Record 47-Car Provisional Full-Season Entry List Revealed

The European Le Mans Series has revealed a provisional 2026 full-season entry list featuring a record 47 cars, up by three cars from this year’s campaign.

Revealed on Wednesday, the entry is made up of 11 cars in the outright LMP2 division, 12 in LMP2 Pro-Am, ten in LMP3 and 14 in LMGT3, with the growth compared to this year coming from an extra two LMP2 cars (across both classes) and one LMGT3.

The extra entries in the all-Oreca 07 Gibson LMP2 field come from Vector Sport, which is expanding to a second car with a foray into the Pro-Am division, and the return of Team Virage under the ‘Rossa Racing by Virage’ banner with a single Pro-Am car.

Additionally, this year’s champion LMP2 outfit VDS Panis Racing is not listed, with a new entity, Forestier Racing by Panis, appearing in its place. Silver-rated Louis Rosset is the only confirmed driver for the No. 29 car.

The entry list confirms numerous drivers for both the outright and Pro-Am LMP2 classes.

Jamie Chadwick is the first confirmed driver for the No. 18 IDEC Sport car as she enters a second season in the ELMS with Genesis Magma Racing backing.

The sister No. 28 car again features recently-confirmed Genesis World Endurance Championship star Paul-Loup Chatin alongside Job van Uitert and Paul Lafargue.

United Autosports has signed Griffin Peebles to join Ben Hanley and Gregoire Saucy in its No. 22 car, replacing Manuel Maldonado, with the Pro-Am-entered No. 21 Oreca maintaining an unchanged lineup of Oliver Jarvis, Marino Sato and Daniel Schneider.

Tom Blomqvist moves across to Inter Europol Competition, where he will partner Bijoy Garg and one other to-be-confirmed driver in the No. 34 car, while the No. 43 keeps Tom Dillmann and Nick Yelloly alongside Kuba Smiechowski.

NTT IndyCar Series racer Jacob Abel will drive the Pro-Am Vector Sport car alongside Pietro Fittipaldi and one other unconfirmed driver.

Steven Thomas is the only confirmed driver for the No. 14 TDS Racing Oreca in Pro-Am, as the long-time IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship LMP2 competitor prepares to tackle a first season in the ELMS.

Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific selected driver Enzo Trulli is confirmed for a full season of LMP2 competition at Algarve Pro Racing in the Pro-Am-entered No. 25 Oreca with Peugeot WEC star Malthe Jakobsen and Michael Jensen.

Alex Quinn moves over from APR to join Nielsen Racing’s Pro-Am car, a collaboration that began with last weekend’s Asian Le Mans Series opener.

Freshly-minted McLaren junior driver Richard Verschoor will make his first foray into sports car racing after five seasons racing in FIA Formula 2 with the Duqueine Team in Pro-Am alongside Giorgio Roda and an unnamed third driver.

Charles Milesi, who was part of this year’s title-winning combination at Panis VDS with Esteban Masson and Oliver Gray, switches to the No. 47 Pro-Am CLX Motorsport entry together with Georgios Kolovos and Felipe Fraga.

The new Rossa Racing by Virage car has a fully-confirmed lineup comprising John Falb, Manuel Espirito Santo and Rik Koen, who moves up from LMP3 with the team.

In LMP3, the class is made up of nine Ligier JS P325 Toyotas and a single Duqueine D09 Toyota, to be run by R-Ace GP.

Alexander Jacoby and Bruno Ribeiro are the first confirmed drivers for the No. 17 CLX Motorsport Ligier, with two members of the squad’s title-winning 2025 lineup, Theodor Jensen and Adrien Closmenil, moving up to LMP2 with the team.

Virage has signed Louis Stern and Matteo Quintarelli for its No. 8 Ligier, while Inter Europol Competition has confirmed its current Asian Le Mans Series lineup comprising Alex Bukhantsov, Henry Cubides Olarte and Chun Ting Chou.

Douwe Dedecker meanwhile moves over to Eurointernational, where he joins Matt Richard Bell, who returns to the ELMS after a year out.

A total of six marques are represented in LMGT3: McLaren, Corvette, Ferrari, Porsche, Mercedes-AMG and Aston Martin.

The additional entries compared to this year’s grid come from High Class Racing, which is entering a Porsche 911 GT3 R with Audunn Gudmundsson the only confirmed driver, and an additional Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo with QMMF backing.

Asian Le Mans Series standout Abdulla Ali Al-Khelaifi is the first driver named for the QMMF by Iron Lynx entry.

Iron Dames is not part of the entry list, with Proton Competition entering a pair of Porsches under its own banner with Japanese gentleman racer ‘Bankcy’ and American Matthew Kurzejewski the first confirmed drivers for each car.

The JMW Motorsport Ferrari has also dropped off the entry list.

ACO President Pierre Fillon commented: “The 2026 European Le Mans Series entry list underlines the championship’s outstanding vitality and its central role within the endurance racing pyramid.

“A record grid of 47 cars, strong representation across all categories and a compelling mix of established teams and new contenders once again highlight the ELMS as a benchmark platform for performance, competition and driver development.

“This level of commitment from teams and manufacturers is a clear sign of the championship’s appeal, and we look forward to another highly competitive and exciting season, starting in Barcelona.”

The 2026 ELMS campaign kicks off at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on April 12, with the same circuit slated to host the Prologue test on April 6-7.