The biggest race of the year is here - 24 Hours of Le Mans with its centenary anniversary. The first edition came in 1923 and 91 editions took place since then. The tickets were sold out within days from the start of sales and the increase in spectator numbers was visible in the paddock and on grandstands even during Wednesday's practices.
In overall classification and Hypercar class there are many new cars to challenge Toyota for victory. Their upgraded GR010 Hybrid is currently the car to beat and won all of the races so far this year. Not making mistakes and running without any mechanical or hybrid issue can get them the centenary trophy and a 6th consecutive win into their resumé.
#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing - Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, José Maria Lopez
#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing - Sebastian Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa
Built to the Hypercar regulations there are two new Ferrari 499P Hybrids, which have shown promising pace during first three rounds of the season. They won Sebring qualifying and finished on the podium in each of the three races. Reliability and race pace will be something to look for, but qualifying pace is promising.
#50 Ferrari AF Corse - Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen
#51 Ferrari AF Corse - Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi
Peugeot brings its radical design to Le Mans in form of the 9X8 Hybrid, running with an aero package focused on the floor and without a rear wing. They debuted this car in Monza last year but struggled with reliability. This year didn't start much better, but there were upgrades to the car for Spa and the car finally showed some promising pace.
#93 Peugeot TotalEnergies - Paul di Resta, Mikkel Jensen, Jean-Eric Vergne
#94 Peugeot TotalEnergies - Loic Duval, Gustavo Menezes, Nico Müller
Two other entrants have built cars to the hypercar ruleset. The first is Glickenhaus - boutique manufacturer which joined the Hypercar class from its inception in 2021. They have entered twice their trusted Glickenhaus 007 with Pipo engine. The car is proven and reliable with a 100% finishing record in Le Mans but without favourable BOP it can not compete with the big manufacturers.
#708 Glickenhaus Racing - Roman Dumas, Oliver Pla, Ryan Briscoe
#709 Glickenhaus Racing - Franck Mailleux, Nathanael Berthon, Esteban Gutierrez
Same applies for another privateer - ByKolles and its Vanwall Vandervell 680. This new car showed the privateers can fight at least among themselves, but reliability is more of a concern. DNF in two of the three previous races did not allow the team to use all available track time. In two of the three races the car experienced crashes with other cars with Jacques Villeneuve behind the wheel and he has been replaced by Tristan Vautier.
#4 Floyd Vanwall Racing Team - Tom Dillmann, Esteban Guerrieri, Tristan Vautier
The rest of the Hypercar field is filled with LMDh cars. This ruleset is based on a LMP2 chassis with custom bodywork and engine. Hybrid power is same for each manufacturer and is connected to the rear wheels. The car is able to run in electric mode only in the pit lane before starting the engine.
Porsche was the first manufacturer to commit to the Hypercar category with this ruleset. The car was named Porsche 963 Hybrid and it is run by Penske Motorsport. As their chassis supplier they chose Riley and the engine is a twin-turbocharged V8 upgrade from the succesful Porsche RS Spyder. Three works cars are entered with additional customer car from JOTA.
#5 Porsche Penske Motorsport - Dane Cameron, Michael Christensen, Frederic Makowiecki
#6 Porsche Penske Motorsport - Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer, Laurens Vanthoor
#38 Hertz Team JOTA - Antonio Felix da Costa, Will Stevens, Yifei Ye
#75 Porsche Penske Motorsport - Felipe Nasr, Mathieu Jaminet, Nick Tandy
Second manufacturer building cars to the LMDh regulations is Cadillac with their V-Series.R. Cadillac Racing doubled up for Le Mans and they are joined by third car from Action Express Racing. The constructor of the chassis is Dallara and chosen engine is naturally aspirated V8 (the only hybrid with this type of engine).
#2 Cadillac Racing - Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn, Richard Westbrook
#3 Cadillac Racing - Sebastien Bourdais, Renger van der Zande, Scott Dixon
#311 Action Express Racing - Luis Felipe Derani, Alexander Sims, Jack Aitken
LMP2 is the usual mix of cars from FIA WEC and ELMS. The entry list included United Autosports, JOTA, Team WRT, Prema Racing, Vector Sport, IDEC Sport, Alpine ELF Team and others. The domination of Oreca 07 Gibson continues as there is no other LMP2 manufacturer entered for this year.
LMGTE-AM is the sole remaining GT category in FIA WEC and 24h Le Mans. The participating cars are Ferrari 488 GTE, Porsche 911 RSR, Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 and Chevrolet Corvette C7.R.
Garage 56 class for experimental cars is entered this year as well. Hendrick Motorsports is bringing upgraded Chevrolet Camaro from NASCAR. Mike Rockenfeller, Jimmie Johnson and Jenson Button will be behind the wheel of the car over the course of the race. They are going to try to finish the race and beat the GTE-Am field.
