The 2023 European Le Mans Series was the twentieth season of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest's (ACO) European Le Mans Series. The six-event season began at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on 23 April and finished at Algarve International Circuit on 22 October.
The series was open to Le Mans Prototypes, divided into the LMP2 and LMP3 classes, and grand tourer-style racing cars in the LMGTE class. The season was the last for the LMGTE class.
Calendar The provisional calendar for the 2023 season was announced on 22 September 2022. MotorLand Aragón was added to the calendar for the first time, replacing the round at Monza, which left after serving as a late replacement for the Hungaroring during the 2022 season. The Portimão round was later postponed one week to alleviate a clash with the 2023 Petit Le Mans.
On 11 April it was announced the 4 Hours of Imola would be postponed due to ongoing works on the pit lane and paddock areas. On 14 April, the 4 Hours of Imola were officially cancelled, with the Portimão round becoming a double-header to fill the void. +RndRaceCircuitLocationDate 1 4 Hours of Barcelona Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya Montmeló, Spain 23 April 2 4 Hours of Le Castellet Circuit Paul Ricard Le Castellet, France 16 July 3 4 Hours of Aragón MotorLand Aragón Alcañiz, Spain 26 August 4 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps Stavelot, Belgium 24 September 5 4 Hours of Algarve Algarve International Circuit Portimão, Portugal 20 October 6 4 Hours of Portimão 22 October Cancelled Race Circuit Location Original date 4 Hours of Imola Imola Circuit Imola, Italy 7 MaySources:
Entries LMP2 All cars in the LMP2 class used the Gibson GK428 V8 engine and Goodyear tyres. Entries in the LMP2 Pro-Am class, set aside for teams with a Bronze-rated driver in their line-up, are denoted with icons. Entrant/Team Chassis MISC Drivers Rounds DKR Engineering Oreca 07 3 PA Sebastián Álvarez All Nathanaël Berthon All Tom Van Rompuy 1–2, 4–6 Andreas Laskaratos 3 Team Virage Oreca 07 19 PA Tatiana Calderón All Ian Rodríguez All Dennis Andersen 1 Rob Hodes 1 Alexander Mattschull 2–6 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca 07 20 PA Fred Poordad All Tristan Vautier All Jack Hawksworth 1–2, 5–6 Bent Viscaal 3–4 25 P2 James Allen All Alex Lynn All Kyffin Simpson All United Autosports USA Oreca 07 21 PA Andy Meyrick All Daniel Schneider All Nelson Piquet Jr. 1–2, 4–6 Filipe Albuquerque 3 22 P2 Phil Hanson All Oliver Jarvis All Marino Sato All 23 PA Paul di Resta 1–2 Jim McGuire 1–2 Guy Smith 1–2 P2 Paul di Resta 3 Garnet Patterson 3 Guy Smith 3 Nielsen Racing Oreca 07 24 PA Mathias Beche All Ben Hanley All Rodrigo Sales All IDEC Sport Oreca 07 28 P2 Paul-Loup Chatin All Laurents Hörr All Paul Lafargue All Duqueine Team Oreca 07 30 P2 René Binder All Neel Jani All Nico Pino All Racing Team Turkey Oreca 07 34 PA Louis Delétraz All Charlie Eastwood All Salih Yoluç All Cool Racing Oreca 07 37 PA Alexandre Coigny All Malthe Jakobsen All Nicolas Lapierre All 47 P2 Reshad de Gerus All Vladislav Lomko All José María López All Inter Europol Competition Oreca 07 43 P2 Jonathan Aberdein All Rui Andrade All Olli Caldwell All Panis Racing Oreca 07 65 P2 Tijmen van der Helm All Manuel Maldonado All Job van Uitert All DragonSpeed USA Oreca 07 81 PA Henrik Hedman All Juan Pablo Montoya All Sebastián Montoya All AF Corse Oreca 07 83 PA François Perrodo All Matthieu Vaxivière All Ben Barnicoat 1–2, 5–6 Alessio Rovera 3–4 Proton Competition Oreca 07 99 PA Jonas Ried All Giorgio Roda All Gianmaria Bruni 1–4 Bent Viscaal 5–6 Icon MISC P2 LMP2 PA LMP2 Pro-Am
LMP3 All cars in the LMP3 class used the Nissan VK56DE 5.6L V8 engine and Michelin tyres. Entrant/TeamChassisNo.DriversRounds DKR Engineering Duqueine M30 - D08 4 Alexander Bukhantsov All Pedro Perino All James Winslow All RLR MSport Ligier JS P320 5 James Dayson All Valdemar Eriksen All Jack Manchester All 15 Horst Felbermayr Jr. All Gaël Julien All Mateusz Kaprzyk All Nielsen Racing Ligier JS P320 7 Ryan Harper-Ellam All Anthony Wells All Team Virage Ligier JS P320 8 Nick Adcock All Manuel Espírito Santo All Michael Jensen All EuroInternational Ligier JS P320 10 Glenn van Berlo 1–4 Nick Moss 1 Matthias Lüthen 2–3 François Hériau 4 11 Adam Ali All Matthew Richard Bell All WTM by Rinaldi Racing Duqueine M30 - D08 12 Torsten Kratz All Óscar Tunjo All Leonard Weiss All Inter Europol Competition Ligier JS P320 13 Kai Askey All Wyatt Brichacek All Miguel Cristóvão All Cool Racing Ligier JS P320 17 Adrien Chila All Alex García All Marcos Siebert All Racing Spirit of Léman Ligier JS P320 31 Antoine Doquin All Jacques Wolff All Fabien Michal 1 Jean-Ludovic Foubert 2–6 Ultimate Ligier JS P320 35 Jean-Baptiste Lahaye All Matthieu Lahaye All Eric Trouillet All Nicolás Varrone was scheduled to compete for WTM by Rinaldi Racing, but withdrew prior to the start of the season. Sebastián Álvarez was scheduled to compete for Inter Europol Competition, but withdrew prior to the start of the season.
