Largest top class field for 12 years promises close fight for centenary Le Mans

A race 100 years in the making, this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans has been one of the most anticipated editions of the legendary ‘Grand Prix d’Endurance’ in some time.

Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) President Pierre Fillon expects a crowd of over 300,000 spectators on hand with tickets having sold out in December. And it’s not just be because it’s the 100th anniversary of the inaugural race.

Out of the standard 62-car entry list, the 16 cars entered in this year’s Le Mans Hypercar class comprise the largest top-class grid for this event since 2011 – with world-renowned automakers like Cadillac, Ferrari, Peugeot, Porsche and Toyota all entering multiple iterations of their new prototype sports cars, several with a decent chance at victory.

None of them will feel more pressure to deliver from a narrative standpoint than Toyota Gazoo Racing with its two GR010 Hybrids. Toyota has won Le Mans for the last five years, but detractors will readily point out that it was only the product of their biggest competitors, Audi and Porsche, vacating the top class in the wake of the Dieselgate scandal.

However the start of the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship suggests Toyota has become the new standard of excellence. The improved GR010 Hybrid won the first three races of the season at Sebring, Portimao, and Spa-Francorchamps. Only the new Ferrari 499Ps have revealed anything to suggest they could match the Toyotas for pace over a lap or a full stint.

In Sunday’s Test Day, however, the Hypercar field was closely matched. Enticingly so. By the end of the afternoon session the best times of the top seven cars from Toyota, Ferrari, Porsche, and Peugeot were within one second of one another over a three-and-a-half minute lap of the famed La Sarthe circuit.

On the surface, it seems the ACO and FIA’s latest adjustment to the Balance of Performance parameters, aimed primarily at kerbing Toyota’s stark advantage, have succeeded – despite the sanctioning bodies originally intending not to make BoP changes on a race-by-race basis during 2023.

But anyone who’s been to Le Mans a few times and seen how things develop from Test Day to Race Day knows that many of these cars still have more pace to find.

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Plus, of course, a race this long has always been about matching that speed to more important factors such as vehicular durability, strategic execution and error-free driving not only by one’s self or against the other cars in one’s class, but in sharing the road with drivers of all skill levels from two other classes, with their own races to run and trophies to contend for.

That said, it does seem like despite having an additional 36 kilograms of weight added on, the two Toyotas are right in the mix for a sixth win which would certainly silence the narratives of “empty victories”.

Still, it’s hard not to be impressed by the headline-grabbing top times of the two Ferrari 499Ps. And now that tyre warmers have been allowed once again for this race, one of the Scuderia’s biggest weaknesses is resolved for the race. Ferrari has the chance to win Le Mans outright for the first time since 1965 and it would be a famous victory given the marque’s overwhelming image and stature.

A record-extending 20th overall win for Porsche seems closer to grasp than it was before after some good showings for the Penske-entered Porsche 963s. This includes an additional entry from Penske, the number 75, to celebrate Porsche’s 75th anniversary. Porsche have the advantage of numbers, with a fourth 963 run by customers JOTA already up and running and ready for its first Le Mans outing.

Cadillac didn’t leap off the page with top times but its V-Series.Rs did log many laps. The Cadillac Racing team operated by Chip Ganassi enters two cars – the blue number two and yellow number three – and IMSA powerhouse Action Express Racing is also represented with the red number 311.

For the local audience, no manufacturer is getting as much attention as Peugeot and its radical but troubled 9X8 prototypes, which have finally made it to Le Mans. Peugeot showed flashes of real pace as expected with the ‘wingless’ design meant to take advantage of the long Mulsanne Straight. However, there were yet more reliability issues to go with it and the reality may be that finishing the 24 hours would be as great as a win, last achieved by the French marque in 2009.

There’s a hope that the race itself can live up to the hype – all the ingredients are in place for an all-time classic.

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Key developments for the 2023 Le Mans 24 Hours

Privateer hypercar constructors

Vanwall (ByKolles) and Glickenhaus have a tall task in front of them to achieve results. Glickenhaus Racing adds a second car for Le Mans in addition to its full-season entry, while Vanwall Racing has dismissed 1997 Formula 1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve in favour of IMSA top class standout Tristan Vautier.

NASCAR in Garage 56

NASCAR and championship-winning team Hendrick Motorsports has entered a Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 race car, lightened and modified with high-downforce aerodynamics – but still based upon the stock car which regularly competes in the NASCAR Cup series. It is a crowd-pleaser and in the hands of Mike Rockenfeller, Jimmie Johnson, and Jenson Button has lapped than the customer cars in the GTE Am class.

