23 Hypercars headline 2024 Le Mans entry list

It’s made up of three Cadillac V-Series.Rs, six Porsche 963s, three Ferrari 499Ps and two Toyota GR010s, Lamborghini SC63s, Alpine A424s and Peugeot 9X8s and a single Isotta Fraschini Tipo6-C. The rest of the grid features 16 LMP2 cars and 23 GT3 cars, a massive entry for the first time GT3 cars will race in the main race in La Sarthe. 

The entry list, revealed today (19th February), includes 19 full-season Hypercar entries from the World Endurance Championship supplemented by three regular cars from IMSA and an extra Lamborghini SC63 – which will be the first time that the Iron Lynx-run team has raced more than one of the brand new cars.

So packed is the Hypercar grid at Le Mans that one entry, a second Porsche 963 from Proton Competition, has been left on the reserve list. Porsche’s six representatives are made up of its two factory Porsche Penske Motorsport cars from the World Endurance Championship, as well as one of the cars Penske runs in IMSA, two cars run by Jota and one from Proton Competition. Cadillac racing will supplement its WEC #2 car with the yellow IMSA machine and Action Express Racing’s Whelen-sponsored car.

The driving lineup is as stacked in Hypercar as the cars. Previous winners of Le Mans include Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa, Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Andre Lotterer, Earl Bamber, Antonio Guovinazzi and Neel Jani. The contingent of ex-F1 drivers has swelled, with Jenson Button, Hartley, Buemi, Sebastien Bourdais, Lotterer, Kobayashi, Will Stevens, Mick Schumacher, Giovinazzi, Jen Eric Vergne, Stoffel Vandoorne and Jack Aitken all having raced in Formula 1.

The LMP2 field has been retained, despite the class disappearing from the World Endurance Championship, and features a strong lineup of European Le Mans Series, Asian Le Mans Series and IMSA regulars. Star drivers so far announced in LMP2 include Felipe Albuquerque, Louis Deletraz and Frederik Vesti.

The giant LMGT3 field is made up of cars from Lexus, Aston Martin, Ford, Ferrari, BMW, Lamborghini, McLaren, Corvette and Porsche, by far eclipsing the four manufacturers that took part in the final Le Mans for GTE cars in 2023. 

With the ACO, which organises Le Mans and the WEC, revealing that it would not be inviting entries from Audi or Mercedes into the championship, it was not surprising to see the two GT3-racing stalwart brands left out of the big race. 

The largest entry in the GT3 class is made up of five Ferrari 296 GT3s. They will be joined by three McLaren 720Ss, two run by United Autosport and an extra for IMSA GTD champions Inception Racing. The rest of the brands are represented twice with the only none-WEC full-season entries to the GT field being Proton Competition’s IMSA GTD car, the aforementioned Inception Racing McLaren and three 296 GT3s for Spirit of Race, GR Racing and former class winners JMW Motorsport.

Headline drivers in the LMGT3 class include Sean Gelael, Augusto Farfus, Maxime Martin, Davide Rigon, Jose Maria Lopez, Richard Leitz, Gregoire Saucy and Marco Sorensen. Perhaps the main star of the category will be seven-time MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi, racing a Team WRT BMW M4 and taking part in the main 24 Hours for the first time, following his podium in the Road to Le Mans support race last year. Fans of the Iron Dames will also be happy to see that Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting and Dorian Pin return to race in a Lamborghini Huracan GT3.

With this year’s entry so strong there is a significant reserve list of seven cars, one Hypercar for Proton, three LMP2 Oreca 07s and three GT3 cars.

The Le Mans 24 hours will be the fourth round of the 2024 World Endurance Championship. The first time we get to see 19 of these Hypercar entries and the debut of the LMGT3 class in WEC will be the 1,812km of Qatar on 2nd March. 

The Le Mans 24 Hours kicks off with scrutineering on 7th/8th June. The traditional test day follows on Sunday 9th June before a week of qualifying and practice. The race begins off on the afternoon of Saturday 15th June.

Click here to see the full entry list for the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans, including cars drivers and teams.

Lead image courtesy of Motorsport Images