A total of 38 cars will line up for the European Le Mans Series‘ visit to the Red Bull Ring on July 17.
LMP3 is once again the largest class with 19 Ligier JS P3-Nissans, while LMP2 is down to 11 entries and LMGTE remains constant with eight.
The entry is marked by a few notable changes, with Murphy Prototypes and Race Performance both halving their involvement to one car each.
Murphy Prototypes will contest the LMP2 class only after postponing the debut of its new Ave-Riley LMP3.
The Irish team’s LMP2-spec ORECA-Nissan 03R also features a different driver lineup to the one that finished 10th at Imola.
24 Hours of Zolder class winner Guglielmo Belotti is set to make his ELMS debut, racing alongside Sean Doyle who joined Murphy at rounds one and two.
Swiss outfit Race Performance has opted to go the other way as it withdraws its LMP2 entry and retains its Ligier LMP3 lineup.
There will be no Judd-powered cars at the 4 Hours of the Red Bull Ring, with Race Performance, SO24! by Lombard Racing and IDEC Sport Racing all missing from the entry list.
IDEC Sport’s omission is expected, with the French team stating at the beginning of the year that it would skip Austria, instead focusing on the Paul Ricard 24H Series round. The #28 Ligier JSP2 will return for the rest of the ELMS season.
Following his successful debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Chris Hoy has made way for Andrea Pizzitola who will join Parth Ghorpade and Michael Munemann in the Algarve Pro Racing Ligier. Pizzitola raced with Hoy at Le Mans, and was announced as the Olympic champion’s replacement prior to the start of the season.
In LMP3, By Speed Factory has altered its driver lineup with Monegasque prototype/Radical driver Alain Costa joining Tom Jackson and Jesus Fuster in the #5 Ligier.
Italian squad Eurointernational has also made a couple of changes, with silver driver Andrea Roda stepping from the #11 Ligier to the #12. He fills the seat vacated by Roman Rusinov, who guested for the team at Imola.
The LMGTE entry list remains fairly constant, although there are a couple of driver alterations to note in the Proton Competition camp.
Marco Seefried, who currently races a Ferrari 488 in the Blancpain GT Series, is listed next to the #77 Porsche 911 RSR which heads to Austria third in the championship.
It’s a similar situation for the #88 car, which sees Porsche Supercup points leader Matteo Cairoli replace Christian Ried. The young Italian should be marked down as one to watch, following his third straight victory in the F1-support series at the Red Bull Ring last weekend.
