31 cars are entered for the Michelin Le Mans Cup 2021.
That is an expansion of two cars compared to the 2020 season, with several changes to the field.
There have been some cars dropping out of the GT3 category, but Pzoberer Zürichsee by TFT returns with their Porsche, in addition to a single AF Corse Ferrari, and two Iron Lynx Ferrari cars. Rinaldi Racing will bring one of their GT3 Ferrari’s, just like they ran in the Asian Le Mans Series.
10Q Racing Team is a brand new team in LMC. The German team will run a single Mercedes-AMG GT3, giving a different flavour to the otherwise Ferrari and Porsche field.
Kessel Racing is sadly not entering any cars in 2021 – at least not on the current list. The team was one of the title contenders in 2020, where they fought door to door with Iron Lynx, who ended up grabbing the title. 2020 Champion Rino Mastronardi will be going for the repeat, with his new teammate Paolo Ruberti. That will leave Giacomo Piccini with just the job of being a team boss, instead of both racing driver and boss.
That is a total of 6 GT3 cars entered for the LMC.
There are 24 LMP3 cars on the 2021 entry list.
Champion winners DKR Engineering are back, but with a bit of a surprise, since Laurents Hörr isn’t listed as one of the drivers. Hörr will focus on the ELMS programme only, for now. Americans Jon Brownson and Dario Cangialosi are the two drivers entered in the car from the Luxembourg team.
Regulars entries are from United Autosports with three cars, Cool Racing with two cars, Team Virage with two cars, Mühlner Motorsport with two cars, and a single entry from Nielsen Racing, IDEC Sport, Grainmarket Racing, Racing Spirit of Leman, CD Sport, Rinaldi Racing and Motorsport98.
Phoenix Racing is new to LMC, but jumped on the LMP wagon in the Asian Le Mans Series, where they ran both an LMP2 and LMP3 car. They will stick to two LMP3 cars for LMC – a Ligier JS P320 and a Duqueine D08. The latter will run under the Wochenspiegel Team Monschau banner, which has made a deal with Phoenix Racing, to run and service the car.
Black Falcon has been associated with GT cars until now, but they bought a single Ligier JS P320. The team is based just a few meters away from Phoenix Racing near the Nürburgring in Germany, but they are fierce competitors.
Another team with a Nürburgring link is Frikadelli Racing Team, with team owner Klaus Abbelen jumping into a Ligier alongside Axcil Jefferies.
AF Corse will add an LMP3 car to their GT3 programme. LMP cars are nothing new to them, having already run a car in the Asian Le Mans Series a few years ago, and ran the Cetilar Racing in FIA WEC in 2019/20 plus Daytona 24 Hours 2021.
An Icelandic team will join the LMC grid in 2021. Team Thor will run Icelandic driver Audunn Gudmundsson alongside Brit Thomas Ashton.
R-Breizh Competition is an exciting new name, due to their choice of car – an Adess-03 LMP3 car. This is the first car from that brand in ACO racing – if you look past the hydrogen car from H24, which has been based on that model.
Last but not least, we have the H24 Racing team entered, with their latest Hydrogen prototype, running in their own Innovate Category. The French team has participated a couple of times before, running in the free practice, but no actual races. Norman Nato and Stoffel Vandoorne are test drivers on the project, but it’s not finally revealed who will do the LMC season for them.
The LMC will have a double round at Circuit de la Sarthe, as a support race to the 24 hours race in August. There are usually a few more guest entries showing up for that race alone.
The Michelin Le Mans Cup 2021 is scheduled to start on 17 April at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.