The WEC’s LMP2 class for the opening round of the 2018/19 season is eight cars, three chassis manufacturers and two tyre suppliers strong, and highly likely to spring a few surprises.

While last season’s P2 entry arguably featured more star power, with many of the bigger names migrating to the LMP1 class for this year, this year’s fresh-looking crop nevertheless includes some very interesting drivers to keep an eye on.

It’s difficult at this stage to truly predict any sort of form in LMP2 again, though the title is likely to be decided by who has the fastest and most consistent Silver. And commercially, what must be taken into account when looking at championship prospects, is that we may see more of a revolving door of drivers for some teams throughout the season in the class. This campaign, let’s not forget, is longer, and features two highly valuable runs at Le Mans and a race at Sebring.

One of the eight is a guest entry for Spa only, the #26 G-Drive Racing ORECA, which completed a full-season last year has moved into the ELMS this year full time.

Driving the Russian-flagged car will be Roman Rusinov, who will be looking to put what was a disappointing season in 2017 behind him, Jean-Eric Vergne, who’s very much up to speed in LMP2 machinery now after running with Manor and Andrea Pizzitola, a very quick Silver.

Expect G-Drive Racing’s crew to be on the pace, and in contention for a win at Spa, the only race of the 2017 season which it won, albeit with two different drivers.

The rest of the teams are in the for the long haul, Spa the first stop on a road trip that won’t end until Le Mans 2019.

Five of them, are ORECAs, the 07 still, as you’d expect, the dominant chassis here.

This year, the 07 still seems to be the car to have, despite the other three chassis being granted ‘Joker’ upgrades for this year to close the gap. The sample size granted, isn’t that large yet, but so far in IMSA and in the ELMS opener, the ORECA still appears to be the most well-rounded of the four available to customers.

Fielding them full time this year, are TDS Racing, DragonSpeed, Signatech Alpine and Jackie Chan DC Racing.

Starting with TDS, this season sees gentlemen driver Francois Perrodo start his second season of prototype racing, after stepping up in 2017. Rejoining him is Matthieu Vaxiviere, and gone is long-time mentor Emmanuel Collard, in his place former Audi LMP1 star Loic Duval.

If there’s one team that has the potential to really turn heads this season it’s this one. Perrodo continues to put the time in, and in turn, has improved dramatically. With Perrodo returning after a year of learning, joined by the youth and experience that is the Vaxiviere and Duval duo and you have a formula here for a very successful season.

And the fact that Perrodo and Co. are set to keep busy between the rest periods of the WEC season by competing in select ELMS rounds should give them even more of a leg up on the competition; many of which may well only race five times this year. Could we see TDS feature up the front of the field regularly this year?

DragonSpeed meanwhile, moves into the WEC ranks after a highly successful couple of years in the ELMS, winning the title last year with its G-Drive ORECA, and is running an LMP2 programme parallel to its LMP1 effort with its BR1.

Behind the wheel are three drivers new to the American-flagged team: Roberto Gonzalez and Nathanael Berthon, who have plenty of LMP2 experience, and none other than Pastor Maldonado, who is completely new to the sportscar scene. This is a very intriguing line-up, and one that ran very well at the WEC Prologue, with Maldonado on his first proper run in an LMP2 car topping the times.

What was also notable, is that DragonSpeed’s ORECA is one of three cars that will run with Michelin this year. In the past the French tyre supplier’s P2 compounds have been quicker over a single lap, but slower over a longer stint than Dunlop’s. But this time round we don’t yet know what the capability of its tyres are.

It’s certainly interesting that some teams have been convinced to make the switch, in an attempt to gain an edge. If the Michelins are the tyres to have, this could be a very interesting season indeed if you like a good tyre war.

While there’s plenty of F1 talent up and down the field for fans to look for, Maldonado’s presence will bring a certain amount of extra attention with it. This car looks set to be interesting all season long; at DSC we’re already looking forward to see how it fares, especially after Le Mans when Toyota reserve driver Anthony Davidson steps into Berthon’s seat.

Signatech Alpine’s ORECA is badged as an A470 again, and it appears that the debate concerning the continued backing by the French car manufacturer of Signatech’s LMP2 effort has been navigated successfully, the team back with a single car.

2017 was disappointing for the 2016 LMP2 champion, which ran with a pair of cars for select rounds, though it did hit a run of form towards the end of the season with a win at Austin, and two further podiums at Fuji and Shanghai.

Will that carry over into the ‘Super Season’? With a driver crew of Nicolas Lapierre, Andre Negrao and Pierre Thiriet (not racing with TDS anymore), that’s entirely possible.

The last of the ORECA teams is Jackie Chan DC Racing. Its pair of ORECAs are Dunlop shod this year, and feature almost an entirely new line-up from its Le Mans-winning crew in 2017.

In the #37 this year are a trio of Malaysian talents, clearly out, backed by the Sepang International Circuit, to promote the country and indeed the circuit, with the goal of attracting the WEC to another new destination in the future.

All three have recent prototype experience too, Weiron Tan, Jazeman Jaafar and Nabil Jeffri stepping up from the Asian Le Mans Series with the team over the winter, to the world stage; though they each have something to prove here.

The second car, – the ‘Mighty 38’ – has Ho-Pin Tung, the only returning driver from 2017, rapid GP3 talent Gabriel Aubry and former LMP2 Le Mans winner and WEC LMP2 champion Stephane Richelmi. Add this to the fact that Jota Sport is continuing to run this effort and David Cheng has a really fun ‘Super Season’ to look forward to, this time from the managment side rather than behind the wheel.

That leaves us with just two more cars to look over, the Racing Team Nederland Dallara and Larbre Competition Ligier, both of which are set to run on Michelin tyres.

Racing Team Nederland joins the WEC after joining the ACO LMP2 ranks in the ELMS last year. Team owner Frits Van Eerd returns this time, as does the legendary figure that is Jan Lammers (though only for Spa and Le Mans).

The team’s big addition for the ‘Super Season’ is hot-shoe Giedo van der Garde, the ex-F1 driver returning to the WEC after competing wth G-Drive Racing and ESM most recently in 2016. Then after Lammers departs the scene, another ultra-quick young talent will join the crew, Nyck de Vries, who is a Formula 2 race winner and a former Formula Renault champion.

The team’s ability to stand on the podium during the season though, very much hangs on two things: the Dallara’s ability to go toe-to-toe with the ORECAs, and the performances of Van Eerd, who rarely makes significant errors behind the wheel, but needs to find some more pace. Luckily he already knows his way round three of the ‘Super Season’ circuits from his ELMS campaign last year, which should help him get up to speed quicker.

Lastly we have Larbre Competition. It’s good to see Jack Leconte’s team back in the WEC after sitting out 2017, and with an ambitious full-season effort too, after announcing its initial intentions to just race at Le Mans in LMP2 and in the Le Mans Cup. It’s also good to see Ligier back in the WEC full-time, providing us with a third chassis in the class.

For Spa, the team’s driver crew features a pair of Bronzes, Erwin Creed and Romano Ricci, and Julien Canal, who is a late addition to the team in place of Fernando Rees. Creed and Ricci (who finished second in the ELMS LMP3 points last year) will need time in adapting to life in the highly competitive WEC P2 field, stepping up from LMP3 drives, while Canal will be using this opportunity simply for further track time in a Michelin shod Ligier, adding to his ELMS/Le Mans programme with Panis Barthez.

The real question is though, how will they stack up in this field?