A full-season entry list for the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship has been revealed. It features a total of 36 cars, with an even split of 18 cars each in Hypercar and LMGT3. ENTRY LIST Although the cap for entries was boosted to 40 cars for …
A full-season entry list for the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship has been revealed. It features a total of 36 cars, with an even split of 18 cars each in Hypercar and LMGT3.
Although the cap for entries was boosted to 40 cars for 2025, up from 37 in 2024, Lamborghini and Isotta Fraschini’s withdrawal from the championship and JOTA’s move to Cadillac have seen the field remain static at 36 cars. In Hypercar, eight major manufacturers have signed up for the campaign, all with two factory cars apiece as per the new “two-car” rule which is being introduced for 2025.
The headline addition comes in the form of Aston Martin THOR Team’s pair of LMH-spec Valkyrie AMR-LMHs, which will bring screaming notes from the car’s normally aspirated non-hybrid V12 engine to the grid. The car will make its global debut in February at Qatar.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1416]
The entry list also confirms the departure of the Lamborghini Iron Lynx SC63 program, which bows out after a single year with a single full-season car in 2024.
With no funding package and alternative service provider secured in time, the Italian marque is stepping away from the FIA WEC entirely, even in LMGT3 where the Iron Dames program is heading to Porsche and Iron Lynx is bringing Mercedes-AMG into the championship for the first time.
Elsewhere, Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA’s V-Series.Rs are now formally entered into the WEC following the split between GM and Chip Ganassi Racing at the end of the 2024 racing seasons in IMSA and WEC. The two Cadillacs will race with numbers No. 12 and No. 38, moving over from JOTA’s Porsche effort. The entry lists Alex Lynn in the No. 12 and Earl Bamber in the No. 38.
JOTA’s move and the plans for a second Porsche 963 from Proton Competition not coming off leaves just two “private” cars entered in the championship’s top class for 2025: Proton’s No. 99 Porsche and AF Corse’s No. 83 Ferrari 499P.
The remaining entries in the class are taken by Toyota GAZOO Racing, Porsche Penske Motorsport, Ferrari AF Corse, Peugeot TotalEnergies, BMW Team WRT and Alpine Endurance Team.
LMGT3, meanwhile, sees a stable 18-car field assemble again, with eight of the nine 2024 manufacturers returning for the category’s second year.
Mercedes-AMG replaces Lamborghini via the switch for Iron Lynx which came together at the 11th hour. Porsche, BMW, Ferrari, Lexus, Corvette, Aston Martin, McLaren and Ford are all back for more, though there have been some team changes.
Pure Rxcing will not return to defend its crown and the EMA moniker is gone from the second car. instead, Iron Dames will race with Porsche alongside a 911 LMGT3.R 992 for Manthey 1st Phorm and Ryan Hardwick.
Another change is found at Aston Martin, with D’Station stepping away and ELMS and Le Mans Cup regular Racing Spirit of Léman taking its place. The Swiss team’s Vantage LMGT3 has Derek Deboer named against it and will run alongside Heart of Racing’s single car.
The other manufacturers have found stability, with WRT (BMW), Vista AF Corse (Ferrari), AKKODIS ASP (Lexus), TF Sport (Corvette), United Autosports (McLaren) and Proton Competition (Ford) all signed up for another campaign.
The 2025 FIA WEC season will get underway with the second running of the Qatar 1812km, on Feb. 28.
The FIA World Endurance Championship 2025 entry list is expected soon and, as we approach crunch time, the Hypercar field appears to be pretty stable beyond the potential addition of a second Proton Competition Porsche 963 and Lamborghini’s …
The FIA World Endurance Championship 2025 entry list is expected soon and, as we approach crunch time, the Hypercar field appears to be pretty stable beyond the potential addition of a second Proton Competition Porsche 963 and Lamborghini’s anticipated exit. In the LMGT3 ranks, though, the picture is still blurry.
By the looks of it, the class is going to sport a significantly different look in its second year, with a number of driver changes expected up and down the field — including the expected return of America’s Ben Keating — and new teams looking set to join the fun.
What’s behind the high turnover? Principally it’s because of the substantial rise in the cost to go racing in the class over the past 12 months.
