The 2026 European Le Mans Series (ELMS) season will begin with a record 47-car field at the 4 Hours of Barcelona.
A total of 140 drivers from 29 nations will compete across LMP2, LMP2 Pro/Am, LMP3 and LMGT3 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The entry includes 23 Oreca 07-Gibsons across the two LMP2 classifications, 10 LMP3 prototypes and 14 LMGT3 cars from six manufacturers.
The two-day Prologue opened the championship week on 6 April, while the race weekend begins with Free Practice on Friday. Qualifying follows on Saturday before the four-hour race starts at 12:00 local time on Sunday 12 April.
Forestier Racing by Panis begins its LMP2 title defence
Forestier Racing by Panis will begin the season with the reigning ELMS LMP2 Drivers’ Champions in its #29 Oreca 07-Gibson.
Esteban Masson and Oliver Gray remain together after winning the 2025 title with Panis Racing, while Louis Rousset joins them for the new campaign. Panis Racing has combined with Forestier Racing for 2026 as the French operation begins its championship defence under a new name.
Inter Europol Competition also returns with a two-car entry. The Polish team won the LMP2 category at the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans, while Jakub Śmiechowski, Tom Dillmann and Nick Yelloly finished second in the ELMS standings.
IDEC Sport will operate two cars for the second consecutive season, while former champions United Autosports and Algarve Pro Racing will each enter one Oreca in the main LMP2 class. Proton Competition, Vector Sport and CLX Motorsport complete the 11-car field.
Nielsen Racing has added former Formula One driver Jack Doohan to its #24 line-up for Barcelona. He will share the car with Roy Nissany and Edward Pearson during the opening round.
LMP2 Pro/Am grows to 12 cars
The LMP2 Pro/Am category will feature 12 entries in Barcelona, with several former champions returning to the field.
AO by TF begins its title defence with an unchanged line-up of PJ Hyett, Dane Cameron and Louis Delétraz. Delétraz has won four ELMS championships since 2021 and also holds the Barcelona record with three overall victories.
AF Corse returns with François Perrodo and Matthieu Vaxivière, who won the LMP2 Pro/Am championship in 2023 and 2024. Ferrari Hypercar driver Antonio Fuoco joins them in the #83 Oreca for Barcelona.
Charles Milesi moves into Pro/Am after winning the 2025 overall LMP2 title. He will share CLX Motorsport’s entry with Felipe Fraga and Georgios Kolovos.
Meanwhile, Algarve Pro Racing has entered Malthe Jakobsen, Michael Jensen and Enzo Trulli. Nielsen Racing will run 2025 vice-champions Kriton Lentoudis and Alex Quinn alongside 2023 LMP2 champion James Allen.
Doriane Pin also returns to the ELMS paddock with Duqueine Team. The 2025 F1 Academy champion will drive with Giorgio Roda and Richard Verschoor, while DKR Engineering, Vector Sport, TDS Racing, Rossa Racing by Virage and Proton Competition complete the Pro/Am entry.
LMP3 champions return with revised line-ups
Ten cars will contest the LMP3 category, with nine Ligier JS P325-Toyotas and one Duqueine D09 entered for the opening round.
Paul Lanchère returns to defend the title he won with CLX Motorsport in 2025. He will share the Swiss team’s Ligier with Asian Le Mans Series champion Alexander Jacoby and Brazilian driver Bruno Ribeiro.
Michelin Le Mans Cup champion R-ace GP will field the only Duqueine D09. Hugo Schwarze moves into the ELMS with the French team and joins Fabien Michal and Pierre-Alexandre Provost.
DKR Engineering has switched back to Ligier machinery after running a Ginetta in 2025, while former champions Eurointernational also return with one car.
Daniel Nogales will represent the home contingent in Team Virage’s Ligier alongside Matteo Quintarelli and Louis Stern. Inter Europol Competition, Rinaldi Racing, Racing Spirit of Léman, Ultimate and M Racing complete the 10-car category.
Six manufacturers contest the largest class
LMGT3 forms the largest individual category in Barcelona, with 14 cars from Corvette, Ferrari, Mercedes-AMG, McLaren, Aston Martin and Porsche.
