What is ELMS? A beginner’s guide to endurance racing at Silverstone
02 September 2025The European Le Mans Series is a premier European endurance racing championship inspired by the iconic 24 Hours of Le Mans.
ELMS offers a full-season spectacle of four-hour races across Europe, and many of its champions earn automatic entries to Le Mans itself.
Endurance racing is a true test of strategic adaptability, demanding resilience, teamwork and mechanical reliability.
Regulation rundown & race format
The 2025 ELMS calendar delivers six action-packed events at Barcelona (Prologue and season opener), Le Castellet, Imola, Spa-Francorchamps, Silverstone, and the season finale at Portimão.
READ MORE: 2026 ELMS calendar
Each race runs for four hours, a challenging format for both driver and machine.
The 2025 season features a record-setting 44-car entry, spread across the four classes:
- LMP2
- LMP2 Pro/Am
- LMP3
- LMGT3
Key sporting regulations:
- Crews require driver categorisation: line-ups feature a range of driver abilities from the less experienced Bronze competitors to more professional Gold or Platinum drivers
- In LMGT3, Balance of Performance (BoP) success ballast helps equalise performance across varied vehicle models
Category breakdown: classes and their roles
ELMS racing spans four distinct classes:
LMP2
The top class for prototypes in ELMS (but below WEC’s LMH), featuring purpose-built racing machines, made for speed, aerodynamic efficiency, and endurance.
LMP2 Pro/Am
LMP2 Pro/Am features the same cars as LMP2, but includes Bronze drivers in the lineup, adding plenty of strategic nuance.
LMP3
Entry-level prototypes aimed at lower budgets and emerging drivers.
READ MORE: LMP3 in 2025
LMGT3
GT3-based race cars, which are adapted road-going models. The field is diverse, so strategic success ballast helps to balance the competitive order.
Weekend structure: Practice to the podium
At Silverstone weekend, expect a bumper schedule of endurance racing action:
- Friday: Free Practice 1 and Bronze Driver Collective Test.
- Saturday: Final practice and separate qualifying sessions per class (LMP2, LMP2 Pro/Am, LMP3, LMGT3).
- Sunday: Pit Walk and Grid Walk (for ticket holders), leading into the 4-hour feature race with thrilling multi-class battles.
The Ligier European Series and Michelin Le Mans Cup are the support series which will be on track on Friday and Saturday.
Who’s performing well in 2025?
From the first four rounds, there are plenty of British drivers leading the charge across all categories.
In the headlining LMP2 class, Oliver Gray tops the table with his VDS Panis team-mates while IDEC Sport’s Jamie Chadwick and her team-mates sit third having won the opening two rounds.
Algarve Pro Racing’s line-up, featuring two Brits – Olli Caldwell and Alex Quinn – lead the standings and Inter Europol Competition’s Tim Creswick and his team-mates are second in LMP3. Duncan Cameron is the highest placed Brit in LMGT3 sitting fourth overall.
