LM P1

This category is no longer divided into two classes as was the case in 2014 with LM P1-L and LM P1-H. There is now just a single class: LM P1 (Le Mans Prototype 1).

After the introduction of the new technical regulations in 2014 very few modifications have been made to the LM P1s.

As already agreed, the entrants will start the season with the same equivalences between technologies as at the end of 2014. After the Le Mans 24 Hours and until the end of the 2015 World Endurance Championship these equivalences may be adjusted. There is an improvement in terms of safety affecting the LM P1s and LM P2s: the addition of red rain lights at the rear of the cars, fixed for LM P1s and flickering for the LM P2s.

This year 14 LM P1s have been chosen by the Selection Committee: there haven’t been as many cars in this category since 2011.

Nissan’s comeback

The new technical regulations governing the Le Mans Prototypes 1 have excited enormous interest among the major car manufacturers. After Audi and Toyota, Porsche made its comeback in 2014 in the blue riband category and this year the three makes will be joined by Nissan.

Last year the Automobile Club de l’Ouest allowed the Japanese manufacturer to enter its ZEOD RC in the context of the 56th garage. The condition being that Nissan would enter LM P1 in 2015.

The Nissan GT-R LM NISMO will cause a sensation on the grid with its futuristic, aggressive look, the result of a very different technical approach to the ones chosen by the other entrants in the category. This car has front-wheel drive and a front mid-mounted engine, which explains the very different aerodynamics with wider tyres at the front than at the rear and a completely different weight distribution.

According to Nissan, this car will be the most powerful one in the championship. When the twin-turbo V-6 petrol engine and the hybrid system deliver their full power together they are said to push out some 1250 bhp (550 for the engine and 750 for the ERS system).

Driverwise Nissan had now confirmed Marc Gené, Olivier Pla, Tsugio Matsuda and Harry Tincknell.

Nissan made its debut in the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1986. The manufacturer’s prototypes took part in the race up till 1999 scoring its best result in 1998, third place by the no. 32 Nissan R391 in the hands of Hoshino, Suzuki and Kageyama.

The Renault-Nissan alliance, the fourth-largest car manufacturer in the world, has arrived to swell the ranks of the blue riband category in the Le Mans 24 Hours in which it will take on the biggest names in the motor car industry, Audi, Toyota and Porsche, for victory in the overall classification.

What’s even more exciting is that the car’s design is radically different, and it again underlines the validity of the new LM P1 technical regulations as each of the manufacturers entered has chosen a different technological approach which, in the end, has resulted in similar performance levels guaranteeing extremely close top-class racing.

Audi will defend its title against Porsche and Toyota

In 2014, Audi racked up its 13th outright victory in the Le Mans 24 Hours and it will enter three 2015 Audi R18 e-tron quattros to defend its title. Tom Kristensen has decided to hang up his helmet. He will be replaced by Oliver Jarvis who will team up with Loïc Duval and Lucas Di Grassi, while young German coming man René Rast will complete the driver line-up in the third car with Felipe Albuquerque and Marco Bonanomi. And of course, the 2014 winners Marcel Fässler, Benoît Tréluyer and André Lotterer will again share the same car.

Porsche, victorious in the final round of the 2014 FIA World Endurance Championhip in Sao Paulo, is working flat out on the 2015 version of its 919 Hybrid, three of which have been entered for the Le Mans 24 Hours. No. 17 will driven by Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley, no 18 by Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb. Nico Hülkenberg is the only confirmed driver in no. 19 so far.

Toyota has entered two TS 040 Hybrids for driver line-ups Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Alexander Wurz, Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway. They will have the numbers 1 and 2 as the Japanese manufacturer won the world title in 2014.

Three privately-entered cars

Two private teams running non-hybrid cars have also been entered in the LM P1 category: Rebellion Racing with its two Rebellion R-One AERs (nominated drivers, Nicolas Prost and Mathias Beche), and ByKolles Racing. This is the same team that ran under the Lotus banner in 2014. It has entered the same car as last season baptised CLM P1/01, which has been heavily revised. Simon Trummer is the only driver nominated for this car.

56th garage

This year the Automobile Club de l’Ouest has not awarded an automatic invitation for a place on the grid to a team proposing an innovative technological project in the context of the 56th garage, as it did not receive any entries corresponding to the aims and principles established by the ACO. However, entries for 2016 are now open.