The shift to air freight (following the delays in Qatar) has driven the logistical costs for teams rise by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Additional marketing fees for the use of onboard cameras are now in place for the teams, too, and the costs associated with installing new 2025 number/information panels to cars represent another new line on the spreadsheet. And that’s without considering the general increase in travel and catering expenses. It’s all adding up. Key sources have revealed that the cost of going racing in LMGT3 in 2025 is likely to exceed the $5 million mark per car for many teams.
Thus, many drivers from the 2024 season are weighing up their options and in some cases have become hesitant to confirm programs. One look at the entry list from the recent series rookie test tells the story, as many key Bronze and Silver drivers were keen to test with multiple teams and factories before signing on the dotted line. It’s serious business and it won’t come as a surprise that those capable of throwing significant seven-figure sums at a program are going to great lengths to ensure they’ll be competitive.
So, what do we know about the 2025 LMGT3 field?
At Porsche, it looks set to be all-change after a dominant 2024 campaign for Pure Rxcing and EMA as neither Bronze driver looks set to return to race with Manthey in 2025.
Pure Rxcing is off to compete in the Asian Le Mans Series and (it hopes) the ELMS with a new LMP2 program for Alex Malykhin and its partner, TF Sport. Yasser Shahin, who also raced with Manthey this year, says he’s looking at multiple opportunities elsewhere, including LMP2. He took part in the Rookie Test with both United Autosports and Iron Lynx, though it’s not clear if either team will be his final destination.
This leaves two spaces free. One will be taken by Iron Dames, which will switch from Lamborghini, matching its 2024 ELMS effort with the 911 LMGT3.R 992. Changes to the driver crew are coming, too, in the wake of Sarah Bovy’s move to a Silver driver grade. Celia Martin has been confirmed to take her place, with the other teammates yet to be named.
The other Porsche looks set to see Ryan Hardwick take up the Bronze seat, after cutting his teeth in LMGT3 with Proton Competition and the Ford Mustang. In preparation it seems, he is set to race in the Asian Le Mans Series with Manthey over the winter.
Iron Dames moving to Porsche leaves a hole at Lamborghini. But that’s only one part of the story there, as the Iron Lynx crew is also on the move, announcing today that it will compete with Mercedes-AMG in 2025 for the German marque’s first-ever WEC season and its first appearance at Le Mans since 1999.
Rapidly increasing budget requirements are forcing even the likes of United Autosports McLaren to re-assess their WEC programs. JEP/Motorsport Images
Should Lamborghini fail to secure a new customer, that would leave the Italian brand out of the championship entirely as it continues to develop its new-for-2026 Tamerario, which will replace the GT3 Huracan.
BMW, meanwhile, will be back with WRT and the M4 LMGT3 Evo but the driver crews do not appear to be set just yet. Much depends on whether or not Valentino Rossi will return for a second season, after his campaign together with Ahmad Al Harthy and Maxime Martin. Following his first Hypercar run in an M Hybrid V8 at the Rookie Test, Rossi said that he is set to make a final call on his 2025 plans after the GT World Challenge Europe finale in Jeddah.
British racer Darren Leung, the team’s other 2024 Bronze, is also considering his options. He tested a Lamborghini with Iron Lynx at the ELMS post-season test in October and after the WEC finale in Bahrain, tried his hand at driving the McLaren GT3 Evo with United Autosports. One thing that’s clear is that Leung is keen to return, and eager to build on his impressive debut campaign on the world stage, which included a class win at Imola.
As for Ferrari, its 296 LMGT3s look set to be bannered as Vista AF Corse in 2025, though change is possible in the driver ranks. Core clients, Simon Mann and Thomas Flohr look set to stay, but there’s no word yet on who will fill the remaining seats after the team’s strong finish to the 2024 season.
Ford, too, looks set to be represented by the same team with its LMGT3 product in 2025. The Mustang LMGT3 effort went through its share of growing pains early in the season, but the moves made to address its vulnerabilities, the podium finish at Le Mans, and the recently announced addition of HRT to Ford’s customer stable are all reasons to be cheerful.
The situation remains unclear at Proton Competition, though, where a continuation of the No. 88’s revolving door is not part of the plan. Proton was linked with a move to another GT3 manufacturer for WEC, but it is keeping the faith as HRT steps aboard with Ford elsewhere. At the very least that lifts some of the pressure off Christian Ried’s team, which to this point has acted as Ford’s sole representative in Europe.