The number 24 Hendrick Motorsports Camaro is entered in the Garage 56 class, an exhibition class reserved for innovative designs. While many concepts have been developed with sustainability in mind, this is also a test bed for other unique race car designs like the 2012 DeltaWing. It will not fight for class honours and, amazingly enough, will not be scored in the final overall classification.

Leading women in LMP2 and GTE Am

Five women will try and be the first to win their class at Le Mans since 1975: The most recent GTE Am winner Lilou Wadoux, the trio of Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting, and Rahel Frey from Iron Dames, and Doriane Pin in the LMP2 Prema Racing camp.

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Return of tyre warmers

Tyre warmers, banned for the stated goal of conserving energy, have been reintroduced for Le Mans after a rash of crashes on cold tyres that peaked in the recent Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.

New Le Mans Safety Car protocol

A new Safety Car protocol will be used for the first time at Le Mans. A lap of the 13.6km La Sarthe circuit is almost twice that of F1’s longest track, so three Safety Cars are used at the race. In the past this would have its drivers queue up behind one of three cars. This, however, lead to lower-class cars losing significant amounts of time if they picked up the “wrong” safety car.

For this year, the safety car procedure allows cars in LMP2 and GTE Am to pass around and drop back into a single safety car queue each. The new procedure was trialled during test day and the entire process took roughly 30 minutes.

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2023 Le Mans 24 Hours entry list

