So the Formula Le Mans teams will be classified under the LMP2 class? I thought they were supposed to be their own fifth category.

So will they be eligible for P2 honors or even be able to compete with the P2 cars at all? And are they there for the full LMS season or just some of the races? I read the press release, but it didn’t seem clear enough to me.

What about the Kolles R10s? Missed a news about them or they will join later?

i thought there were 2 pescarolo’s on the entry list… or was that Spa…

I thought there were going to be Kolles R10s as well.. hmm

good Q’s captain. Any news on tv coverage?

@Captain Spyro:
Yes, I also wonder why the Formula LeMans cars don’t have their own category. When you look at the Sebring 12h lap times, they won’t have a chance against the other LMP2.
@gabezant:
Guess that Kolles will only compete in LeMans together with Level5 from ALMS and maybe in Spa for preparation, but otherwise will concentrate on the HRT Formula One project.
Same probably for Pescarolo – also only Le Mans and Spa.

There are also other cars missing on the list, e.g. the Drayson Lola LMP1, the Ibanez Courage LMP2, the Bruneau Radical. Seems it isn’t easy nowadays to finance a complete LMS season.

kw: Drayson is full season in the ALMS.

We’re also missing Luc Alphand Adventures. I guess that confirms a Spa/Le Mans only season for them?

is there someone who could explain to me, how a team can have 3 cars under the same banner ?

what do you mean? they can have as many cars as they can afford!

In the LMS i believe only the highest placed car per team scores points in the Teams Championship.

I guess the rules for a three-car operation aren’t like those in the ALMS? I remember the Flying Lizard team running three cars back in 2008 (#44, #45, #46) even though I remember someone pointing out that only a maximum of two could be run during a season (according to the rules at that time). It looks like the Lizards got around that by running the #45 and #46 under the “FLMS” banner while the #44 was scored under the “FLMS 44″ name.

I guess AF Corse aren’t bound by those restrictions in the LMS?

The FLM cars are a separate category. I think planetlemans put them under P2 because it was easier (i guess).

About the 3 cars I think the Official paperwork for team still has Advanced Engineering as the name of the 3rd car. That’s how they did it in FIA GT.

But however they have it, Mattias Russo and Luis Perez Companc are well heeled and very fast drivers so the AF Corse team doesn’t want to miss out on the cash they’re bringing in.

On the Formula Le Mans cars, the LMS site also lists them under the LMP2 class. The list that Planet Le Mans has is virtually identical to the one on the LMS site.

The same goes to the Vitaphone of 2009 FIA GT. 2 were classified as Vitaphone racing while the 3rd one as Vitaphone Team DHL. But i don’t get it, i thought they can afford as many cars like what Dan said except for the FIA GT3 with max of 2 or 3 cars.

We added them as a different class for the pre-season test, but since they were on the LMP2 list, given LMP2 startnumbers and have the blue stickers that identify LMP2 cars…we’ve put them back at LMP2.

Should be a race within a race though.

Is there any place where us from USA can watch online? Le Man racing is my favorite and im trying to get into the European series, but kind of hard when we dont have coverage of it over here.

Brett only by proxy, you can’t log onto the Eurosport/Yahoo Web Player without being in the UK or Europe. Only by Proxy server can you watch it online.

Use Google…

Even harder watching the LeMans endurance series in Australia. Apart from LeMans itself, there is almost no coverage at all. Same goes for FIA GT.

Very sad.

@Brett, Don’t worry, your not disadvantaged by being in America, Eurospean coverage is shockingly bad (or at least was last year), 10 mins of the start and 30 mins halfway through with no finish, was typical Eurosport coverage. The eurosport player showed the first 2 races (but with no pre-warning, you just had to pay your money and hope!) but then didn’t show any after that. Hopefully Motors will have the series this year with some online streaming for non-europeans.

@Brett – Like rusty said, the coverage is poor over here anyway. This year is much the same with the races broken up by Eurosport with crap Curling and Cycling in between – I kid you not! MotorsTV are showing alot of motorsport this year including ALMS but no LMS. More to the point, I thought ACO were going to release some ‘exciting’ news on LMS coverage this year Marcel? Let’s face it, it ain’t gonna happen is it?

