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Le Mans 2025 is here

By Timothy Neal

The 93rd 24 Hours of Le Mans is nearing this weekend, and this year features a 62-car grid of Hypercars, LMP2 prototypes, and LMGT3s, with 186 drivers vying to slog it out twice around the clock … and that includes five Aussies. 

Since the advent of the LMH and LMDh Hypercar rulesets at the FIA World Endurance Championship, the worlds greatest motor race has once more risen to the prominence that it deserves, with sold-out crowds flocking to Circuit de La Sarthe to see the bevvy of magnificent machines looking to survive the toughest test there is.

21 Hypercars spread over eight manufacturers, including four customer teams, make up the top flight, and the battle for the wreathe is more wide open than the dominance of Ferrari would suggest in 2025.

Whilst the amount of manufacturers will keep swelling over the next few seasons, the 25 edition features Ferrari, Toyota, Cadillac, BMW, Alpine, Aston Martin, Porsche, and Peugeot.

Also on the grid are the customer Ferraris, Porsches and Cadillacs, all run by AF Corse, Proton, and Cadillac WTR and Whelen respectively.

The LMGT3 grid will have 24 GT3s covering nine manufacturers, including Ferrari, BMW, Porsche, Aston Martin, McLaren, Lexus, Corvette, Mercedes, and Ford.

For the LMP2 machines, theyre always a popular edition at Le Mans, with that now being the only WEC outing for the pacey prototypes.

This year has a grid of 17 ORECA 07-Gibson machines, with the likes of Iron-Lynx, Proton, United Autosports, Algarve, Inter Europol, AF Corse, VDS Panis, Nielsen, IDEC, CLX, AO, TDS, RLR, all vying for the Pro and Pro-am podiums.

THE AUSSIE INVASION

Australia’s Matt Campbell partnered with Michael Christensen and Frédéric Makowiecki during the 92nd edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours. Photo by Eric Le Galliot/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images

UP THE top of the pyramid in the Hypercars, Matt Campbell takes on his second straight Le Mans in the Porsche Penske 963.

Campbell was in the #5 Porsche last year for a sixth-place finish, and this year hell pilot the #6 alongside Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor.

Although Porsche has had its issues in both qualifying and in-race this season – being nowhere in the challenge after taking the Drivers’ title in 2024 – a boost in BoP power will see the 963s equipped with an increase in speed for this 24-hour edition, with reliability also generally not being an issue.

It will run at 518 kW (up from 511 kW) with a near-maximum amount of energy available.

For Campbell personally, its his seventh Le Mans, having been a class winner in 2018 driving a Porsche 911.

In the LMGT3s, there are four Aussies spread over two garages, with Mercedes AMG running a distinct Antipodean flavour on its return to Le Mans.

The most prominent of these is the #63 AMG, featuring father-son duo Stephen and Brenton Grove, with the Grove name proudly on display on the front of the bonnet.

The Grove’s silver bullet.

Sharing the brunt of the load for them is Platinum factory driver Luca Stolz.

Also in the Iron Lynx AMG shed is late bloomer Martin Berry, whose call up into the #61 is a relatively fresh pleasure for the GT3 Aussie. Hell be alongside Lin Hodenius and Maxime Martin.

Whilst the AMG machines havent had the pace in the WEC return in 2025, an altered rear wing on a set of three newly minted and specially built machines will see an upshot in pace.

With a flatter wing to reduce the aero, they will be more unstable, but theyll also find 300+ kph down the Mulsanne straight. 

Lastly, is last year’s LMGT3 victor Yasser Shahin, who this season has switched over to the WRT garage, running the #31 The Bend Team WRT BMW alongside Timur Boguslavskiy and Augusto Farfus.

Last season Shahin was a part of the Manthey team that took The Bend Porsche 911 to an outright LMGT3 win.

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