Credit: © Copyright: Moy / XPB Images
The arrival of new Hypercar manufacturers headlines the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship entry list in addition to the new LMGT3 class.
Ahead of the 2024 campaign set to commence in Qatar on 2 March, the FIA and the Automobile Club l’Ouest (ACO) who run the WEC, has confirmed the list of teams and competitors taking on the new season.
It was already announced that LMP2 will only be represented at the sell-out 24 Hours of Le Mans, which is the fourth round on the eight-race calendar.
With more Hypercars able to join, the new LMGT3 category brings 18 entries as two cars represent each manufacturer, and ‘Hyperpole’ qualifying will excite at each race.
Frederic Lequien, CEO of the FIA World Endurance Championship, commented: “The sheer number of entries across both Hypercar and LMGT3 underlines the continued growth of FIA WEC and I’d like to take this moment to thank all our manufacturers and teams for putting their trust in us.
“To have an entry list featuring 19 Hypercars plus 18 LMGT3 entries representing 14 different manufacturers truly reflects the golden era of endurance racing that we are experiencing right now.
“The battles on track next season are going to be extraordinary and what’s even more exciting is that we are expanding our calendar to eight races so that even more fans can enjoy the action.”
Pierre Fillon, President of the ACO, said: “As the year of the 24 Hours of Le Mans Centenary, 2023 was a historic season.
“But 2024 is just round the corner. Next season will stand out in the history of endurance, and probably in motorsport as a whole.
“The world’s greatest carmakers will compete in the eight races that comprise the championship, which includes circuits on the calendar for the first time.
“The stakes are high in Hypercar and in LMGT3 alike. See you in February for the Prologue on the magnificent Lusail International Circuit.”
Hypercar – 19 entries
The premier WEC category continues to grow into it’s fourth season, as a combination of newcomers and outgoing competitors will fight for the outright race victories.
Alpine has competed in the WEC since 2013, when they partnered with the Signatech outfit.
Now looking into the 2024 season, Alpine will field two A424 LMDh entries which have been extensively tested on European soil, and many of their drivers are carried over from their outgoing roster, with the addition of Ferdinand Habsburg, Paul-Loup Chatin and Mick Schumacher who will make his sportscar debut.
Having debuted their BMW M Hybrid V8 in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, BMW will take on the WEC with a WRT partnership for their pursuit of two entries. Dries Vanthoor and Sheldon van der Linde have been named as driver so far.
Cadillac will continue their Hypercar efforts with a single V Series.R, carrying a renowned naturally aspirated V8 soundtrack.
Ferrari AF Corse ran a strong opening Hypercar campaign, which involved them winning the prestigious Centenary 24 Hours of Le Mans, and will plan to bring evolution updates to their two 499Ps.
There will be three Ferrari 499Ps on the 2024 grid – Credit: Photo Copyright 2023 FIA WEC / FocusPackMedia – Jan Patrick Wagner
Their driver line-ups are carried over from the 2023 campaign, in addition to fielding a third, privately-run Le Mans Hypercar with reigning LMP2 champion Robert Kubica, Robert Schwartzman and Yifei Ye – who drove in JOTA’s debut Hypercar season.
Speaking of which, they continue as one of two privateer Porsche teams with drivers David-Heinemeier Hansson and Oliver Rasmussen stepping up from JOTA’s 2023 WEC LMP2 entrant.
Proton Competition are the other privateer team, also running a 963 as they did for their debut season.
The full works team, Porsche Penske, continue having claimed just a podium at the 6 Hours of Fuji in the 2023 season, with two 963s and Matt Campbell replacing Dane Cameron in the #5 entry.
Isotta Fraschini have been preparing for their debut WEC campaign in fielding their new Tipo 6 Competizione, however, it will not be done in partnership with Vector Sport after it emerged there was a lack of data communicated from IFM to the British outfit.
Alejandro Garcia and Jean-Karl Vernay are confirmed as IFM drivers, with one more driver soon to be announced.
Lamborghini are the fourth manufacturer debuting, featuring a single SC63 and Mirko Bortolotti confirmed so far.
Peugeot will continue their efforts with a pair of 9X8s, as they consolidated on a season which returned their first, sole podium appearance at Monza, also aiming to update their Le Mans Hypercar to increase competitiveness with Stoffel Vandoorne as a full-time driver.
Reigning champions Toyota GAZOO Racing return with the highly successful GR010 which asserted a dominant performance in the capable hands of their driver crews against their rivals.
As confirmed already, all but one of the #7’s race seats will remain the same, as Nyck de Vries will make his debut in the Hypercar class.
LMGT3 – 18 entries
By adopting the widely-used GT3 formula, a greater appeal has risen for manufacturers to participate in the WEC. Nine LMGT3 manufacturers are represented in the entry list as most of them are so in the Hypercar class; Goodyear will take on a role to supply tyres throughout the year.
AF Corse will continue their WEC presence with Ferrari, an established GT partnership which stretches back almost 18 years.
They will field two Ferrari 296 GT3s, a relatively new car which has competed in the likes of IMSA Endurance Cup races – begun at the 24 Hours of Daytona – and won at the 24 Hours of Nurburgring.
TF Sport will run two new Corvette Z06 GT3.R – Credit: Chevrolet Pressroom
United Autosports will continue their WEC competition albeit in new McLaren 720S GT3 EVO machinery, with drivers Gregoire Saucy and Marino Sato confirmed so far.
Team WRT will take on their maiden WEC season in both categories, with two BMW M4 GT3 EVOs enlisted for the challenge.
MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi has been named in the #46 entry so far, as has Augusto Farfus in the sister #31 car.
TF Sport previously won Le Mans in 2022 in Aston Martin GTE machinery, so will now take on the WEC as a customer team of Corvette Racing and their Z06 GT3.R.
Porsche will field two 911 GT3.Rs (992) in partnership with Manthey as expected.
As Lamborghini fields a single SC63 LMDh in the Hypercar class, two Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2s will run in LMGT3: One for Iron Lynx and the other as the famed pink Iron Dames team who most recently claimed their maiden victory.
Heart of Racing and D’station Racing will continue Aston Martin’s appearances in the WEC, as the British manufacturer also announced interest to run a Le Mans Hypercar in the future.
Proton Competition will field two new Ford Mustang GT3s ahead of the make’s return to the WEC since the programme in the GTE era.
Last but not least, two Lexus RC F GT3s will run for the first time in the WEC by Akkodis ASP Team, bringing on former Toyota Hypercar driver and Le Mans winner Jose Maria Lopez in addition to Kelvin van der Linde.
The full driver line-ups will be released in due course; see here for the provisional 2024 entry list.
Credit: WEC
Keyword: Hypercar newcomers headline WEC 2024 entry list