Images

Oh well…

Against all my wishes, Maranello wins again… 🤣 At least it was a privateer (whatever the brand, I’ll always side with the little guy). Nonetheless, a nice race, and contrary to last year, almost no safety car. After the hyperpole I had hopes specially for Cadillac and perhaps, Alpine and BMW. Yet, Cadillac never got close to the lead, just like BMW and Alpine. About Toyota, on the other hand, I was sure they would be up in the front, with Ferrari and Porsche, but they had a very slow race.

Nonetheless, my money was on Ferrari to win again, unless they had their F1 team to manage things in La Sarthe 😂. I didn’t think the 963 had a great chance and I was glad to see the Valkyries finishing the race. In LMP2, my favorite, the ORECA 07 #199 “Spike the Dragon”, finished in third (well, first in LMP2 Pro-Am). For GT3 I was routing for the Iron Dames’ #85, but they finished all the way in the back 😥.

A nice race overall, with not much drama on track. In terms of 1:43rd, I really want the Spike ORECA, BMW’s M Hybrid V8 #20 (beautiful!) and the Dames’ #85. Oh, and possibly Mercedes AMG-GT3 #61.

Hypercar is getting crowdy…

One more brand for the LMH class: Genesis, from Korea. Yesterday they reveled their GMR-001 hypercar, to race in the WEC starting in 2026. GMR stands for “Genesis Magma Racing”, and Genesis is developing the prototype in a partnership with ORECA. The presentation yesterday showed the prototype without an engine, since that is still in development. Magma Racing seems to be serious about their race intentions: not only do they have a VERY hot-looking car, they also contracted André Lotterer and Pipo Derani for the team. Head over to Jalopnik for more info.

As I kind of expected (predicted?), LMH is becoming the GT1 of the 20s, with everybody wanting to get in. I only hope that the FIA, ACO and manufacturers keep up the enthusiasm for a long time.

Hypercars 2025

After I posted the review on my g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s 9X8, I was thinking about Hypercars in general. When the LMH class was introduced in 2021, I was over the moon. After the boring final years of LMP1, Le Mans deserved a better top class. Not that the race per se had become boring, mind you. After all, in the “junior” classes the battles continued VERY competitive. With that, a new competitive top class was very welcome news. At first things started slow, with just Toyota and Glickenhaus. Very soon, however, the future brightened up. A lot! We got news that Porsche would be joining LMH, as would Alpine, Isotta Fraschini, Cadillac, Peugeot, Vanwall, BMW and also the Italians Lamborghini and even Ferrari.

I don’t think we had such a diverse lineup in the top class at Le Mans like in 2023. Not even in the Group C days do I remember so many big dogs up front. And that was the idea behind the new class. In essence, LMH would be much cheaper than the previous LMP1 class, and that was a major incentive for manufacturers. Nonetheless, running cars in the top class at Le Mans is still VERY expensive and is not for everyone. So, as expected, the initial enthusiasm died down and consequentially we had quite a few dropouts. After the 2024 race, Isotta Fraschini, Glickenhaus, Lamborghini and Vanwall had abandoned the fight.

So, what can we expect for 2025? Doing the math, in LMH we’ll have Aston Martin (newcomer), Alpine, BMW, Cadillac, Ferrari, Peugeot, Porsche and Toyota. There was a rumor that Mercedes would also come back to La Sarthe, and it was true. However, in 2025 they will compete in GT3-LM, not LMH. Which in my book is still great. Unfortunately though, Lamborghini dropped out from LMH and GT3-LM. Even so, I’m still happy with the perspectives for this year’s race. I expect to see a knife fight between Porsche, Toyota and Ferrari (and maybe Cadillac too?). Aston, BMW and Peugeot, on the other hand, are unknown quantities, so how will it all go down? Tough question 🤔.

Well, though I think it’s impossible to predict results, I’m positive that it’s going to be a heckuva year 😎.