21 United LMP2
This weekend at Circuit Paul Ricard, the #21 LMP2 Pro/Am crew just missed out on another Le Castellet podium, executing a near-perfect strategy in the ultra-competitive European Le Mans Series field before a last minute splash for fuel settled the team P5 in class – while the #22 LMP2 and #23 LMGT3 crews crossed the line P9 and P11 respectively.
The 4 Hours of Le Castellet started with a pre-downpour gamble, with the grid divided between slick and wet tyres. Shortly after the green flag, the rain started in earnest – and so did the drama.
In the #21 LMP2 Pro/Am ORECA 07, Brazilian driver Daniel Schneider started in P5, having secured his fifth consecutive top five qualifying result on Saturday afternoon. Schneider had a stellar start on wet tyres, overtaking the majority of the Pro field and soaring to P3 in class and P4 overall in the 44-strong field - before the first Safety Car was deployed, eradicating the gap Daniel had built from the start. An emergency fuel stop under the Safety Car saw the #21 lose track position but, with the Pass-Around, damage was minimised.
Schneider handed the car over to two-time Le Mans winner Oliver Jarvis, running P3 in class. British driver Jarvis held the gap to the leading LMP2s, and then closed in fast as the track started to dry, setting Marino Sato up for a battle to the end. With 45 minutes left on the clock, Sato powered to P2 in class and the top three overall. The team pitted for slicks at the perfect time and a podium looked certain. Cruelly, however, the #21 had to pit for a splash of fuel with three laps to go – dropping the podium-deserving crew to P5 in class and P7 overall at the checkered flag.
In the #22 ORECA 07, starting driver Manuel Maldonado battled the tricky weather conditions on slick tyres in the middle of a chaotic field. Contact and two penalties dropped the #22 one lap down, which – despite valiant efforts – Gregoire Saucy and Ben Hanley weren’t able to recover, ultimately finishing P9.
In the #23 McLaren GT3 EVO, Bronze driver Michael Birch – who made his European Le Mans Series debut just last month in Barcelona – took the start, with the conditions appearing to clear. Birch gained four positions before the Safety Car … and then the heavy rain set in. The Brit had an impressive run in the McLaren GT3 EVO on slick tyres in wet weather conditions – a new and challenging combination for Birch, who successfully kept the car out of trouble throughout his near two-hour long stint.
Taking over, Australian GT multi-race-winner Garnet Patterson attempted to undercut the leader to gain back the lap which had been lost under Safety Car, by staying on Birch’s used tyres – however, new wets on the lead car made the task unattainable. Patterson handed the McLaren to Wayne Boyd for the final stretch, with four fresh tyres in the bank. With all efforts exhausted, however, Boyd brought the #23 McLaren GT3 EVO home P11.
The next round of the 2025 ELMS is the 4 Hours of Imola on Sunday 6th July – but first, the FIA World Endurance Championship team are in Belgium for the TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps on Saturday 10th May. Stay up to date with the team on social @unitedautosports.
ELMS Paul Ricard Drivers
#21 LMP2 Pro/Am
QUALI P5 | RACE P5 | CHAMP P7
Daniel Schneider: “From start to finish, our intensity, our focus, was exactly where it needed to be. We executed the game plan, we fought for every inch, and we left it all out there. But sometimes in motorsports the result doesn’t go your way. The victory was right there… and somehow it slipped through our fingers. That stings — and it should. But we will come back even stronger. If we keep pushing each other like we did today, then it’s only a matter of time before we’re on the top spot.”
Oliver Jarvis: “Overall it was very positive weekend for us in the #21 car - Daniel did a really strong job in qualifying, putting us P5 on the grid. The team and Hugo, our engineer, executed the race really well, starting Daniel on the wet tyres. Daniel drove flawlessly to get the car up to P4 overall at one point. We got a little bit unlucky with the safety car and the timing of that – we lost a lot of the advantage that we had built up in Daniel’s stint. From there we survived during the wet, and we brought ourselves back into contention, in a very strong position, late on in the race. Unfortunately, a small error on the fuel side robbed us of a definite podium in Pro/Am, but also a potential podium overall - and even the opportunity to fight for the win in the Pro/Am. So, we left the track very disappointed. We have to focus on the positives, that was. our performance and the way we executed the race in terms of strategy.”
