The 2015 European Le Mans Series provisional calendar was unveiled today, with a return to each of the circuits that featured in the highly successful 2014 season and each race will also be 4 hours in duration.
The season will begin with the Official two day test at the Circuit Paul Ricard at the end of March before the first round of the year, the 4 Hours of Silverstone on Saturday 11 April. Once again the UK round of the ELMS will run alongside the opening round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, giving fans a full weekend of top level endurance racing.
Round 2 will once again be held at the Italian circuit of Imola in May, the leading LMP2 and LMGTE competitors having their final opportunity to race before the ultimate test at the 24 Hours of Le Mans the following month.
Round 3 will see a return to the Red Bull Ring in July, the technically demanding circuit set in the dramatic Styrian Alps is a firm favourite of the teams and drivers. The Circuit Paul Ricard will be the venue in September and the season finale will be at the circuit of Estoril in Portugal for the second year running in October.
Gerard Neveu, CEO of the European Le Mans Series, said: “The 2015 provisional calendar represents stability for our teams and partners and returning to the same five venues at the same time of year allows us to build awareness of the events. The 4 hours races have also proved to be popular with our partners and stakeholders and therefore the race weekends in 2015 will continue with the same format over 2 days. However we are not standing still. We will continue to work hard to promote and improve each of the five events, underlining the ELMS as the premier sportscar series in Europe.”
Pierre Fillon, President of the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, said: “This provisional 2015 calendar underlines the current healthy state of the European Le Mans Series. Since the start of 2013 the ELMS has seen grid sizes grow and exciting new events on Europe’s leading circuits that have attracted the teams and drivers to compete. Next year we will see the addition of the new LMP3 class to the ELMS grid and we are also seeing a lot of interest from many teams from across Europe and further afield as well. We are confident that the 2015 calendar will be very attractive to our current teams and to new teams looking for the challenge of competing against Europe’s best endurance racers.”
Provisional 2015 European Le Mans Series Calendar
23/24 March Official Test – Circuit Paul Ricard FRA
10/11 April 4 Hours of Silverstone GBR
16/17 May 4 Hours of Imola ITA
11/12 July 4 Hours of Red Bull Ring** AUT
5/6 September 4 Hours of Paul Ricard FRA
17/18 October 4 Hours of Estoril PRT
** subject to confirmation
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