The 2014 European Le Mans Series season was the eleventh season of the

Automobile Club de l'Ouest The Automobile Club de l'Ouest (English: Automobile Club of the West), sometimes abbreviated to ACO, is the largest automotive group in France. It was founded in 1906 by car building and racing enthusiasts, and is most famous for being the organ ...

's European Le Mans Series. The five-event season began at

Silverstone Circuit Silverstone Circuit is a motor racing circuit in England, near the Northamptonshire villages of Silverstone and Whittlebury. It is the home of the British Grand Prix, which it first hosted as the 1948 British Grand Prix. The 1950 British Grand ...

, in conjunction with the FIA World Endurance Championship, from 18–19 April and ended at

Autódromo do Estoril The Circuito do Estoril or Autódromo do Estoril (Estoril Circuit), officially known as Autódromo Fernanda Pires da Silva, is a motorsport race track on the Portuguese Riviera, outside of Lisbon, owned by state-run holding management company ...

on 19 October. In the lead LMP2 class, five different teams won the five races that were held during the 2014 season. However, it was

Signatech Signatech, currently competing as the Alpine Endurance Team, is a French auto racing team and racing car constructor that competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Signatech has been a long-term partner for Alpine since 2013, and has been ...

Alpine and their triumvirate of Paul-Loup Chatin,

Nelson Panciatici Nelson Hugo Douchan Panciatici (born 26 September 1988) is a French professional racing driver. Career Karting Born in Reims, Panciatici started his karting career in 1998 and continued until 2004.Oliver Webb that won the respective titles; they won the race at the

Red Bull Ring The Red Bull Ring is a motorsport race track in Spielberg, Austria, Spielberg, Styria, Austria. The race circuit was founded as Österreichring (translation: Austrian Circuit) and hosted the Austrian Grand Prix for 18 consecutive years, from t ...

, and ultimately won the championship by four points from the

Jota Sport Jota Sport is a British sports car racing team. Founded as Team Jota by Sam Hignett and John Stack, Jota Sport is part of the Jota Group which is owned by Sam Hignett and David Clark. The team is based in Tunbridge Wells in England. Jota Sport h ...

trio Filipe Albuquerque,

Simon Dolan Simon James Dolan (born 20 May 1969) is a British businessman and investor who made his fortune through accountancy services. Since 2020, he has opposed measures by the United Kingdom government linked to the COVID-19 pandemic and has made l ...

and Harry Tincknell, who won at

Imola Imola (; or ) is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Bologna, located on the river Santerno, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. The city is traditionally considered the western entrance to the historical region Romagna ...

. Third place in the championship went to Le Castellet winners Gary Hirsch and

Christian Klien Christian Klien (born 7 February 1983) is an Austrian racing driver who competed in Formula One between and . Born and raised in Hohenems, Klien competed in Formula One for Jaguar, Red Bull and HRT, scoring 14 championship points across 51 ...

for Newblood by Morand Racing. Other race winners included

Pierre Ragues Pierre René Gilbert Ragues (born 10 January 1984 in Caen) is a French racing driver, who competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Career Karting Debuting in karting in 1994, Ragues was second in the Monaco Kart Cup in Formula A in 20 ...

– who was part of the Hirsch-Klien Le Castellet entry – having joined the team mid-season,

Sébastien Loeb Racing Sébastien Loeb Racing is a French racing team, founded by rally and racing driver Sébastien Loeb. It currently competes in the World Rallycross Championship, World Touring Car Cup, Porsche Carrera Cup France, and 208 Rally Cup. The team us ...

duo Vincent Capillaire and Jimmy Eriksson were winners at Estoril, while the opening race at Silverstone was won by Thiriet by TDS Racing, with their drivers Ludovic Badey,

Tristan Gommendy Tristan Emmanuel Benoît Gommendy (born 4 January 1979) is a French professional racing driver who last competed in the European Le Mans Series with Duqueine Team. Racing career Early career Born in Le Chesnay, Yvelines, Gommendy began his prof ...

and Pierre Thiriet. In the GTE class,

SMP Racing SMP Racing is a Russian racing team and driver academy mostly known for competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship, FIA Formula 2 Championship and FIA Formula 3 Championship with the goal of training and unveiling new talents from Russia. ...

and their drivers

Andrea Bertolini Andrea Bertolini (born 1 December 1973, in Sassuolo) is an Italian professional racing driver currently driving for AF Corse in the FIA World Endurance Championship. He is the official test driver of the Maserati factory. Bertolini began racing a ...

