WEC: Greaves plans LMP2 return

The Greaves Motorsport LMP2 squad is moving towards a full-time return to the World Endurance Championship next year for the first time since 2013.

The British squad, which has focused on the European Le Mans Series over the past two seasons in addition to contesting the Le Mans 24 Hours WEC round, is already talking to drivers about a world championship P2 campaign, according to team owner Tim Greaves. He stressed that the WEC program would be in parallel with a continued presence in the ELMS.

"It makes good sense for us to have one car in each championship and to have a dual programme as in previous years," Greaves said. "We also have a couple of drivers talking to us pretty seriously about the WEC."

Greaves said that there was good interest from "quite a few drivers" in the ELMS, in which it has been a front-runner this year with its Gibson-Nissan 015S shared by Jon Lancaster, Bjorn Wirdheim and Gary Hirsch. The team's sponsorship from data encryption company Kairos is set to continue in the ELMS into 2016.

Greaves explained that the expansion back into the WEC full time would require the team to buy a new car because it sold one of its pair of Gibsons (nee Zyteks) to Strakka Racing during the summer. It does have another car, the chassis of 2007 vintage with which it won the ELMS LMP2 title in '11, which it retains as a spare.

Greaves said that the "only sensible choice for next year" would be an ORECA 05 coupe, because it is the only existing LMP2 car that can be upgraded to the new rules that come into force in 2017.

The Greaves team contested both the WEC and the ELMS in 2012 and started off in both championships in '13, before dropping out of the European series. The squad goes into this weekend's ELMS finale at Estoril one point behind championship-leading Jota Sport.

Originally on Autosport.com