Prema to Drop LMP2 Program Next Year to Focus on LMDh

Prema will drop its LMP2 program next year to focus on its role as an operational partner of Lamborghini’s LMDh program and its various single-seater racing activities.

The Italian squad currently runs two Oreca 07 Gibsons in the FIA World Endurance Championship’s second-tier prototype class but plans to sell them at the end of the year.

LMP2 is being eliminated from the WEC after the current season but it will remain eligible in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, European Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series.

Prema ventured into LMP2 last year with single-car entries in WEC and ELMS, as part of its preparations for the Lamborghini LMDh program where it will assist the Iron Lynx team through its recently-established consultancy firm Prema Engineering.

It won the ELMS title at the first attempt with Louis Deletraz, Ferdinand Habsburg and Lorenzo Colombo, before shifting its full focus to the WEC this year.

The 2023 campaign saw Prema integrate Lamborghini factory drivers Daniil Kvyat, Mirko Bortolotti and Andrea Caldarelli into the LMP2 lineup.

“Next year our involvement will be on the LMDh program, and we will stick with that,” Prema team principal Rene Rosin told Sportscar365.

“We used LMP2 as a learning process to be ready for 2024 and our focus will be on the LMDh.”

Rosin added that Prema had “quite a lot of requests” from drivers to do an ELMS program but that the team is on course to stick with its original plan of axing the LMP2 operation.

“We decide to stay with how we planned,” he said.

“Of course, things can change in the next couple of weeks and months. But we have a lot of meat on the fire, with the single-seater project and the LMDh project that Lamborghini and Iron Lynx are doing.

“I think we will stick with that. We don’t want to stretch the structures too much. We want to continue improving and keep our performance on a high level.”

Keeping the LMP2 program online would require Prema to invest in more personnel to manage the increased workload of effectively having two different prototype racing efforts.

“That is the fact that is limiting for us,” admitted Rosin.

“We already have enough going on. We already have a lot of people in the company, at least 20.

“Considering the LMDh program, all that’s going on next year: we will have a new car in Formula 2 and there will be a new Formula 3 car in 2025. It’s quite a lot going on.”