Viktor Shaytar Viktor Viktorovich Shaytar ( rus, Ви́ктор Ви́кторович Шайта́р, p=ˈvʲiktər ˈvʲiktərəvʲɪtɕ ʂəjˈtar; born 13 February 1983) is a Russian racing driver. He is a current member of the SMP Racing driver programme. ...

and

Sergey Zlobin Sergey Yuryevich Zlobin ( rus, Серге́й Ю́рьевич Зло́бин, p=sɪrˈɡʲej ˈjʉrʲjɪvʲɪdʑ ˈzlobʲɪn; born 29 May 1970) is a Russian racing driver, who competed twice in the Le Mans 24h Endurance Race alongside being a ...

took their respective titles with a final round victory at Estoril while the pre-race championship leaders AF Corse, with drivers Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin struggled in the race; having led by 21 points going into the race, Cameron and Griffin eventually lost the title by 3.5 points to Bertolini, Shaitar and Zlobin. The teams shared all five wins during the season; SMP Racing won two races, while AF Corse won three, with Cameron and Griffin being joined by

Michele Rugolo Michele Rugolo (born 31 August 1982 in Montebelluna) is an Italian racing driver. Career Formula Renault After competing in karting championships from 1992 to 1999, Rugolo competed in the Formula Renault 2000 Italy from 2000 to 2002, and then sw ...

for the victories; however, as Rugolo missed the Imola event, he finished six points behind them in the championship. SMP Racing also took the honours in the GTC class, as

Olivier Beretta Olivier Henri Aldo Léopold Beretta (born 23 November 1969) is a professional racing driver from Monaco who raced in Formula One in 1994 for the Larrousse team, partnering Érik Comas. He participated in 10 Grands Prix, debuting on 27 March 199 ...

, Devi Markozov and Anton Ladygin finished all five races on the podium – with a victory at Le Castellet – to take class honours by 15.5 points ahead of Formula Racing duo Johnny Laursen and

Mikkel Mac Mikkel Mac Jensen (born 18 December 1992 in Nykøbing Falster) is a Danish racing driver. Career Like many other racing drivers Mac began his racing career in karting. He remained in karting until 2008. In 2009 he began his formula racing caree ...

, who won with

Andrea Piccini Andrea Piccini (born 12 December 1978 in Sansepolcro) is an Italian racing driver who is the part-owner and team principal of the Iron Lynx Motorsport Lab ELMS and Italian F4 team. Single Seaters Piccini began his single seater career in 19 ...

at Imola. Third in the class championship went to another SMP Racing entry, with drivers Kirill Ladygin,

Aleksey Basov Aleksey Mikhailovich Basov ( rus, Алексе́й Миха́йлович Ба́сов, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsʲej mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ ˈbasəf; born 22 April 1977) is a former Russian racing driver. He is a current member of the SMP Racing driver progra ...

and Luca Persiani, who won the race at the Red Bull Ring. Other race victories went to Team Ukraine at Silverstone with drivers Andrii Kruglyk, Sergey Chukanov and Alessandro Pier Guidi, and BMW Sport Trophy Marc VDS at Estoril, with their trio of

Bas Leinders Bas Leinders (born 16 July 1975) is a retired professional racing driver from Belgium. He was a Formula One test and reserve driver in for the Minardi F1 team, taking part in the Friday practice sessions during Grand Prix weekends, making 17 a ...

, Markus Palttala and Henry Hassid.

Regulations

The top class continued to be

LMP2 A Le Mans Prototype (LMP) is a type of sports prototype race car used in various races and championships, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, FIA World Endurance Championship, IMSA SportsCar Championship, European Le Mans Series, and Asian Le M ...

, where a car of 2–3 drivers had to include at least one silver or bronze-ranking driver.

GTE GTE Corporation, formerly General Telephone & Electronics Corporation (1955–1982), was the largest independent telephone company in the United States during the days of the Bell System. The company operated from 1926, with roots tracing furth ...

and GTC cars had to include one bronze and silver driver or two bronze drivers. Finally, LMPC was not a part of the 2014 season. Unlike in 2013, tyre warming was allowed in the 2014 season.

Calendar

The provisional calendar was announced during the final round of the 2013 European Le Mans Series at

Circuit Paul Ricard The Circuit Paul Ricard () is a French motorsport race track built in 1969 at Le Castellet, Var, near Marseille, with finance from pastis magnate Paul Ricard. Ricard wanted to experience the challenge of building a racetrack. The circuit has ...

. However, to avoid date clashes with the FIA World Endurance Championship, a revised schedule was released, with rounds 2 and 5 being moved back one week. The first round was held alongside the first round of the 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship at

. Additionally, all races lasted an hour longer than in 2013, from three hours to four.

Entry list

The entry list was announced on February 13. It featured 42 cars, comprising 13 LMP2, 13 GTE and 16 GTC: * LMP2 featured four Orecas (Boutsen Ginion, Sébastien Loeb, Race Performance and Murphy), three Zyteks (Greaves, Jota and Caterham), three Morgans (Pegasus, Morand and Larbre), two Alpines (Signatech) and a Ligier (Thiriet by TDS). * GTE featured 8 Ferraris (AF Corse, AT Racing, JMW and Kessel), four Porsches (IMSA, Gulf and Crubilé) and an Aston Martin (Gulf). * GTC featured 11 Ferraris (AF Corse, SMP, SOFREV-ASP, Formula and Ukraine), two McLarens (ART), a Porsche (Pro GT by Almeras) and a BMW (Barwell).

LMP2

LM GTE

GTC

Season results

Championship Standings

;Points System

Drivers' Championships

LMP2

LM GTE

GTC

Teams Championships

LMP2

LM GTE

GTC

Notes

References

External links

* {{European championships in 2014

European Le Mans Series The European Le Mans Series (abbreviated as ELMS) is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the fo ...

Le Mans Series The European Le Mans Series (abbreviated as ELMS) is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the ...

European Le Mans Series seasons