It’s a similar situation at Lexus. After a difficult season for the aging RC F LMGT3 in 2024, seats for 2025 are a tough sell with the replacement model not due to debut until 2026. However, AKKODIS ASP found gains here and there in the second half of the campaign and has full support from the factory going forward. The link between TGR Europe and AKKODIS ASP is strong, with the Japanese brand entrusting the team to play a role in the test program for the new car.
Ultimately, both ASP and Lexus are looking multiple seasons ahead, with Jerome Policand (ASP’s founder) telling RACER, “It’s guaranteed to be a two-year plan so we will be ready for the new car. We will do our best until then.”
The team ran a variety of drivers in the Rookie Test, but its race line-up remains to be determined. Corvette and TF Sport have also been busy testing potential drivers for the team’s second year as a Corvette customer.
TF’s previous WEC manufacturer, Aston Martin, on the other hand, is likely to welcome a new team to the WEC. Heart of Racing will be back with a single-car entry alongside its two-car Valkyrie Hypercar program, but the other Vantage looks set to be entered by ELMS and Le Mans Cup customer Racing Spirit of Léman. The team is likely to receive assistance from Prodrive for this new venture, as D’Station steps back after four years in the championship. The Swiss outfit is expected to field two of its 2024 ELMS drivers, Valentin Hasse Clot and Derek DeBoer, for what will be their first seasons in WEC.
While there has been no formal confirmation from either United Autosports or McLaren, the indication is that both organizations are preparing for a return to the world championship for a second year.
“The intention was always that we were going to be here for years two and three, but there’s more work to do to put a project of this size together, to meet the ever-increasing budget requirements,” United Autosports boss Richard Dean told RACER.
A number of strides forward were taken during the 2024 season as United’s Bronze drivers grew in confidence with the car. But it is not yet clear who – if any — of this year’s sextet will return in 2025. In addition, an increase in both hands-on and financial support from McLaren may be required for the LMGT3 Evo to become a true contender in the WEC.
So, what can we expect from LMGT3 next year? When all is said and done, we will likely be left with an 18-car grid once again, with eight returning marques and one new one: Mercedes-AMG. From a distance, it’ll look similar to 2024 but up close, it’s set to be a significantly different class indeed.
The FIA World Endurance Championship teams rolled out onto Circuit of The Americas for the first time in four and a half years with opening practice for Sunday’s Lone Star Le Mans. Matt Campbell ended up with the fastest lap of the session with the …
The FIA World Endurance Championship teams rolled out onto Circuit of The Americas for the first time in four and a half years with opening practice for Sunday’s Lone Star Le Mans. Matt Campbell ended up with the fastest lap of the session with the No. 5 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963.
Conditions were sunny and very warm for the first 90-minute session of the weekend, which was interrupted by a red flag for a stalled car, and then a full course yellow to retrieve the stranded No. 60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 of Claudio Schiavoni down at Turn 19. Race control added five more minutes of track time to the session near the end.
Antonio Fuoco was the first driver to crack into the 1m54s in his factory red No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari with a 1m54.118s, but he would soon be surpassed by the privateer No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari of Robert Kubica. The Pole set a 1m54.034s, his time also coming within the first 30 minutes.
But it wouldn’t finish as a Ferrari 1-2, as Oliver Rasmussen turned in a 1m54.051s in the No. 38 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche 963 — just 0.017s back of Kubica’s time.
Then, with less than two minutes left, Campbell set the fastest time at 1m53.574s, putting the factory Porsche on top. Rasmussen was third fastest in what was encouraging start to the weekend for the No. 38 JOTA crew, which is celebrating 50 years of Mobil 1 with a commemorative livery this weekend.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1416]
The two factory Ferrari AF Corse 499Ps finished fourth and fifth — the No. 50 of Fuoco ahead of the No. 51 of Antonio Giovinazzi.
Alex Lynn was sixth fastest in the No. 2 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, just edging out Hypercar championship co-leader Kevin Estré in the No. 6 Penske Porsche that slotted in seventh, with Rene Rast eighth in the No. 20 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8. The No. 15 WRT BMW, and No. 7 Toyota completed the top 10 in Hypercar.
In LMGT3, the No. 55 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 driven by Alessio Rovera was the fastest in this session with a 2m06.253s. The No. 88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang of Dennis Olsen landed in second position, 0.2s behind the class-leading car (2m06.475s). The sister car, the No. 77 Ford Mustang driven by Ben Barker, was third fastest (2m06.723s).
