Cool Racing has filled all their seats for the European Le Mans Series 2021.
The Swiss team announced that team owners Nicolas Lapierre and Alexandre Coigny once again would share the ORECA 07 LMP2 with Antonin Borga, and that they would bring an LMP3 car into the ELMS too, which will run #19, since their traditional number #37 is already by their LMP2 entry.
Nicolas Maulini was named as the first and only driver back then, but the Bronze rated driver has got two teammates signed up now. He finished second in the Michelin Le Mans Cup 2020, where he raced for the team as well.
British Matt Bell, who will be on double duty with a Michelin Le Mans Cup programme for the team as well, will be one of the teammates for Maulini. Bell will once again race alongside Maurice Smith in LMC, with the pair grabbing a win at Paul Ricard, and further two podium spots at the two Le Mans races.
Final driver on the squad will be Niklas Krütten. The 18 year old German will switch from single seaters to sportscars. He raced in the ADAC Formula 4 in 2018 and 2019, finished 8th and 10th in the standings, with a total of three race wins in two seasons. He had a taster with a bit of Formula 3, before he moved into Euroformula Open in 2020.
With these announcements, there is another team in the top fight for the LMP3 title. You can never count out United Autosports with two cars, Nielsen Racing with two, where especially one of them are a title candidate, Graff with especially one of their two cars, and RLR MSport with their single entry.
The LMP3 category is so close, and with only two chassis manufactures amongst the 17 cars, there could spring a surprise, if a team hits the perfect strategy, or if somebody have found the golden egg in the shape of a rapid Bronze or Silver ranked driver. And there are still a couple of cars, who haven’t announced their full line-ups.
The European Le Mans Series is scheduled to start on 18 April 2021 at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.