LMGTE All cars in the LMGTE class used Goodyear tyres. Entrant/TeamChassisEngineNo.DriversRounds Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR-19 Porsche M97/80 4.2 L Flat-6 16 Ryan Hardwick All Alessio Picariello All Zacharie Robichon All 77 Julien Andlauer All Giammarco Levorato All Christian Ried All 93 Michael Fassbender All Richard Lietz All Martin Rump All GMB Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage AMR Aston Martin M177 4.0 L Turbo V8 44 Gustav Birch All Jens Reno Møller All Nicki Thiim All Formula Racing Ferrari 488 GTE Evo Ferrari F154CB 4.0 L Turbo V8 50 Conrad Laursen All Johnny Laursen All Mikkel Mac 1 Nicklas Nielsen 2–6 AF Corse 51 Rui Águas All Ulysse de Pauw All Kriton Lendoudis All Spirit of Race 55 Duncan Cameron All Matt Griffin All David Perel All Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GTE Evo Ferrari F154CB 4.0 L Turbo V8 57 Scott Huffaker All Takeshi Kimura All Frederik Schandorff 1–2 Davide Rigon 3 Daniel Serra 4–6 Iron Lynx Porsche 911 RSR-19 Porsche M97/80 4.2 L Flat-6 60 Matteo Cairoli All Matteo Cressoni All Claudio Schiavoni All JMW Motorsport Ferrari 488 GTE Evo Ferrari F154CB 4.0 L Turbo V8 66 Martin Berry All Lorcan Hanafin All Jon Lancaster All TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage AMR Aston Martin M177 4.0 L Turbo V8 72 Valentin Hasse-Clot All Arnold Robin All Maxime Robin All 95 Jonathan Adam All John Hartshorne All Ben Tuck All
Results and standings
Race results Bold indicates overall winner. Circuit Pole LMP2 Winning Team LMP2 Pro-Am Winning Team LMP3 Winning Team LMGTE Winning Team Results LMP2 Winning Drivers LMP2 Pro-Am Winning Drivers LMP3 Winning Drivers LMGTE Winning Drivers 1 Catalunya No. 47 Cool Racing No. 30 Duqueine Team No. 34 Racing Team Turkey No. 17 Cool Racing No. 16 Proton Competition Report Reshad de Gerus Vladislav Lomko José María López René Binder Neel Jani Nico Pino Louis Delétraz Charlie Eastwood Salih Yoluç Adrien Chila Alex García Marcos Siebert Ryan Hardwick Alessio Picariello Zacharie Robichon 2 Le Castellet No. 47 Cool Racing No. 25 Algarve Pro Racing No. 34 Racing Team Turkey No. 31 Racing Spirit of Léman No. 77 Proton Competition Report Reshad de Gerus Vladislav Lomko José María López James Allen Alex Lynn Kyffin Simpson Louis Delétraz Charlie Eastwood Salih Yoluç Antoine Doquin Jean-Ludovic Foubert Jacques Wolff Julien Andlauer Giammarco Levorato Christian Ried 3 Aragón No. 22 United Autosports USA No. 22 United Autosports USA No. 83 AF Corse No. 17 Cool Racing No. 57 Kessel Racing Report Phil Hanson Oliver Jarvis Marino Sato Phil Hanson Oliver Jarvis Marino Sato Francois Perrodo Alessio Rovera Matthieu Vaxivière Adrien Chila Alex García Marcos Siebert Scott Huffaker Takeshi Kimura Davide Rigon 4 Spa-Francorchamps No. 25 Algarve Pro Racing No. 25 Algarve Pro Racing No. 37 Cool Racing No. 17 Cool Racing No. 60 Iron Lynx Report James Allen Alex Lynn Kyffin Simpson James Allen Alex Lynn Kyffin Simpson Alexandre Coigny Malthe Jakobsen Nicolas Lapierre Adrien Chila Alex García Marcos Siebert Matteo Cairoli Matteo Cressoni Claudio Schiavoni 5 Algarve No. 25 Algarve Pro Racing No. 22 United Autosports USA No. 37 Cool Racing No. 12 WTM by Rinaldi Racing No. 77 Proton CompetitionReport James Allen Alex Lynn Kyffin Simpson Phil Hanson Oliver Jarvis Marino Sato Alexandre Coigny Malthe Jakobsen Nicolas Lapierre Torsten Kratz Óscar Tunjo Leonard Weiss Julien Andlauer Giammarco Levorato Christian Ried 6 No. 28 IDEC Sport No. 22 United Autosports USA No. 83 AF Corse No. 11 EuroInternational No. 16 Proton Competition Report Paul-Loup Chatin Laurents Hörr Paul Lafargue Phil Hanson Oliver Jarvis Marino Sato Ben Barnicoat Francois Perrodo Matthieu Vaxivière Adam Ali Matthew Richard Bell Ryan Hardwick Alessio Picariello Zacharie RobichonSource:
Season report
Barcelona The season began in Barcelona, where sophomore Reshad de Gerus took his maiden pole position in the No. 47 Cool Racing entry. The race for the overall win developed into a fight between the No. 30 Duqueine of Neel Jani and the Pro-Am class No. 34 Racing Team Turkey car of Louis Delétraz. Despite an unscheduled stop to replace his rear bodywork, Delétraz caught up to Jani and passed him with 15 minutes to go, allowing him, Charlie Eastwood, and Pro-Am polesitter Salih Yoluç to claim the overall win. Jani in the Duqueine settled for second, while the Pro-Am No. 83 AF Corse crew completed the podium in third. In LMP3, the No. 17 of Cool Racing won after the No. 31 Racing Spirit of Léman, which Antoine Doquin had held in front of the chasing Marcos Siebert during the closing laps, was penalised for a full-course yellow infringement. The LMGTE race was controlled by the No. 16 Proton Competition Porsche of Alessio Picariello, Zacharie Robichon, and Ryan Hardwick.
Le Castellet At Le Castellet, Cool Racing's No. 47 continued its pole streak, this time with José María López. Originally, the No. 28 IDEC Sport Oreca had looked on course to take the win, before Paul-Loup Chatin was forced to pit with a puncture. This promoted Delétraz in the No. 34 to the front, only to be overtaken by Algarve Pro Racing's James Allen after suffering a de-laminating tyre; the No. 25 Algarve Pro of Allen, Alex Lynn, and Kyffin Simpson went on to win ahead of Neel Jani's No. 30 Duqueine and the No. 34 RTT, which held on to third despite a late onslaught by the No. 43 Inter Europol entry. The No. 34 nevertheless took a Pro-Am victory ahead of the No. 37 Cool Racing and No. 83 AF Corse crews. The LMP3 battle went the way of RSL's No. 31, which benefited from a mid-race safety car that removed WTM by Rinaldi Racing's 30-second lead gap. In LMGTE, Proton won again, this time with the No. 77 lineup of Julien Andlauer, Giammarco Levorato, and team owner Christian Ried.
Aragón The ELMS went to Aragón for the first time in its history. Phil Hanson took pole in the No. 22 United Autosports entry, and went on to win alongside Oliver Jarvis and Marino Sato, in part due to a quick final pit stop. The No. 28 IDEC car of Chatin finished 15 seconds behind, with the French driver successfully defending second place against Algarve Pro's Alex Lynn. LMP2 Pro-Am, won by the No. 83 AF Corse crew of Matthieu Vaxivière, François Perrodo, and stand-in driver Alessio Rovera, proved dramatic, as the No. 34 RTT entry dropped out of contention with a late pit stop problem, while the No. 37 Cool Racing car of Malthe Jakobsen retired after hitting the sister No. 47 car of López. A clean run allowed the Cool Racing No. 17 to win an attrition-filled LMP3 class, while the No. 57 Kessel Racing triumphed in LMGTE.
Spa-Francorchamps