Reigning champion TF Sport will defend its title with the only Chevrolet Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R on the grid. Charlie Eastwood returns alongside Americans Blake McDonald and Alec Udell.
Richard Mille AF Corse has retained 2025 vice-champions Custodio Toledo and Riccardo Agostini. Former FIA GT3 European champion Francesco Castellacci completes the #50 Ferrari 296 LMGT3 Evo crew.
Iron Lynx will operate two Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 entries. Team Qatar by Iron Lynx will run the #62 car, while reigning champion Rui Andrade shares the #63 Iron Lynx entry with Sergio Sette Câmara and Ameerh Naran.
United Autosports continues with Michael Birch, Garnet Patterson and Wayne Boyd in the only McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo. Racing Spirit of Léman returns with its Aston Martin Vantage for Clément Mateu, Valentin Hasse Clot and Marius Fossard.
Kessel Racing has entered two Ferrari 296 LMGT3 Evos. Spanish driver Fran Rueda will compete in the #74 with Romain Leroux and Andrew Gilbert, while Takeshi Kimura, Mathys Jaubert and Daniel Serra share the #57.
Proton Competition will run two Porsche 911 GT3 Rs, while High Class Racing adds a third Porsche. AF Corse, Spirit of Race and GR Racing complete Ferrari’s six-car presence in the class.
Barcelona hosts the ELMS for a seventh time
The 2026 race marks the seventh ELMS visit to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya since the championship first raced there in 2019.
G-Drive Racing won the inaugural edition with Roman Rusinov, Jean-Éric Vergne and Job van Uitert. After the 2020 race fell away because of COVID-19 travel restrictions, Barcelona returned as the season opener in 2021.
Louis Delétraz won three consecutive editions between 2021 and 2023. He took his first victory with Team WRT before winning with Prema Racing in 2022 and Racing Team Turkey in 2023.
COOL Racing claimed its first overall Barcelona victory in 2024, with Lorenzo Fluxá becoming the first Spanish driver to win the race outright. AF Corse then became the second LMP2 Pro/Am team to take the overall victory when François Perrodo, Matthieu Vaxivière and Alessio Rovera won in 2025.
Home drivers have already made Barcelona history
Three Spanish drivers have won their home ELMS round.
Miguel Molina claimed the LMGTE victory with Iron Lynx in 2021, while Fluxá won overall for COOL Racing in 2024. Daniel Juncadella added another home success when the #18 IDEC Sport crew won the LMP2 class in 2025.
That result also brought a championship first. Jamie Chadwick became the first female driver to win in the ELMS top class alongside Juncadella and Mathys Jaubert.
Across all four categories, four women stood on the top step at the 2025 event. Michelle Gatting, Célia Martin and Sarah Bovy won LMGT3 for Iron Dames, while Chadwick formed part of IDEC Sport’s LMP2-winning crew.
Ferrari and Ligier carry strong Barcelona records
Ferrari has secured 13 LMGTE or LMGT3 podium finishes in Barcelona since 2019. The manufacturer has won the GT category three times, taking victories in 2019, 2021 and 2024.
Porsche has also recorded three class victories, winning in 2022, 2023 and 2025. Lamborghini remains the only other manufacturer to reach the Barcelona GT podium after finishing third in 2024.
Ligier has won every LMP3 race held at the circuit. The manufacturer has taken 16 of the available 18 podium positions across the six previous editions, with a Norma finishing second in 2019 and a Duqueine taking the same position in 2022.
Teams assemble for the opening race weekend
All 47 cars gathered on the Barcelona start-finish straight for the traditional season photograph before competitive running began.
The four reigning champions from LMP2, LMP2 Pro/Am, LMP3 and LMGT3 occupied the front row of the display. The 140 drivers then joined their cars before gathering together for the final photographs and filming.
Friday’s schedule features the first 90-minute Free Practice session and a 30-minute Bronze Driver Collective Test. A second 90-minute Free Practice session takes place on Saturday before Qualifying sets the grid.
The 4 Hours of Barcelona starts at 12:00 local time on Sunday, with the chequered flag scheduled for 16:00. The ELMS will stream the race live and free through the FIAWEC+ platform
