With the 2025 FIA WEC and IMSA WeatherTech Championship seasons now fast approaching, a few key pieces to the entry list jigsaw puzzles for both championships remain. And perhaps the biggest question marks surround the Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63 program, where it will race and in what capacity.
Rumors were circulating during the WEC’s visit to Japan last month over the potential for Lamborghini to reverse its original plan to scale up to two Hypercars for 2025 and depart the championship at the end of the current season. Often in these circumstances, one could assume that there’s no smoke without fire; however, background enquiries from RACER to key sources have revealed that, at the time of writing, no firm decisions regarding the 2025 program have yet been made. The clock is ticking, though, and the higher-ups in Lamborghini’s motorsport department are fully aware they must do the sums and make up their minds soon.
So why is Lamborghini on the fence about returning to the FIA WEC’s Hypercar class in 2025 for the SC63’s sophomore season? The issue, principally, is that the car requires significant development to become the race winner that the brand wants it to be. While it has shown flashes of form — most notably at Le Mans where both cars finished after a steady run — attention to the dampers, drivability and weight of the car is required to take the next step.
In many ways, this all stems from the disastrous car-destroying accident at Paul Ricard early in the SC63’s test program, which led to Lamborghini scrambling to ready itself for the homologation deadline. This resulted in it having to make some conservative choices, the knock-on effect being a lengthy prevailing job list of development tasks.
Unfortunately, that list and the time pressures associated with it, coincide with the introduction of the WEC’s “two-car rule,” which requires a factory team to enter two cars in Hypercar from next season. The combined fiscal impact of the second entry, plus the desired development program, is understood to take the factory beyond its currently agreed budget.
Add into the mix that the LMGT3 program in WEC with the Huracan LMGT3 EVO2 is not going to plan, with just a single podium finish (for the No. 60 car at Spa) on the 2024 scoreboard through seven races and you have a significant problem. Thus, there have been rumblings that service provider/program partner Iron Lynx may be looking at other options in LMGT3, should things with Lamborghini move in a direction they are unhappy with.
So what are the available options? In Hypercar, Lamborghini could opt to enter a pair of SC63s for the 2025 season, building on its maiden single-car campaign this year. The regulations do not permit it either to field a single factory car, nor a privately entered Lamborghini, if two factory-nominated cars are not entered. Effectively it is two, or none.
For IMSA, the possibilities in GTP are somewhat more flexible. A single car for the full season, a single car for the Endurance Cup, both, or two in either the full season or Endurance Cup are on the table. At present a single car is listed for the Endurance Cup — but that could change.
In LMGT3, Iron Lynx looks set to continue with Lamborghini but the all-female crewed Iron Dames effort may switch to Porsche, mirroring its European Le Mans Series program, but with Manthey operating the car rather than Proton.
This shift would see the Dames replace LMGT3 championship winner Pure Rxcing as it switches to LMP2 in the Asian LMS and ELMS together with TF Sport. In that case, the Dames would likely find themselves racing alongside another new signing for Manthey: Ryan Hardwick, one of Proton’s current Bronze drivers for its Ford Mustang LMGT3 project.
Crucially, there seems to be no risk of the FIA WEC organizers counting out an LMGT3 effort as a standalone, in the wake of a pause in the Hypercar program. They look set to play the long game.
Lamborghini’s new GT3 car — based around the just launched Temerario road car — is due in 2026 and track testing is believed to be getting underway any time now. There may also be potential for the SC63 to return to the FIA WEC down the line if it walks away over the winter. Lamborghini Squadra Corse may, for instance, opt to take a sabbatical with the WEC program and push in the background to free up the subsequent development budget required to improve the car.
Making a final call on the above is now very urgent, not least because among the options to replace the SC63s in the WEC entry are a pair of Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evos. And those cars need time to be put through the LMGT3 homologation process, which AMG will not undertake without a guarantee of entries.