Well at the Paul Ricard Test Days they said they would give more focus to spectators and tv audience, saying several new tv deals had been signed.

Dang i really hope theres a way to watch it then, just seen MotorsTV is gonna show GT3 and International GT so thats awsome.

It’s the length of the races that keeps the broadcasters away (6hrs). This sport isn’t the most popular thing out there.

But at the same time it’s the length of the races that keeps the LMS grids strong. Because they know privateers might not be able to attend all the rounds if they had more rounds. So they have longer races to make up for the short schedule.

In Aston’s press release they never mentioned they were running the 8hr race.

Interesting that Tim Greaves who owns the biggest chunk of Radical shares is driving in a Zytek. Bruichladich was the factory Radical team.

From what my understanding is though, Aston Martin is running the 008 and 009 on a partial schedule for LMS, and then the 007 partial schedule for ALMS.

ya, i think when Bruichladich split from Branue they decided to go with a competitive car…

Who or what is “Branue”?

Tim Greaves owns the Radical brand. So whether competitive or not he benefits from its exposure.

The 008 is the signature Plus car and it’s running a full schedule.

Too bad it has Vanina Ickx as 3rd driver for LeMans. One diesel challenger out of the way. Since she’s most likely paying she will do a good chunk of driving too, and the rule of thumb is that paying drivers get to start (or they pick who starts).

Bruneau is the other half of the Bruichladich team (bruichladich-bruneau team) they split in the off season and Bruneau will run the radical (under race performance banner i think) and Bruichladich will run the more competitive Zytek…

i think Vanina Ickx is the fastest driver on the 008. so i bet she will start. and i can almost garuenty she isnt paying… she is better than a gentleman driver… (same quality as some slower pro drivers. she isnt as good as Boullion or Bouchut or Bourdais… but she is not a pay driver)

the 008 shouldnt even be out there… they are so slow and the 2 other drivers crash every race… if i were the ACO i would ban them from competition…

Pierre and Franck are pretty fast. They just weren’t used to a car with such big a body. And the team has never dealt in endurance either, so they couldn’t set it up right. The lack of set up made the drivers over drive to get results.

The team is well funded, they can get any competitive driver out there. She’s paying and she’s not the fastest of the bunch.

well we’ll just have to see who is the fastest of the bunch… even though i think they’ll be the slowest P1 anyway… except the Autocon car will be slower. but okay, we’ll see…

Interesting debate. Our wish is for additional cars at Ricard. It’s a long way to be going from NE England to see 43 cars when Spa and Silverstone will have packed grids. Early planning to get good flight and hotel deals falls flat when the entry is mediocre. Hmmm ????

I’ll be interested to see how Pegasus Racing’s new Norma chassis will fare, since they joined the 24 Hours of Le Mans field today after the Dome coupe withdrew.

Is anybody streaming the race on Justin.tv??

I’d rather have had the Dome, or even another competitor down the reserve list. The Norma isn’t even ready yet. They will be at Paul Ricard with the P2 Courage from last year. So the Norma will have had only one race before LeMans.

Eurosport coverage will be a bit better for 8hrs.

It will be live from 11:15 to 14:30, and a 1/2hr finish stint starting at 19.00.

Marco Andretti should skip the Indycar race at Barber this weekend to race with Rebellion at this race.

He won’t be in the Indy championship hunt, and has a good chance of being last of the Andretti cars at the end of the season.

But at Paul Ricard he actually has a solid chance of being on the podium, and it will be a solid preparation for LeMans. Spa will be too short in duration and too crowded in P1 and overall.

Here though, one of the Rebellion cars (along with the Oreca 01) can play spoiler to the diesels. This could have been a confidence building exercise for him.

@ Dan
Vanina Ickx was the slowest P1 driver followed by Guy Smith. Pierre and Franck were faster than the Manssell trio in the Zytek.

Considering the team is well funded and they can get any driver out there…she’s paying.

Vanina was absolutely the slowest from the box!