Porsche dominates the LMH category – with two cars for the factory Porsche Penske Motorsport team and two privateer entries for Jota and Proton Competition – but it is the entry for Vanwall that is perhaps the most surprising. The team formerly known as ByKolles had claimed to have bought the rights to the Vanwall name before the 2022 season, but was denied an entry after a dispute arose over those rights.
But for 2023 the Vanwall Vandervell 680 has been given a full season entry subject to homologation of the chassis. It will be the second independent entry alongside a single car from Glickenhaus, which returns after providing the only independent LMH competition for Toyota in the category’s first two years.
Banner headlines will also go to Ferrari’s return to the top level of sportscar racing with its 499P. Two of 499Ps have been entered under the Ferrari AF Corse banner, a number repeated by current champions Toyota and fellow returnees Peugeot.
Eleven cars make up the LMP2 category, all from well-established teams, and include a return to the second tier for the Alpine squad. The French brand stepped up to the top class for 2021 and 2022 to field a grandfathered LMP1 Oreca, but will return to running its Alpine A470 LMP2 machine (itself a rebadged Oreca 07) for 2023 while the firm’s future top class car is developed.
The grid is completed by GTE Am entries. This is the first season that there will be no GTE Pro class, with that era of top-level GT racing having come to and end after the 2022 season. Fourteen GTE cars will compete, from Aston Martin, Ferrari, Porsche and Corvette, all with a mixture of pro and gentlemen drivers behind the wheel.