Mercedes to fly again (with two Aussies) at Le Mans

Just over a quarter of a century since Mercedes last challenged the world’s greatest sports car race, the German marque will be back in 2025 and, in a real blast from the past, the Aussie flag will be on the side of one of it’s contenders, Wayne Webster reports…

Ambitious, indefatigable and seemingly indestructable Aussie father-and-son pair Stephen and Brenton Grove will be driving one of three factory-prepared Mercedes-AMG LMGT3s in the Le Mans 24 Hour classic in June.

They will share a car with Mercedes works driver Luca Stolz in the iconic French sports car endurance epic having won an automatic invitation earned by winning the 2024 European Le Mans Series LMGT3 championship.

Their car will be run by the Iron Lynx team, the Italian outfit having won the right to be the factory-chosen outfit for the 2025 season.

“We are excited to line up one additional car in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and we are proud to represent Mercedes-AMG in their return edition with an expanded program,” said Iron Lynx CEO Andrea Piccini.

“Both Stephen and Brenton have a good amount of experience, and they are a valuable addition to the team. Luca is an outstanding driver. I used to be team-mates with him in the past, and I know he is extremely talented and experienced. He is somebody that the team can truly rely on.”

For the Groves, heading to Le Mans – not only as competitors but as part of Mercedes’ first factory assault in 26 years – is about as good as it gets.

“To have the opportunity to compete in the biggest race in the world alongside my father and Luca is definitely my career highlight,” said Brenton Grove who, as well as his father, will make his Le Mans debut in June.

 “I’ve watched the race since I was a little kid, so to experience the atmosphere and be in the race during its golden years is something truly special. I can’t wait for the challenge.”

For the elder Grove, Stephen, Le Mans should be extra special after surviving a truly horrendous crash in this year’s Barthurst 12 Hour in his own Mercedes GT3 when he collided with the Mercedes of fellow Aussie Kenny Harbul over the top of the Mountain and not only hit the wall but almost launched backwards over it.

He clambered from the wreckage looking like a man who had picked a bar fight with Mike Tyson, groaning in pain and struggling to breath, with injuries that included a smashed verterbra in his spine.

So just maybe Stephen and Brenton should watch the footage of the last Aussie to race for Mercedes at Le Mans back in 1999 – a guy called Mark Webber who went on to do okay …

Just over a quarter of a century ago in a normally quiet little slice of rural France a whole heap of Germans were palm slapping their foreheads and “Gott im Himmel-ing” themselves to a standstill in absolute disbelief.

Now the Germans hate defeat, especially in France, but you could also argue that they’re getting good at it – at least in historical terms were one to roll back through the pages of history.

But to use the old Fawlty Towers line – “Don’t mention the war” – because this was 1999 and the three-pointed star of Mercedes-Benz was back at Le Mans and ready to do the business.

And then, well, and then …

Somewhere along the way, experimenting with rear suspension drop at high speed, the Mercedes ground offensive had seen their racing weapons turn into the Luftwaffe. And, well, this was not a good thing.

So now, 26 years later Mercedes is gearing up to fly, umm, the flag but nothing else in the greatest endurance race in the world – the Le Mans 24 Hour epic and blow away the demons that still haunt many Stuttgart insiders.

But 2025 is just a toe-in-the-water exercise. A dry run if you will before the company gets serious again and goes all-in to try and win the world’s greatest sports car endurance race. (If you ignore the Daytona 24 Hour that is.)

Mercedes has introduced an all-new GT3 car for 2025, a car developed in-house rather than with its favoured supplier HWA motorsport. The race team will be overseen by Iron Lynx, which has severed its ties as the factory-backed Lamborghini works team.

Hmm, Mercedes or Lamborghini?

The fact that Merc has moved the WEC program, at least in engineering terms, within the closed doors of the factory also indicates that its ambitions are probably just a little more ambitious than the production-based GT3 category in the big scheme of things.

Mercedes doesn’t do things by halves, and even when it does it’s usually twice what others do, if you know what I mean.

There are whispers, rumours and innuendo that Mercedes has its eyes on becoming an outright WEC player in 2026, joining the likes of arch-rivals Porsche and BMW not to mention Cadillac, Ferrari and others.

Word is that some of the backroom boys at the Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains (catchy, hey?) factory in Brixworth, England, have been beavering away on an engine suitable for a WEC Hypercar contender.

Why Brixworth? Well, this is where Mercedes produces the coveted powerplants for its factory F1 team and numerous customers such as McLaren and Williams.

It is also believed that Mercedes has held talks with chassis manufacturing behemoth Multimatic about producing the tubs for a WEC Hypercar contender.

A Mercedes return to Le Mans, in particular, is obviously going to drag up some pretty ‘interesting’ memories. The last time the factory was there, in 1999, it’s cars flew. I mean flew – literally.

A young and upcoming star called Mark Webber found his car launching skywards at over 300km/h during the Thursday practice session.

“It happened so fast it was just like an aeroplane taking off,” recalled Webber in his autobiography, ‘Aussie Grit.’

“I could see the sky and then the ground and then the sky again.

“Bloody hell, it’s Thursday night at Le Mans – maybe this is it …” he wrote.

Webber obviously survived but the team remained sceptical, saying that it “couldn’t possibly happen.”

Mercedes did its best Sargeant Schultz (okay young ‘uns, Google it) and said “we know nuthink!”

But it not only happened, it happened again. During the Saturday morning warm-up, Webber’s car again grabbed some frequent flier points, this time on the Mulsanne Straight and comprehensively destroyed itself.

Not that it mattered because, when Webber clambered from the wreckage, he told himself “I’m never getting into that car again.”

Even then, the team reckoned that it was Webber who was at fault. Such was the denial within the team that it couldn’t admit that flying automobiles may show a problem within the design – or at least the set-up of the cars.

And then came the famous Peter Dumbrek accident in the remaining Merc CLK – despite little front winglets being added as a late ‘fix’. Same as Webber … but captured live on TV for all the world to see.

How he survived, after flying off the track and landing in the forest almost makes one believe in God because he walked away intact if not emotionally scarred.

At this stage the Mercedes works team was looking more like an early incarnation of Space X rather than a motor racing team.

Certainly the launches were both successful and spectacular but the landings, umm, probably left a lot to be desired. Particularly for the drivers, who had no idea they had signed on to become astronauts.

There are long, lengthy and highly detailed dissertations about the aerodynamic failings that befell the gorgeous looking Mercedes CLK-LM racer, but the bottom line is that it was a piece of, as the French would say, merde.

Aerodynamics is the magic sauce that keeps a racing car glued to the ground. Of course, aerodynamics is what makes aeroplanes fly. Mercedes seemingly, in this case, got the two confused.

Now you’d think that the Germans, after already enduring a couple of major losses (don’t mention the war!) would go away, learn from their mistakes and come back and redeem themselves. Instead, in true Germanic warrior spirit, Mercedes ran away and have had 26 years of Octoberfesting to try and forget. Many have tried the old ‘drink to forget’ adage, and in this case it’s obviously worked.

But many things have changed since those, err, high flying days of 1999 and Mercedes obviously still has a Le Mans itch it needs to scratch.

In 2025 the three-pointed star brigade will be back, firstly as a toe in the water exercise, but back at Le Mans nevertheless.

Hopefully they don’t have Red Bull backing, cause the last thing they need is wings! …

Main image: GT World Challenge

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