World Champions and old faces on-site

There were three FIA World Champions in the paddock today, with Marc Lieb, the 2016 WEC World Champion present as both the head of Porsche customer racing, assisting and solving the woes of Proton Competition. He’s also listed to drive the #77 Porsche, presumably as part of the handover and shakedown of the chassis, that was eliminated in the first session, Dennis Olsen at the wheel when it went off.

Loic Duval, 2013 World Champion for Audi, is here with TDS Racing, the WEC trio, including Francois Perrodo and Matthieu Vaxiviere testing ahead of the ELMS race this weekend, where they form part of a four-car WEC guest entry.

Finally, fellow 2013 WEC champion Allan McNish was also at the circuit today, Paul Ricard a short (no pun intended) hop from his Monaco Chateau.

Another retired driver in the paddock meanwhile, Johnny Mowlem, threatened physical harm on the DSC editor, when it was pointed out to him, that his announced departure from the sport has proved to have been somewhat premature.

Since announcing his retirement, Mowlem has competed at Petit Le Mans, the Daytona 24 Hours, the Gulf 12 Hours twice, a full International GT Open campaign, a partial season in Britcar, multiple LMP3 Cup races, a full GT Cup season and revived his popular Sky Sports TV series Mowlem’s Racing Travels. (We believe!) (Sorry Johnny)

All joking aside, Mowlem has been working massively hard with his Red River Sport clients, to build up their experience, confidence and performance levels. Best known are Ivor Dunbar, and Bonamy Grimes, who have glowing reports on Johnny’s coaching abilities, and both of whom, are clearly making great strides towards their own personal sporting ambitions.

The Red River Sport-branded #79 Ligier was testing alongside the ELMS-entered #7 Nielsen Racing JS P3, though the car is not entered in the Michelin Le Mans Cup or ELMS, but is set to compete in the LMP3 Cup Championship this season.

Albuquerque & McMurray testing

IMSA regulars Filipe Albuquerque and Matt McMurray are here testing. The former is with United Autosports teammates Bruno Senna and Phil Hanson, though the rapid Portuguese driver will not be racing this weekend, and instead be competing out in the States with Action Express at Long Beach, fulfilling his full-season deal.

Not racing at Long Beach, but at Ricard filling in a gap, is McMurray, after the damage done to the #90 Spirit of Daytona Cadillac DPi in its Sebring forced the team to skip Long Beach.

The young American turned laps in the #25 Algarve Pro Racing Ligier JS P217, this the team that he competed with in Europe and Asia in recent seasons. There are no current plans announced though, for a race programme with the team in 2018.

Weather forecast looking bleak

Monday started wet and grey, though the very high winds of Sunday which caused some damage in the paddock and around the circuit, had passed.

Weather improved throughout the day, but temperatures were still in the mid-teens (celsius).

Showers are forecast for tomorrow, with Wednesday looking set to see major rainfall throughout the day, potentially putting the pre-season test planned for the Michelin Le Mans Cup runners at some risk.

Race weekend however for both championships currently looks set to enjoy dry and sunny weather.

Circuit changes

Several attempts by keen observers of the ELMS form-books, comparing year-on-year performance, have been thwarted by two major factors: the first being the circuit including the pit lane being totally re-surfaced since last summer’s ELMS race, providing completely different track conditions. Secondly, that race was run using a chicane on the Mistral Straight.

With the Prologue for both the ELMS and the WEC in 2017 having taken place not at Paul Ricard but at Monza, there are no comparative times available for the 2017-spec LMP2s.

In addition to the re-surfacing, major work has been undertaken on both circuit access and paddock and spectator parking spaces. The bridge installed last year over the Mistral is now complete, and with a large number of trees having been felled large swathes of the infield are now paved over for paddock and public facility spaces.

Pit Walk

In case you missed it, here’s the ELMS Facebook live Pit Walk from this morning, with the DSC Editor, well worth a look, especially if you’re still getting your head round the enormous entry list!