Hypercar
Number	Team	Car	Drivers
2	Cadillac Racing	Cadillac V-Series.R	Earl Bamber	Alex Lynn	Richard Westbrook
3	Cadillac Racing	Cadillac V-Series.R	Sebastien Bourdais	Renger Van Der Zande	Scott Dixon
4	Floyd Vanwall Racing Team	Vanwall Vandervell 680	Tom Dillmann	Esteban Guerrieri	Tristan Vautier
5	Porsche Penske Motorsport	Porsche 963	Dane Cameron	Michael Christensen	Frederic Makowiecki
6	Porsche Penske Motorsport	Porsche 963	Kevin Estre	Andre Lotterer	Laurens Vanthoor
7	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota GR010	Mike Conway	Kamui Kobayashi	Jose Maria Lopez
8	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota GR010	Sebastien Buemi	Brendon Hartley	Ryo Hirakawa
38	Hertz Team JOTA	Porsche 963	Antonio Felix Da Costa	Will Stevens	Yifei Ye
50	Ferrari AF Corse	Ferrari 499P	Antonio Fuoco	Miguel Molina	Nicklas Nielsen
51	Ferrari AF Corse	Ferrari 499P	Alessandro Pier Guidi	James Calado	Antonio Giovinazzi
75	Porsche Penske Motorsport	Porsche 963	Felipe Nasr	Mathieu Jaminet	Nicholas Tandy
93	Peugeot Totalenergies	Peugeot 9X8	Paul di Resta	Mikkel Jensen	Jean-Eric Vergne
94	Peugeot Totalenergies	Peugeot 9X8	Loic Duval	Gustavo Menezes	Nico Mueller
311	Action Express Racing	Cadillac V-Series.R	Luis Felipe Derani	Alexander Sims	Jack Aitken
708	Glickenhaus Racing	Glickenhaus 007	Romain Dumas	Olivier Pla	Ryan Briscoe
709	Glickenhaus Racing	Glickenhaus 007	Franck Mailleux	Nathanael Berthon	Esteban Gutierrez
LMP2
Number	Team	Car	Drivers
9	Prema Racing	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Bent Viscaal	Juan Manuel Correa	Filip Ugran
10	Vector Sport	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Ryan Cullen	Gabriel Aubry	Matthias Kaiser
13	Tower Motorsports	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Steven Thomas	Ricky Taylor	Rene Rast
14	Nielsen Racing	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Rodrigo Sales	Mathias Beche	Ben Hanley
22	Unitedosports	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Philip Hanson	Filipe Albuquerque	Frederick Lubin
23	Unitedosports	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Joshua Pierson	Tom Blomqvist	Oliver Jarvis
28	JOTA	Oreca 07 – Gibson	David Heinemeier Hansson	Oliver Rasmussen	Pietro Fittipaldi
30	Duqueine Team	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Neel Jani	Rene Binder	Nicolas Pino
31	Team WRT	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Sean Gelael	Ferdinand Habsburg	Robin Frijns
32	Inter Europol Competition	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Mark Kvamme	Jan Magnussen	Anders Fjordbach
34	Inter Europol Competition	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Jakub Smiechowski	Albert Costa	Fabio Scherer
35	Alpine Elf Team	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Andre Negrao	Olli Caldwell	Memo Rojas
36	Alpine Elf Team	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Matthieu Vaxiviere	Charles Milesi	Julienal Canal
37	Cool Racing	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Nicolas Lapierre	Alexandre Coigny	Malthe Jakobsen
39	Graff Racing	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Roberto Lacorte	Giedo van der Garde	Patrick Pilet
41	Team WRT	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Rui Andrade	Louis Deletraz	Robert Kubica
43	DKR Engineering	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Tom Van Rompuy	Ugo de Wilde	Maxime Martin
45	Algarve Pro Racing	Oreca 07 – Gibson	George Kurtz	James Allen	Colin Braun
47	Cool Racing	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Reshad de Gerus	Vladislav Lomko	Simon Pagenaud
48	Idec Sport	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Paul Lafargue	Paul Loup Chatin	Laurents Horr
63	Prema Racing	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Doriane Pin	Daniil Kvyat	Mirko Bortolotti
65	Panis Racing	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Manuel Maldonado	Tijmen van der Helm	Job van Uitert
80	AF Corse	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Francois Perrodo	Ben Barnicoat	Norman Nato
923	Racing Team Turkey	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Salih Yoluc	Tom Gamble	Dries Vanthoor
LMGTE Am
Number	Team	Car	Drivers
16	Proton Competition	Porsche 911 RSR-19	Ryan Hardwick	Zacharie Robichon	Jan Heylen
21	AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GTE Evo	Simon Mann	Julien Piguet	Ulysse de Pauw
25	ORT by TF	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	Ahmad Al Harthy	Michael Dinan	Charlie Eastwood
33	Corvette Racing	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	Nicky Catsburg	Ben Keating	Nicolas Varrone
54	AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GTE Evo	Thomas Flohr	Francesco Castellacci	Davide Rigon
55	GMB Motorsport	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	Gustav Dahlmann Birch	Marco Sorensen	Jens Reno Moller
56	Project 1 – AO	Porsche 911 RSR-19	PJ Hyett	Gunnar Jeannette	Matteo Cairoli
57	Kessel Racing	Ferrari 488 GTE Evo	Takeshi Kimura	Scott Huffaker	Daniel Serra
60	Iron Lynx	Porsche 911 RSR-19	Claudio Schiavoni	Matteo Cressoni	Alessio Picariello
66	JMW Motorsport	Ferrari 488 GTE Evo	Thomas Neubauer	Louis Prette	Giacomo Petrobelli
72	TF Sport	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	Arnold Robin	Maxime Robin	Valentin Hasse-Clot
74	Kessel Racing	Ferrari 488 GTE Evo	Kei Cozzolino	Yorikatsu Tsujiko	Naoki Yokomizo
77	Dempsey-Proton Racing	Porsche 911 RSR-19	Christian Ried	Mikkel Pedersen	Julien Andlauer
83	Richard Mille AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GTE Evo	Luis Perez Companc	Alessio Rovera	Lilou Wadoux
85	Iron Dames	Porsche 911 RSR-19	Sarah Bovy	Michelle Gatting	Rahel Frey
86	GR Racing	Porsche 911 RSR-19	Michael Wainwright	Benjamin Barker	Riccardo Pera
88	Proton Competition	Porsche 911 RSR-19	Harry Tincknell	Donald Yount	Jonas Ried
98	Northwest AMR	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	Ian James	Daniel Mancinelli	Alex Riberas
100	Walkenhorst Motorsport	Ferrari 488 GTE Evo	Chandler Hull	Andrew Haryanto	Jeffrey Segal
777	D’Station Racing	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	Satoshi Hoshino	Casper Stevenson	Tomonobu Fujii
911	Proton Competition	Porsche 911 RSR-19	Michael Fassbender	Martin Rump	Richard Lietz
Innovative Car
Number	Team	Car	Drivers
24	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet Camaro ZL1	Jimmie Johnson	Mike Rockenfeller	Jenson Button

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World Endurance Championship

• Toyota’s Kobayashi keeps his nerve to deny Porsche Penske Imola win
• Ferrari lock out top three grid positions for home round at Imola
• How to watch the Chinese GP, IndyCar at Long Beach and WEC at Imola
• Fifth-placed Cadillac disqualified 26 days after WEC’s season-opening race
• Vettel completes Porsche Hypercar test at Aragon

Browse all World Endurance Championship articles