Further down in the LMGTE ranks, the No. 60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracán LMGT3 EVO2 had a difficult session as Claudio Schiavoni stopped on track at Turn 19 for an extended period because of technical issues.
It was a quiet session for the championship leading car, too. The No. 92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R driven by Aliaksandr Malykhin, Joel Sturm and Klaus Bachler was the slowest car in the session with a 2m08.421s set by Bachler after completing 34 laps.
Free Practice 2 starts this afternoon at 5:10pm local time.
This weekend is a significant one for TF Sport, representing Corvette on home soil at Lone Star Le Mans in the WEC’s first race at Circuit of The Americas since 2020. Up front in the LMGT3 class, it’s a three-way battle for the lead of the …
This weekend is a significant one for TF Sport, representing Corvette on home soil at Lone Star Le Mans in the WEC’s first race at Circuit of The Americas since 2020.
Up front in the LMGT3 class, it’s a three-way battle for the lead of the championship, with Manthey’s pair of Porsche sitting 1-2 in the standings and the No. 92 from Pure Rxcing holding a commanding 25-point lead after another win in São Paulo.
But the expectation is that this weekend’s six-hour race in the Texas sunshine will not be a walk in the park for either of the two 911s, or the title-contending No. 31 WRT BMW M4 LMGT3. There’s a lack of circuit knowledge to content with, success ballast to factor in and tweaks to the Balance of Performance, which should see the field tighten. The COTA circuit has also been resurfaced over the summer, making the weekend’s action a challenge for everyone.
While the title battle is in full focus with the season beginning to come to a close, there are plenty of additional storylines to follow in the category. With each passing race meeting it’s becoming more hotly contested as the teams new to the WEC and those racing with new cars grow into the season. There’s a not-so-orderly queue of teams now desperate to score a first win before the end of the season.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1416]
One of these is TF, which has endured a challenging run through the first five races. The transition from Aston Martin to Chevrolet and the task of competing with a brand-new GT3 car was never going to be a walk in the park, but Tom Ferrier’s crew have stuck at it, balancing the team’s flagship WEC GT3 program with its European Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series commitments.
“Everyone comes here happy and energized after a bit of a summer break,” Ferrier told RACER. “It’s been really hard this year. We do the same programs every year it feels like, but this time Asian Le Mans rolled straight into the additional WEC race at Qatar and the Prologue, which meant four weeks back to back, and in ELMS there was a doubleheader last year, so it’s been the same program but with more races. We’ve also done a lot more testing this year to get our heads around the Corvette.”
So far this year TF has a best finish of seventh at Imola with the No. 81 car of Tom van Rompuy, Charlie Eastwood and Rui Andrade. But Ferrier doesn’t feel that reflects the team’s progress. Regardless, priority one for this season was simply learning the ins and outs of the new car and building its relationship with GM and Pratt Miller.
“We’re taking steps forward,” Ferrier said. “We haven’t shown that in actual results, but in Brazil, for instance, we should have been P4 had we not had a drive-through, and that would have been a good result for us. We just need a big result on the board, and we hope here is where things change. Too often we’ve had flawless runs in practice and qualifying, then had issues in the race.
“You always have high hopes, and when we started off with pole in Qatar we thought, ‘Wow!’But we said going in, getting a podium in year one would make us happy and we wanted to be fighting for that at the end of the year. We never thought we’d come straight in and have it easy.
“The whole torque sensor addition for the class (for BoP purposes), for instance, has been tricky and created a lot of work. We felt like we were playing catch-up early on because some factories in the class had a bit of a head start with it (through parallel Hypercar programs which have been utilizing the devices since the category’s debut).
“The virtual energy aspect has really changed the in-race strategy too, because the stints are shorter, we are doing more stops and in WEC tire allocation is limited, so you have to be careful and experiment. But we are in a good place now.”
The results haven’t yet fully shown it but TF Sport is confident its pair of Corvettes are making progress with the LMGT3 learning curve. Motorsport Images
Behind the scenes, work has been ongoing throughout the season to improve the Z06 LMGT3.R, whether that be via updates to improve the car’s software and reliability, or via shared experiences with other Corvette customer teams.
