With the European Le Mans Series season about to get underway there has not been a lot of news coming from the Murphy Prototypes camp.

That ended yesterday with a quick visit to the team’s new home, the ELMS-bound LMP2 and LMP3 squad having started a move into the workshops currently occupied by Status GP over the weekend.

With Status GP struggling to get a GP2 programme up and running and having dropped their GP3 programme last season, the team will be consolidating into one of two large workshops on the Silverstone site, leaving the major workshop available for lease.

And with a two-car effort looming, Greg Murphy took the opportunity to obtain new and much more capable and capacious premises.

The team’s Oreca 03-R Nissan and the Ginetta-Nissan LMP3 that is filling the gap until it receives the brand-new Ave-Riley AR2 LMP3 car at Imola were already in situ.

The workshops are just on the outskirts of Silverstone village – three minutes’ drive from the circuit and with several fully equipped bays to accommodate race cars.

The Status GP GP2 cars are still in situ, too, as the thorny task of moving the team’s kit to the adjoining workshop while the Murphy kit is moved in was being undertaken, “The world’s most expensive game of Tetris,” was how one team member described the process.

“I haven’t bought Status GP and I have no immediate plans to move into single-seaters,” said Greg Murphy yesterday. “They are looking to get a GP2 programme together and I would hope that if they do so we can offer support and assistance.”

Murphy Prototypes Team Manager and living racing legend Hugh Chamberlain was, as usual, juggling the tasks of the move, and preparing for next weekend’s Silverstone ELMS opener in the team’s new office space.

“It’s a big step up, the premises are excellent, but the clock is ticking for 10 days time!”

Leaving Hugh to get on with things it was time to get Greg to explain the move:

“It was a case of us having been looking for something bigger and better for a while but obviously with the LMP3 programme now added to our existing LMP2 effort we needed space, and I want to show Tony Ave and his team that we’re an outfit interested in a future role with their plans. This, I hope, sends a very solid message!”

The new premises are indeed impressive, and while it’s never a pleasant thing to see one outfit clearly struggling (Status GP are effectively in a hiatus period at present) it’s good to see a team investing in what they clearly think is a potentially bright future in sportscar racing.

GG