In 2022 Italian team Prema Racing became the second team to secure the European Le Mans Series LMP2 title in their debut season, the first being Team WRT in 2021.
Prema Racing are no strangers to winning top flight international series including the FIA Formula 2 and FIA Formula 3 Championships. However, before this season, their championship titles had all been in single seaters, 2022 was to be Prema Racings first season in endurance racing.
The team announced a single car ELMS entry with reigning ELMS LMP2 Champion Louis Deletraz, 2021 FIA WEC LMP2 and 24 Hours of Le Mans LMP2 Champion Ferdinand Habsburg and American single seater racer Juan Manuel Correa.Unfortunately, Correa was unable to make the start of the season due to a stress fracture of his left foot and was replaced by the team’s FIA WEC driver Lorenzo Colombo for the first four races.
LE CASTELLET
The season got off to a great start for Prema Racing at Le Castellet. Starting from third on the grid the no9 Oreca-Gibson made good progress as the race was interrupted early on by three Safety Car periods, and also by two Full Course Yellows, which meant that several teams altered their race strategies.This kept everyone guessing who was going to be out in front at the end of the four-hour race.
However, the 4 Hours of Le Castellet was won the no9 Prema Racing Oreca, with Louis Deletraz crossing the line 10 seconds ahead of the no19 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca of Sophia Floersch and Bent Viscaal, with the no65 Panis Racing Oreca of Job Van Uitert, Julien Canal and Nico Jamin in third.
IMOLA
The 4 Hours of Imola saw a second win in a row for Prema Racing. The no9 Oreca started again from third on the grid.The win for the no9 Oreca didn’t come easily after two early penalties for a jump start and then crossing the pit exit line pushed Lorenzo Columbo down the order. However, a quick pitstop under Full Course Yellow put the Italian team back at the front.
Another penalty for Ferdinand Habsburg dropped the car back down the order again and a top five finish was on the cards before another fortuitous Full Course Yellow with 25 minutes to go put Louis Deletraz back to the front of the field following a quick pitstop, with the Swiss driver taking the chequered flag 4.6 seconds ahead of the no22 United Autosports Oreca of Tom Gamble.
MONZA
The 4 Hours of Monza was the only race that Prema Racing didn’t finish on the podium in the 2022 season.Starting from 6th on the grid the no9 Oreca-Gibson finished 3rd at the end of the four-hour race behind IDEC Sport and Panis Racing.However, a 10 second post race penalty for the no9 Oreca (Stewards Decision no24 – slowing down excessively on pit entry) saw Prema Racing demoted to fifth in the final classification.
BARCELONA
The team returned to winning ways in Spain. After starting 7th on the grid, Ferdinand Habsburg moved up the field to take the lead after 38 minutes of racing, a lead the team held until the chequered flag.Panis Racing finished second, 22.9 seconds behind the Italian team at the end of the race, with the Cool Racing taking the final podium position.
SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS
The 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps saw Lorenzo Colombo replaced by Juan Manuel Correa, the American now fit to return to the cockpit alongside Ferdinand Habsburg and Louis Deletraz.The team qualified 8th, their worst qualifying performance of the season, but Habsburg made up four places on the opening couple of laps to put the team at the sharp end of the field once again.
Deletraz was fighting with Pietro Fittipaldi in the Inter Europol Competition Oreca for second place in a brilliant display of race craft, with the Brazilian driver holding onto second place 1.1 seconds ahead of Deletraz, with the no22 United Autosports Oreca crossing the line for the win 23.5 seconds ahead of the battling pair.
PORTIMAO
Heading into the final race of the season with a 24-point advantage Prema Racing knew they had to either take pole position for the first time or finish 9th or higher in the race to clinch the title.In qualifying the no9 Prema Racing Oreca was holding the top spot as the chequered flag was waved and the Italian team started to celebrate only for Jack Aitken to cross the line in the no34 Racing Team Turkey Oreca 0.072s faster.
The final race of the season was anything but dull, with changeable track conditions thanks to rain showers in the Algarve and the championship contenders going flat out to the chequered flag.
Several Full Course Yellow periods had all the teams changing tactics at a moments notice and Prema Racing were able to make the best of the changeable conditions to get the no9 Oreca into the lead. Louis Deletraz was able to bring the car home at the head of the field to take the 2022 ELMS LMP2 title in style.
Prema Racing secured the ELMS title on their first attempt, Louis Deletraz took his second ELMS title in a row and Ferdinand Habsburg added the ELMS crown to the WEC title he won in 2021 with a total of 125 points, 31 points ahead of the no65 Panis Racing trio of Job Van Uitert, Nico Jamin and Julien Canal.Lorenzo Colombo finished third in the driver standings on 85 points, while Juan Manuel Correa finished 7th on 40 points.
CLICK HERE for the 2022 ELMS Points Standings