Corvette Racing has been tactical at this early stage, providing a restricted number of customer cars for a set of teams who all compete in separate championships. By not pitting customers against each other, it enables them to have an open relationship.
“We’ve been doing group Zoom calls with Pratt Miller, AWA and DXDT between races, where we share information and discuss any issues we have,” Ferrier said. “That’s been so helpful at this stage.
“It makes for a really nice product. Pratt Miller and GM do so much in the background and that’s made it very positive in year one because we have had reliability issues and blind spots. But we’ve been working through it, every weekend the car receives updates and that’s been massive.”
This is just the beginning of what TF Sport hopes will be a long-term, successful partnership with GM. Plans for an expansion of its effort with Corvette are afoot following the delivery of a third chassis in June ahead of Le Mans. This third car will not only act as a test chassis going forward, it will likely be used for race programs outside of the WEC.
For starters, Ferrier hopes to use it in the Asian Le Mans Series over the winter, so he can compete for an automatic invitation to the Le Mans 24 Hours via success in the GT3 class that would guarantee a third Corvette on the grid for the biggest race of the year. Taking it to the ELMS for the first time in 2025 is also a possibility.
“It would mean more learning on the Goodyear tires and the torque sensors if we take the car to ELMS, which would boost our WEC program,” Ferrier explained.
Could appearances in IMSA to bolster GM’s presence at the big Floridian endurance races be on the cards?
“I’d like to, but probably not next year as we are focused on getting the WEC program right first,” he said. “Never say never though!”
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s pair of GR010 HYBRIDs finished Free Practice 2 at Interlagos circuit 1-2 at the top of the times this afternoon. Sebastien Buemi set the best lap in the team’s No. 8 car early in the session, which was extended to two hours and …
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s pair of GR010 HYBRIDs finished Free Practice 2 at Interlagos circuit 1-2 at the top of the times this afternoon.
Sebastien Buemi set the best lap in the team’s No. 8 car early in the session, which was extended to two hours and 15 minutes to make up for the time lost to barrier repairs in Free Practice 1.
It was extremely tight at the top in Hypercar. A late improvement from Kamui Kobayashi put the No. 7 second in the times with a 1m25.760s, while Alessandro Pier Guidi went third with a 1m25.770s — the top three drivers therefore setting times within a tenth.
The top five was completed by the sister factory Ferrari (with Antonio Fuoco setting the No. 50’s best time) and the No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R.
Cadillac driver Alex Lynn feels encouraged by the team’s performance.
“I’d say it was a successful day. We loaded off the truck good and showed good pace,” he said. “We have some homework to do tonight to improve, but all in all, I’m pleased with how quickly we’ve adapted to the circuit and the variable weather conditions.”
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1416]
Unlike FP1, Free Practice 2 was held in fully dry conditions. This will have come as a relief to the teams, who are still getting up to speed with the tricky, technical Brazilian circuit.
Further down the order, it was a better session for Hertz Team JOTA, its two Porsche 963s finishing up sixth and seventh. The No. 38 had a far more productive run in the second session. After a technical issue reduced its lap count to seven in FP1, the car completed 76 tours this afternoon.
On this occasion, the No. 36 Alpine completed the fewest laps in Hypercar, the A424 spending much of the session in the garage and completing just 41 laps with a best time of 1m27.295s to go 17th.
In LMGT3 AKKODIS ASP’s #87 Lexus RC F LMGT3 set the best time, with Jose Maria Lopez the only driver in the field to set a sub-1m36s lap.
His 1m35.725s will serve as a morale boost for the team, which is down to a single car for the remainder of the weekend after it was forced to withdraw the sister car from the meeting following its Free Practice 1 shunt.
Lopez’s time was 0.3s up on the rest of the field. The Iron Lynx Lamborghini slotted in second after a flying lap from Franck Perera, while the No. 55 AF Corse Ferrari took third with a 1m36.201s.
Free Practice 3 is up next. It will get underway tomorrow morning at 10:30 local time.
A month on from the thrilling 92nd edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours, the FIA World Endurance Championship teams find themselves at Interlagos for the championships’ first venture to Brazil in a decade. Looking back at footage and images of the 2014 …
A month on from the thrilling 92nd edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours, the FIA World Endurance Championship teams find themselves at Interlagos for the championships’ first venture to Brazil in a decade.
