava in the WEC, for its Pro/Am entry entered under the 'TDS Racing x Vaillante' banner.

As per last year, the LMP2 class is monopolised by the Oreca 07, with G-Drive abandoning the Aurus branding it has used in previous seasons.

The LMP3 entry has fallen from 16 cars to 12 this year, making it the smallest category on the 2022 grid, with a sole Duqueine M30-D08 entered by defending champion team DKR Engineering taking on 11 Ligier JS P320s.

 

United Autosports, Inter Europol Competition and Cool Racing all have two entries each, the latter expanding from the single car it ran last year, while Nielsen Racing has downsized to one car.

In the GTE class, up from 10 cars to 13, Ferrari remains the best-represented marque with eight 488 GTE Evos set to take on a trio of Porsche 911 RSR-19s and two Aston Martin Vantage GTEs.

Hong Kong-flagged entrant Absolute Racing is fielding one of the three Porsches, with Andrew Haryanto the only confirmed driver, with Proton Competition running two cars under its own banner.

Porsche WEC driver Gianmaria Bruni is set for another campaign in the #77 alongside Proton owner Christian Ried, while Hollywood star Michael Fassbender is listed alongside Richard Lietz in the sister #93 car.