Isotta Fraschini pulls out of 2024 WEC season

The Isotta Fraschini LMH Hypercar won’t feature for the rest of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship season, with the top-tier WEC becoming an increasingly harder atmosphere for “underdog” machines.

Ahead of September’s Round 6 WEC return at COTA, the boutique Italian Isotta Fraschini marque run by French squad Duqueine Team, has pulled out with immediate effect over difficulties with its program.

The announcement is also a likely blow for Aussie Le Mans 24 class winner James Allen, who switched to the French squad for 2024 in the European Le Mans LMP2 Series, with an eye to racing hypercars in the future, with that particular pathway now closed.

The boutique Italian manufacturer and the Duqueine squad haven’t seen eye to eye with the running of its single entry Tipo 6-Competizione, who took over from Vector Sports in 2023 ahead of its 2024 debut in the reformed WEC top-tier.

Across five rounds, the Tipo-6 squad had a season high finish of 13th in the French 24 hour classic

With the controlling FIA and ACO bodies passing the two-car rule in 2025, it remains to be seen whether the Italian car will be seen next season, with IF’s Director of Motorsport and CEO Miguel Valldecabres saying it was essentially a decision based on survival.

“This very difficult decision was not taken lightly, but it allows us to build on our experiences, promoting the growth of our brand and the development of our products in both the racing and Hypercar markets,” said the recently appointed CEO.

“As a new manufacturer with big ambitions, not continuing in the WEC in 2024 is a strategic obligation to preserve our resources and ensure the continuity of our project.

“Despite this difficult setback, we are excited about what lies ahead for the future. Our journey as a high-performance brand continues and we look forward to reaching new heights.”

Prior to the season starting, with the machines homologation completed toward the latter end of last year, the Duqueine squad didn’t get off on the front foot with the Italians, as they didn’t run any on-track testing.

The likelihood of seeing the Tipo-6 machinery next year, will now likely depend on it being run via privateer teams running customer cars.

The WEC Hypercar field will now run with 18 LMH and LMDh cars for the remainder of the year.

With the continued interest and further announcements from big manufactures to join the WEC hypercar class, the days of “privateer underdogs” in the world’s top-tier of sportscar racing appears to be coming to a close, with teams like Glickenhaus and Vanwall having fallen by the wayside after 2023.

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