Looking back at footage and images of the 2014 edition of the 6 Hours of São Paulo presents a stark contrast. That weekend featured nine-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen’s swansong with Audi, the first win for Porsche with the 919 and Toyota’s first title with the TS040.
But this weekend isn’t about the past, it’s about the future, and the title battles in Hypercar are red hot with four races to go.
In the top category, it’s Porsche vs Ferrari vs Toyota in the Hypercar manufacturers’ championship race. Porsche leads Ferrari by just nine points, with Toyota just three points further adrift.
The drivers’ standings are tight too. Porsche’s No. 6 trio of Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor hold a slim nine-point lead this weekend. A fourth-place finish at Le Mans ensured they held station at the top of the table, but the result didn’t match their ambition after such a promising run for the 963 through the opening races of the season.
“This is a really challenging track, and is going to make for a challenging weekend for us,” Lotterer said. “It’s very abrasive, so managing tires during a stint will be tricky. But we must work through it and score points. You come here to do the best you can and hopefully, you have a package that can win.”
The No. 6 trio’s closest challengers come from the Ferrari camp, with the Le Mans winners in the No. 50 — Nicklas Nielsen, Miguel Molina and Antonio Fuoco — second in the standings after scoring 50 points at La Sarthe.
Ferrari hopes that despite the BoP-enforced 17 kg weight increase to its 499Ps for this weekend, it will benefit from a momentum boost generated by the Le Mans win, and gains from its new evo “Joker” (brake cooling and aero) upgrades that are being debuted this weekend.
While Nielsen feels the changes to the car will make the most difference at Fuji (a circuit which is tough on brakes), he is confident that it will have a positive impact at every circuit on the calendar.
“Now the focus is on the championship — we are still excited about Le Mans but we are now just nine points behind and we will try to make things closer this weekend,” he told RACER.
“This weekend is our first true test for the update with other cars on track. Testing alone and then running with other cars is always different, but I am confident it will work well. Our car has worked well at every track this year, and I believe we will be strong again here.”
Toyota and Hertz Team JOTA also have cars in this fight and are looking to reduce the gap in the points ahead of Lone Star Le Mans at Circuit of The Americas on Sept. 1.
Having got the band together, Toyota’s No. 7 team are hopeful of putting together a title run. JEP/Motorsport Images
The No. 7 Toyota, which won at Imola and finished second at Le Mans, is now 17 points back in the standings and all eyes are on its driver crew. The band of Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck de Vries and Mike Conway is back together after a biking incident forced Conway to withdraw from Le Mans on short notice.
The British veteran’s absence in France — where he was replaced by Jose Maria Lopez — means he is now out of the title race as his teammates scored points and he didn’t, but that will not affect his commitment to the cause. He’s a fighter, and according to the project leader at Toyota Motorsport GmbH John Litjens, is ready to go.
“Mike would not be here (if he wasn’t fit enough),” he told the media. “If something happened anyway, we would have the option to run with two drivers,” noting that you can race with two Hypercar drivers in a six-hour WEC race.
“His healing process went on and on — he had regular checks and he was in the simulator last week to get him back in the rhythm again. The doctors here from the WEC did additional checks here too and he passed them, so we don’t expect any issues.”
If Toyota can rediscover the consistency that won the No. 8 the title in 2023, then the No. 7 could emerge as the championship-winning car for the first time since 2021.
What about JOTA’s No. 12 Porsche, which became a surprise contender after its shock win at Spa? Le Mans didn’t produce another head-turning result, but it did showcase the grit and determination that the British team possesses. The full rebuild of the car ahead of the race following Callum Ilott’s shunt in night practice was nothing short of remarkable and will form a part of the event’s folklore for decades to come. Here in Brazil the No. 12 crew return with the same chassis used for the race at Le Mans, which all being well, will be used for the remainder of the season.
Perseverance against all odds earned Hertz Team JOTA’s No. 12 a much bigger place in Le Mans lore than its eighth-place finish. JEP/Motorsport Images
Eighth place at Le Mans saw the full-season duo of Will Stevens and Ilott drop to fourth and 39 points off the lead. Winning the title from here by no means is not impossible, but it is improbable.
“To go through Le Mans with no mechanical issues and finish the race, from where we were, was unbelievable and a real achievement,” Stevens told RACER. “But, going into race week we hoped for more than P8.
