The ACO and FIA have confirmed a new FIA World Endurance Championship class structure for the 2024 season.
As expected, the LMP2 class will be removed from the championship in 2024, due to an increase in the size of the Hypercar class (with additional entries from Alpine, BMW, Lamborghini and Isotta Fraschini expected) and the previously announced introduction of LMGT3, which will replace GTE Am.
“We have to make choices as a consequence of success,” said ACO President Pierre Fillon at the annual Friday ACO conference at Le Mans. “LMP2 will remain the premier category in the European Le Mans Series and the Asian Le Mans Series.”
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While LMP2 cars will not be eligible for the full WEC season, there will be 15 spaces reserved on the Le Mans 24 Hours entry list for teams running in LMP2 in the European Le Mans Series, Asian Le Mans Series and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
This news marks the end of all categories from the inaugural FIA WEC season in 2012, which featured LMP1, LMP2, GTE Pro and GTE Am machinery. It also means that for the first time, the WEC will feature just two full-season categories (Hypercar and LMGT3).
Richard Mille, president of the FIA Endurance Commission, confirmed the intentions for LMGT3 to be a class for Pro-Am teams. “GT is the heart of Le Mans,” he said. “We will emphasize gentlemen drivers, who are key in the WEC. The GT3 platform is the FIA’s most successful customer racing category. It’s a good platform to build on in the FIA WEC.”
Mille also confirmed that entry will not be exclusively limited to customers of brands who already compete in the WEC’s Hypercar category.
“Hypercar is increasingly important. What we wanted was to focus on the Hypercar automakers so they could intervene in the GT3 category, but we are open to makes which are not in Hypercar. Diversity is a criteria.”
WEC CEO Frédéric Lequien elaborated further on the eligibility requirements for LMGT3 entries into the 24 Hours of Le Mans after the press conference, telling RACER: “We will do the invitations, which is automatically linked to the results. And then, the other invitations — it’s the job of the Selection Committee.
“We want to let it be open, and to have the choice to have the diversity on the grid. We strongly believe that one of the strengths of the championship is to have diversity and different car manufacturers. The question is the number of places available on the grid. If we have enough places, I would say that we’ll be happy to welcome all the GT3 manufacturers — and at the moment they all want to come. So it would have been a negative signal to say that it’s only limited to the Hypercar manufacturers.”
Lequien confirmed that manufacturers can choose two different teams to represent them in the LMGT3 field, with each manufacturer limited to just two cars. Entries will be open from October to December this year.