Flying The Flag

Thirteen different countries will be represented by the teams and while most of them have yet to reveal their full driver line ups, several will feature drivers of the same nationality as the team, meaning the team can truly be counted on to fly the national flag on the European stage.

So far there are two LMP2 teams with drivers flying the same flag in the 2018 series

Italian squad Cetilar Villorba Corse return to the ELMS with an unchanged driver line up of Roberto Lacorte, Giorgio Sernagiotto and Andrea Belicchi. The team will also be racing the Italian built Dallara P217 chassis. Cetilar Villorba Corse missed out on a podium finish in 2017, something they will be working hard to rectify this season, but Roberto Lacorte did set the maximum speed at the 24 Hours of Le Mans test weekend when the Italian broke the timing beam at 341.3kph, 10.5kph better than the fastest LMP1 hybrid.

The second team in the LMP2 category flying the flag for their home country is the all Danish team of High Class Racing, with Dennis Andersen and Anders Fjordbach returning for a second season in the ELMS. High Class Racing got their 2017 season off to a great start with two podium finishes in the UK (Silverstone) and in Italy (Monza) and they finished 6^th overall at the end of the year.

LMP3 five teams have announced driver line-ups that match the nationality of the team

Reigning LMP3 champions United Autosports return with the two drivers who also became the 2017 champions in Portimão last October, John Falb and Sean Rayhall, who will be flying the flag for the United States of America once again.

Swiss outfit Cool Racing also return to the ELMS with a three-driver line up all from Switzerland. Alexandre Coigny, Iradj Alexander and Antonin Borga will team up to race in the teams Ligier JS P3-Nissan in 2018.

360 Racing from the United Kingdom will feature an all British driver line up with Terrence Woodward and Ross Kaiser being joined this season by fellow Brit James Swift.

Two French teams will feature an all French driver line-up. Ultimate will return to the ELMS with an unchanged squad that garnered two podium finishes in 2017. Mathieu Lahaye, Jean-Baptiste Lahaye and Francois Herlau will race the no17 Ligier this season.  The no18 M Racing-YMR Ligier will be driven by French drivers Laurent Millara and Natan Bihel.

The official pre season test for the 2018 European Le Mans Series will take place on Tuesday 10 April at the Circuit Paul Ricard in France, which will be followed by round 1, the 4 Hours of Le Castellet, at the same circuit on Sunday 15 April.