Marino Sato: “I think we were doing a strong race, Daniel drove brilliantly in very, very difficult conditions. He brought back the car without any damage, kept the nose clean – but not only that, at one point he was running fourth overall, so it was a very strong performance from him. I’m sure that was a very difficult stint for Olly, but he too kept his nose intact and in the end he was closing the gap to his leaders, so they really put me in the position that I could really go for it, for not only the class win but the overall win. I felt great in the car and the car felt very strong – unfortunately with a little error, we knew we couldn’t make it to the end of the race. From a pretty early stage of my stint I was doing a lot of energy save, just to try to get to the end, and with that it cost us a lot of pace – I lost a lot of time compared to the leaders, and that’s really the time that I lost the challenge to fight for the win. Overall, I thought it was a really positive weekend, much stronger than we were in Barcelona, I’m hoping another chance will come soon! Credit goes to the team, they did brilliant, the car was great, and both of my co-drivers drove very well. Looking forward to the next race, for our next chance.”
ELMS Paul Ricard Drivers 2
#22 LMP2
QUALI P12 | RACE P9 | CHAMP P9
Manuel Maldonado: “I took the start in tricky mixed conditions, starting on slicks - and unfortunately had a messy start that dropped us to the back of the field. From there, our race was compromised, and we couldn’t recover the ground we lost. Gutted for the whole team, everyone put in so much work and deserved more.”
Gregoire Saucy: “It was a difficult weekend I would say. Difficult qualifying, difficult race with tricky conditions. The penalties didn’t allow us to maximise the strategy, everything was a bit, I would say not in our favour. I think we need to work on what happened and see for the next one.”
Ben Hanley: “After the first hour and a half, at the start, we got tagged into a spin and acquired a couple of penalties - which put us full lap down at that point. The safety car stopped us getting back on the lead lap and the field is so tight, it's very hard to get back from that once you’ve dropped back. Unfortunately, things just didn’t go our way this weekend. We’ll look at what happened and hopefully come back stronger for Imola.”
ELMS Paul Ricard Drivers 3
#23 LMGT3
QUALI P13 | RACE P11 | CHAMP P13
Michael Birch: “Thanks once again to the team this weekend, they did a great job. The car felt really good in the first part of the race in the wet and I feel I’m continuing to make progress in my first season in ELMS. Imola can’t come soon enough!”
Garnet Patterson: “Tricky conditions this weekend. Michael did a fantastic job starting the race in the rain and on slicks, which he hasn’t done before. I started my stint on wets, we double stinted those, so ended up not having the same grip as the cars around me – just tried to hang on really. When we switched to slicks, the car was ok, it wasn’t bad, but I was in the middle of the pack, and couldn’t really do much. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a VSC, which would’ve helped us out – today was a bit weird, they normally put the VSC out before they put the Safety Car out, but race control didn’t, so that would have helped. We crack on to Imola, one of my favourite tracks!”
Wayne Boyd: “Tough race for us, but lots learnt and positives to take for the rest of the season. Michael had a superb stint, especially having never driven a GT3 car in the wet. We had a fast car all weekend, but we had a few things go against us in the race - so we’ll be even stronger for Imola. Thanks to Michael, Garnett and the whole team as always for all their hard work.”
MANAGEMENT
Max Gregory, Managing Director: “The 4 Hours of Le Castellet started with a critical tyre decision on the grid – wets or slicks. Daniel Schneider and the #21 crew opted for wets and that was a great call, they were running in podium contention overall for most of the race but an issue on our side meant that we missed out on a good result today. Daniel, Marino and Olly all did a stunning job so I am sorry that we couldn’t convert that into the result they deserved.
The #22’s weekend was on the back-foot fairly early on with a compromised FP2 and Qualifying session and that continued into the race. It was a messy race for them, losing quite a lot of time early on and unfortunately with the competition as strong as it is, it is almost impossible to recover from.
In the GT, Michael Birch did a superb job, navigating wet conditions in only his second race in the #23 McLaren GT3 EVO and his first time driving the car in the wet….on slicks! We didn’t have the pace in the car to ultimately challenge but now we have a couple of months to analyse, fine tune and come back fighting at the 4 Hours of Imola.”