The 2025 4 Hours of Barcelona will be the sixth edition of the race that was first run in 2019. In the five previous races one driver, Louis Deletraz, has won three times and COOL Racing the only team to win their class three times, twice in LMP3 and once in LMP2.
Only two Spanish drivers have won their home race, with Miguel Molina winning the LMGTE class in 2021 with Iron Lynx and Lorenzo Fluxa won overall with COOL Racing in 2024.
The first European Le Mans Series event held at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was won by G-Drive Racing, with Roman Rusinov, Jean-Eric Vergne and Job van Uitert taking the overall LMP2 victory on the 21stJuly 2019. The LMP3 win went to Inter Europol Competition and Luzich Racing won the LMGTE category.
The was no race in Spain in 2020 due to the countries Covid-19 travel restrictions, the next 4 Hours of Barcelona was held on 18th April 2021, and it was also the first time that the season opener had been held in Barcelona.
The 2021 race was won by Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Louis Deletraz on their ELMS debut for Team WRT. COOL Racing won the LMP3 category and Iron Lynx the LMGTE win, with Miguel Molina starting the year off with a home victory on his way to the LMGTE championship title with teammates Matteo Cressoni and Rino Mastronardi.
The 2022 race moved in the ELMS calendar to August, with Prema Racing taking the win on the Italian team’s ELMS debut. Louis Deletraz took his second overall victory in a row alongside Ferdinand Habsburg and Lorenzo Columbo. Inter Europol Competition won the LMP3 class for the second time, with Proton Competition taking the LMGTE win.
The 4 Hours of Barcelona became Round 1 in 2023, with the race held on the 23rdApril.In a dramatic encounter the overall win went the LMP2 Pro/Am entered Racing Team Turkey Oreca, with Louis Deletraz taking three overall wins in a row alongside Charlie Eastwood and Salih Yoluc. The LMP2 win went to the Duqueine Team in second place overall, with COOL Racing and Proton Competition taking their respective class wins for the second time in Spain.
The 2024 race held on the 14thApril saw COOL Racing claim their first overall race win and secure their third class victory in Spain. AF Corse secured the LMP2 Pro/Am victory, with Team Virage and Formula Racing taking the LMP3 and LMGT3 wins respectively.
So, what do the drivers think of the 4.675km Circuit of Barcelona-Catalunya?
Ferdinand Habsburg won in 2022 with Prema Racing and is racing this weekend in the no24 Nielsen Racing Oreca with Filipe Albuquerque and Cem Bolukbasi.
“Barcelona is one of those tracks that you every team goes to for testing, so you know it inside out,” Habsburg said. “The benefit of it for that is that you have all of the kinds of corners, slow and fast. There's always fast. It's always slow. No matter what car you drive, there's a challenge that's tyre demanding, and so that's always good for racing. It's tricky!
“I think one aspect that is super nice is qualifying. It's like such a flowing circuit, so you really get in the zone, and you enjoy it a lot. From that perspective, in traffic, it creates a whole scenario of challenge managing your tyres, which also, if you've got a good car, it can be super pleasurable. However, it's such a challenging track that if you're not in the right window, it feels terrible.”
“I really like the change that they did in Sector 3 to turn it back into what it originally was designed to be. I'm really happy with that change.
“However, I'd have to say Turns 1 and 2 are really awesome.You can push on the way in to gain time and lose on the way out through the S's or you can gain on the exit, and it's very technical, but it's also very flowing. You've got to get the line perfect as it's not very forgiving.”
Charlie Eastwood won overall in 2023 and will be racing in the LMGT3 category on Sunday 6thApril in the no82 TF Sport Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R. with Hiroshi Koizumi and Rui Andrade.
Eastwood said: “The circuit is one of the most iconic tracks within Europe, purely on the basis it is so technical in so many ways. If you look at even in Formula One there do 90% of their testing on this track, because the car needs to be good at high speed, low speed, mid speed.
“Tyre deg is very high, which we had the benefit of a couple of years ago, and to win the race overall, we had really good tyre deg and we just managed it the whole way through. And before you knew it, we were at the front of the field, which was great.
“So, I love the track, and I think as the opener for ELMS, it's definitely a tough one. Coming in with a brand new car, or maybe not fully understanding the tyre, or whatever else, you can get it get a bit of a shock in the race. So, for us, we're at a really good spot, because we use this tyre in FIA World Endurance Championship, which helps a lot.
“We haven't done a lot of running around here but we will have plenty of testing here during The Prologue. So,we should be in a pretty good spot come Sunday.”
