ELMS – Jimmy Eriksson at Estoril with Sébastien Loeb Racing

If Sébastien Loeb Racing is no longer able to play for the title ELMS for the final contested this weekend in Estoril (Portugal) after finishing in sixth place at the 4 Hours of Paul-Ricard (Var), the Alsatian team intends to take advantage of this last event on the calendar to allow a young driver to make his debut in Endurance. As Like Miguel Faisca, Jimmy Eriksson will drive an LMP2 for the first time this weekend, racing alongside Vincent Capillaire.

“The presence of Jimmy Eriksson fits perfectly into the team’s dynamic of racing young drivers with great potential,” commented Franck Tiné, the sporting director of Sébastien Loeb Racing. “We want to bring new blood and see new talents in the discipline. This is what we did with Arthur Pic and Andrea Roda at Le Castellet, but also with René Rast at 24 Hours of Le Mans. They are open-minded drivers, who have understood the importance of driving different types of cars. This is the case of Jimmy who, due to his results in car, has already proven its qualities. He is one of those young pilots capable of going very high. We are counting on him for this final in Estoril. He will have to adapt quickly, but we have no doubt that he will succeed, and the goal is clearly to realize the potential displayed at Castellet. With Vincent Capillaire, the duo formed is interesting. »

Jimmy Eriksson has an interesting background even if he is inexperienced in Endurance. The 23-year-old Swede notably won the title of the F3 German in 2012 before entering the GP3 Series with Status GP and Koiranen GP. The Scandinavian occupies fourth place in the Drivers' ranking before the final contested in Yas Marina (Abu Dhabi) on November 22 and 23. ?When the opportunity to ride with Sébastien Loeb Racing presented itself, I quickly became very interested?, confirmed Jimmy Eriksson who finished just off the podium last weekend in Sochi (Russia). “I am entered in GP3 and my goal is to go to F1, but I don't want to close any doors. Endurance is an interesting avenue for the future. Racing in ELMS with a quality and professional team will therefore be an enriching experience, just like driving an LMP2. These cars perform well and I think it will be fun to be behind the wheel. My goal is to learn as much as possible alongside my teammate and with the engineers, to do the best job possible and, hopefully, we will be able to achieve a good result. I'm going to do my first laps with the car, but I have the advantage of having driven a lot at Estoril in testing, a circuit with fast curves and technical sections. So I could concentrate on discovering the Oreca 03R. »

The provisional entry list for the 4 Hours of Estoril can be consulted here.