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Originally Posted by canaglia
ESM lost tequila patron sponsorship, it's just about a lack of budget issue.
Highcroft racing lost same sponsor at the end of 2010 and their sportscars programs basically ended (they ran 2011 sebring and 2012 LM with delta wing just because backed by michelin and nissan).
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ESM has something that Highcroft did not: Ed Brown. He may not actually race for the team anymore, but he's still part of it, and he is businessman. And businessmen have contacts. Between that and numerous other factors(specifically, a more stable sportscar racing scene than Highcroft raced in) have a higher chance of finding a sufficient sponsor than Highcroft did.
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Beyond that, don't think ESM is interested to run a pro-am program in lmp2 anyway.
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I think they're interested in running whatever they can manage. Don't forget they've run at least one car pro-am for most of their existence(Ed Brown definitely qualifies as an Am driver), and with the sponsor troubles they may need a driver that brings money to keep going at all.
If they can't get a sponsor, their options(short of shutting down) are:
1) Convert their Nissan DPis to Ligier LMP2s
2) Run a GT3 car from a currently active GTD participant
3) Run a GT3 car from a not currently active GTD participant
The only thing I think can be said for sure is that Option 3 is not happening. If they can't get money to keep the DPi program going, they're not getting enough to bring a new manufacturer to GTD - the manufacturer fee is the same either way.
Option 1 is likely to be the cheapest. While an Audi R8 GT3(just for an example) would run them close to $460,000 and LMP2s are cost capped at just shy of $576,000, the team already has the tub, suspension, and floor of a Ligier JSP217 - they've only got to purchase new engines and bodywork, so figure on it only costing them 1/2-2/3 of the full price. But that depends on whether or not they actually OWN the cars or if Ligier just gave them to the team as part of the program(Ligier was involved with the aero development, after all).
I feel fairly confident we'll see ESM on the grid next year. Whether in LMP2 or GTD, or with one car or two I dare not predict.