PATRICK PETER'S PRESS CONFERENCE AND TV COVERAGE

During the official practice sessions on the Paul Ricard circuit on 9-10 March, Patrick Peter held a press conference during which he presented the 2012 European Le Mans Series.

Patrick Peter: Hello everybody. Thank you for attending our eighth conference. 2012 is a year of major changes as we have repositioned our championship. As the seasons have passed the series has grown in stature. Last year was a year of transition with the juxtaposition of the Le Mans Series and the ILMC (Intercontinental Le Mans Cup). I suppose I could say that 2012 is another year that sees a big change. It is, in fact, the first year with, on the one hand, the FIA World Endurance Championship and on the other, the European Le Mans Series whose vocation is to become a bit like the second league in football, and also a natural launch pad to the FIA World Endurance Championship and the Le Mans 24 Hours.

On this subject, I'd like to hand over to Vincent Beaumesnil, who looks after the sports management of the Le Mans 24 Hours and the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Vincent Beaumesnil: Thank you Patrick. I would like to underline the ACO's (Automobile Club de l'Ouest) total involvement in the ELMS. It's a very important series for us. The notion of a feeder series has always been strongly defended by the ACO. The ELMS is a vital step before racing in the Le Mans 24 Hours and the FIA World Endurance Championship. It gives up-and-coming teams the opportunity to test their skills in endurance racing. Beyond the notion of a feeder series, it also provides professional teams with the opportunity to race in a European context. Thus, by looking at the list of entries in LM P2, we can be very pleased with the quality and overall excellent level of the entries. So I would like to emphasize the involvement of the ACO and its teams with Patrick Peter to ensure the longevity of the ELMS, which is an integral part of the feeder series that lead to the summit of endurance racing, the Le Mans 24 Hours and, of course, the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Patrick Peter: Thank you Vincent. We will pursue our efforts to help the ELMS expand year after year.

We have built several bridges between the ELMS and the FIA WEC beginning with a common Race Director for the two championships, Eduardo Freitas. It is important that the way in which the races are run is the same in the two series. This is how a feeder series actually works. Both sets of Stewards of the Meeting will work in close collaboration, and some of the stewards will move from one championship to the other so that each subject is dealt with in the same way leaving no room for different interpretations of the regulations. It is important that this is standardised.

Technically speaking, there isn't a gramme of difference on a car or a millimeter of difference on an air restrictor between a car in the ELMS and one in the FIA World Championship. The aim is obviously to enable entrants to swap from one championship to the other just by changing stickers and partners. It'll make things easier for the teams.

The 2012 ELMS calendar consists of five races starting with the traditional Paul Ricard event on 1st April. Then we go to Zolder in Belgium. After the Le Mans 24 Hours we head for Donington in Great Britain in July, and Brno in the Czech Republic in September. The last event of the season is in Portugal in the Algarve in November. Zolder and Brno will host our series for the first time. To ensure that there's no confusion, we've agreed in the early years not to race on the same circuits. As the WEC is holding a race at Spa we're going to Zolder. On several occasions we've wanted to go to Brno as it's a beautiful track that the drivers like very much.

The format remains exactly the same: namely, practice, qualifying and the 6-Hour race. 6 hours and not 1000 km as in the past as depending on the circuit the duration of the race varied and this posed problems for live TV broadcasting. We've made a big effort this year concerning TV. It is one of the vital parameters if we want to help our series to expand. It will probably be difficult this year. But it's an investment we're making in view of 2013, and beyond, for the ELMS and for the teams that we want to help find partners.

We will produce our own images at all the events and recorded broadcasts will be shown on different channels. We don't yet have all the information. Motors TV will show all the races live. To this can be added live streaming in partnership with Dailymotion (link on the site www.europeanlemansseries.com ). The highlights will be shown on around ten national, European and International channels.

The teams will have different video productions of three and ten minutes with on-board cameras, as well as a twenty-six minute presentation of the teams and the season made specially for them.

In 2012, we're fully aware of the fact that the current economic climate makes things very difficult for some of the organisers. We're in the same boat. We won't have many support races this year. It's difficult to find sponsors. The crisis has well and truly hit us and we feel it. All the teams and drivers will tell you the same thing. But we're making a very big effort as we believe in what we're doing. The FIA World Endurance Championship is the outcome of the effort invested over the past six years. The FIA WEC has attracted around thirty cars. But Le Mans needs fifty-five. The other twenty-five come from either the ALMS, or the ELMS which is a vital piece of the puzzle.

I'd like to thank all the teams that have followed us. We've received particular support from the LM P2s for which we tweaked the regulations. It wasn't an easy decision to take as some LM P1 teams felt that they had been sidelined. I think we've taken the right decision. Our races are organized so that the LM P2s will be on the podium in the overall classification.

We're pleased to have some top names on the entry list like Greaves Motorsport, TDS Racing, Boutsen Ginion Racing, Race Performance and Oak Racing. There's also a great driver line-up. On the other hand, I'm going to be frank with you and not tell you that everything's roses and sunshine like some organizers have done. We're a bit disappointed by the lack of participants in GT.  As I've already said the crisis is making itself felt. We're going to do our best to attract cars on a race by race basis so that the field keeps on increasing in size.

2012 is a year of finding our marks. Our idea is to work on a different time scale for 2013. The 2012 FIA WEC calendar was announced only at the end of November. We couldn't announce our calendar beforehand. That made things more difficult to find sponsors and support races. For next year we have good reason to believe that things will be fixed for the FIA WEC earlier on. In September we should be able to draw up our 2013 calendar. Thus, we're feeling reasonable confident for the future.