“What’s important though in this championship is maximizing what you can get and I honestly think the pace we had in the race reflects where we finished. We know Le Mans can make for a huge swing in the championship fight if you have a good or bad result and we could have come away with no points.
“We are still P4 and we are going one weekend at a time. We are not looking at the championship, we are just looking to get the best out of each event. If we want to be fighting in the top three we need to be attacking and gaining points on those in front of us, so the mentality is to take things race-by-race.”
JOTA is fighting on two fronts, though. While not as important or prestigious, the FIA WEC World Cup for privateer Hypercar teams is still there for the taking. The No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari’s retirement while fighting for the win at Le Mans did serious damage to its hopes for that title and has seen it drop to third behind the No. 99 Proton Porsche. JOTA’s No. 12 crew now leads by a huge 57-point margin.
With all the teams working from a blank sheet of paper at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace — and some forecasts predicting rain at various intervals over the next two days — this weekend’s race could prove to be pivotal. Grab yourself a bucket of popcorn because we have a proper multi-car, multi-brand title fight to look forward to; it’s game on in South America.
AKKODIS ASP Team driver Arnold Robin has been discharged from hospital after undergoing precautionary checks following a crash in Free Practice 1 for the FIA World Endurance Championship round at Interlagos. The Frenchman was taken to the medical …
AKKODIS ASP Team driver Arnold Robin has been discharged from hospital after undergoing precautionary checks following a crash in Free Practice 1 for the FIA World Endurance Championship round at Interlagos.
The Frenchman was taken to the medical center and then sent to a local hospital for checks after the heavy hit. A WEC spokesperson said he is now en route back to the circuit.
On a less positive note for the team, the No. 78 RC F LMGT3 was damaged beyond immediate repair on-site in the incident, which shortened the opening session due to lengthy barrier repairs. The car has therefore been withdrawn, meaning AKKODIS ASP’s effort is down to a single car — the No. 87 RC F LMGT3 — for the remainder of the weekend.
Free Practice 2 has been extended as a result of the red flag stoppage in FP1, and will run until 4:45pm local time.
Peugeot TotalEnergies’ No. 93 9X8 topped the opening practice session of the FIA World Endurance Championship weekend at Interlagos, with Nico Müller setting a 1m26.341s on a drying track after light rain ahead of the session. The Swiss driver’s …
Peugeot TotalEnergies’ No. 93 9X8 topped the opening practice session of the FIA World Endurance Championship weekend at Interlagos, with Nico Müller setting a 1m26.341s on a drying track after light rain ahead of the session.
The Swiss driver’s time came with 44 minutes remaining as multiple improvements were being made across the board by drivers, who started the session on wets and moved to slicks as conditions improved.
However, the flurry of fast times was interrupted by a red flag moments after Müller posted his time for an incident at Turn 4. The No. 78 AKKODIS ASP Lexus RC F LMGT3 ended up in the guardrails with Arnold Robin at the wheel, prompting lengthy barrier repairs which brought the session to a premature end.
Race control announced that the session would not resume with 19 minutes on the clock, and confirmed that FP2 will be extended to make up for lost time, held between 2:30 and 4:45pm local time.
As for Robin’s condition, a WEC spokesperson has confirmed to RACER that he was “extricated from the car and is being evaluated at the medical center for precautionary checks.” The extent of the damage to the car is not yet clear.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1416]
The No. 2 Cadillac wound up second, with a 1m26.520s from Earl Bamber. There were six brands represented in the top six, as the No. 6 championship-leading Porsche ended up third, with the No. 8 Toyota fourth and the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari and No. 20 BMW fifth and sixth. All of them lapped within six-tenths of the leading Peugeot.
Most teams managed to complete more than 20 laps in the session, which represented the first opportunity for the field to gather data on the Interlagos circuit with their current cars. The only car that didn’t hit double figures was the No. 38 JOTA Porsche, which was late to the session.
In LMGT3, United Autosports’ No. 59 McLaren GT3 Evo set the best time, with local driver Nicolas Costa setting a 1m35.881s.
The Heart of Racing Aston Martin finished up second with a 1m35. 884s, while the No. 777 D’Station Vantage completed the top three with a 1m36.104s.
Free Practice 2 is set to get underway at 2:30pm local time.
A provisional 37-car entry list has been announced for the FIA World Endurance Championship’s return to the Interlagos circuit in São Paulo next month. After 62 cars took part in the Le Mans 24 Hours, the entry list for the next round is back to its …
A provisional 37-car entry list has been announced for the FIA World Endurance Championship’s return to the Interlagos circuit in São Paulo next month.
After 62 cars took part in the Le Mans 24 Hours, the entry list for the next round is back to its usual size, with no guest Hypercars or LMGT3s and no LMP2 cars set to compete alongside the full-season WEC runners. There are, however, several driver lineup tweaks to report for the race on the Interlagos Circuit.
In Hypercar, Proton Competition — like Cadillac Racing — will compete with two drivers in its No. 99 963 once again. Neel Jani and Julien Andlauer will share the car as a pair, as they did at Spa, due to Harry Tincknell’s clashing IMSA commitments. Tincknell is unable to join them in Brazil as he is set to compete with Ford in the IMSA GTD PRO class at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
As expected, following IndyCar star Alex Palou’s guest appearance in the third seat at Le Mans, Cadillac’s V-Series.R will again revert to a two-driver line-up with Alex Lynn and Earl Bamber.
And finally, Mike Conway is set to return to the Toyota team and the No. 7 crew after missing Le Mans due to injury,
Meanwhile, in LMGT3, AKKODIS ASP’s Lexus RC F LMGT3s have had their driver crews shuffled once again. The No. 78 sees full-season Bronze Arnold Robin share the car with returning Clemens Schmid and Kelvin van der Linde.
Schmid is back for a second appearance in the seat usually filled by Timur Boguslavskiy, who has parted ways with the team and will take no further part in the season. According to AKKODIS, Boguslavskiy is set to focus on “new challenges” elsewhere going forward.
Previously, Schmid joined the team on short notice at Spa to fill in for Boguslavskiy, who fell ill just before the event.
The No. 87 sister car will see Jose Maria Lopez return to the lineup after the Argentinian was called up to Toyota’s Hypercar effort to stand in for Conway last time out. He will race with regulars Takeshi Kimura and Esteban Masson, who shared the car with Jack Hawksworth at Le Mans.
And at D’Station Racing, Clément Mateu is back in the No. 777 Aston Martin Vantage after Satoshi Hoshino took the start at Le Mans for what he announced would be his final race at La Sarthe.
The FIA WEC 6 Hours of São Paulo — the series’ first race in Brazil since 2014 — is set for July 14.
The two factory Ferrari 499Ps set the pace in the first practice session of the FIA WEC weekend in Spa-Francorchamps, with the No. 50 ending up over a second clear of the rest of the field following a flying lap from Antonio Fuoco. There should be a …
The two factory Ferrari 499Ps set the pace in the first practice session of the FIA WEC weekend in Spa-Francorchamps, with the No. 50 ending up over a second clear of the rest of the field following a flying lap from Antonio Fuoco.
There should be a lot more to come from the Hypercars in pace terms though. Fuoco’s time, a 2m05.690s, is way off off last year’s pole time of 2m00.812s from Toyota. It was, however, 1.1s faster than Antonio Giovanazzi in the No. 51 sister car and 1.3s up on the Lamborghini Iron Lynx SC63, which set a highly encouraging 2m06.998s to go third overall and quickest of the LMDh cars in the field.
The top five were completed by Alpine’s No. 36 and the No. 83 AF Corse 499P, which was the fastest car entered in the Hypercar World Cup for privately funded entries.
Proton’s No. 99 963 was the fastest Porsche in sixth ahead of the championship-leading #6 factory Porsche from Penske that slotted in seventh.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1416]
Of the 19 Hypercars, at this early stage of the weekend, the top 11 came within two seconds of the No. 50’s time in the Ferrari and every car the Isotta Fraschini Tipo6-C lapped within three seconds. The entire field completely plenty of laps, all but three crossing the timing beam 30 or more times.
In LMGT3, TF Sport topped the times with its No. 82 Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R after Daniel Juncadella reeled off a 2m20.885s. The field looks well balanced at this stage, with six of the nine manufacturers setting times in the top six.
The No. 54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari ended the 90-minute session second with a 2m21.220s from Davide Rigon, while the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin rounded out the top three.
It was a more quiet start to the week for the championship-leading Pure Rxcing Porsche, which would complete 34 laps but end up seventh in the times, almost three seconds off the leading Corvette.
Free Practice 2 is set to get underway at 5:30pm local time.
