WEC’s GT3 grid flares into life 

Gt3 2024 Team Preview

McLaren

The British-based United Autosports squad looked as though it wouldn’t be represented in the WEC this year after the demise of the LMP2 class in which it took the title in 2019/20. Its P2 squad has effectively moved Stateside to compete in IMSA, but it is on the grid after all, because McLaren landed a couple of entries for LMGT3. The McLaren-United link is obvious: the team is co-owned by McLaren Racing boss Zak Brown and has run the British manufacturer’s GT machinery in the past. It fields a pair of 720S GT3 Evos. Ex-Formula 2 driver Marino Sato expands his role from United’s European Le Mans Series squad to drive one car with Chilean Nico Pino, a race winner against the team in last year’s ELMS. Swiss Grégoire Saucy races the second car after moving over from single-seaters; he was the Formula Regional European title winner in 2021.

 

Lexus

Manufacturers competing in Hypercar had priority when it came to the allocation of LMGT3 entries for 2024 and Lexus fills the berth offered to parent company Toyota while it awaits the arrival of a car based on the GR Concept in 2026. It chose the French Auto Sport Promotion squad to represent it with the Lexus RC F GT3, above, a car that has enjoyed limited success in Europe but claimed the GT Daytona Pro title in the IMSA SportsCar Championship last year with Vasser Sullivan, and Brits Ben Barnicoat and Jack Hawksworth driving. ASP is fulfilling a long-held ambition to compete at Le Mans, a race in which team founder Jérôme Policand competed 13 times. To that effect it has switched allegiance from Mercedes with whom its credits include victory in the 2022 Spa 24 Hours. Hypercar refugee José Maria López and Kelvin van der Linde lead the line in its two cars.

 

Porsche

Porsche might have flitted in and out of the prototype ranks since the WEC was reborn, but it has been ever-present in the GT divisions. It continues an unbroken sequence with the latest 992-shape 911 GT3 R that arrived in competition last year. It is represented by the same team with which it won the GTE Pro title in
2015 and ’18/19, Manthey Racing, a squad based just across the way from the Nürburgring. The team’s entry names are suffixed by EMA and PureRxcing, Australian and Lithuanian entrants respectively. Manthey has long since run cars for customers as well as the factory and its partnership with EMA Motorsport yielded last year’s DTM title with Thomas Preining. Porsche driver stalwart and former GTE Pro champion Richard Lietz is the lead driver in the EMA car, while more recent signing Klaus Bachler fills that role in the PureRxcing entry.

 

BMW

BMW is returning to the WEC on two fronts, in the Hypercar division with the M Hybrid V8 and in LMGT3 with the M4 GT3, above. The Belgian WRT squad
is masterminding both campaigns, as an overt factory team in the former and as a customer in the latter – works teams aren’t permitted in LMGT3. Its LMGT3 squad is an expansion of the operation that has for so long been a force in the GT3 arena, first with Audi and, from last year, BMW. Bike legend Valentino Rossi is making the move into the WEC with the team for which he has raced since switching to four wheels full time after his retirement from MotoGP in 2021. He continues his partnership, now as a silver-rated driver after a handy downgrade, with Belgian Maxime Martin, while BMW regular Augusto Farfus is the pro in the sister M4.

 

Lamborghini

Lamborghini is represented in LMGT3 with the Huracán GT3 EVO2 by Iron Lynx, which is also fielding the Italian manufacturer’s new SC63 LMDh in Hypercar. The squad headed by Andrea Piccini, a multiple race winner in the FIA GT and GT1 series, was founded as recently as 2019 and announced a partnership with Lamborghini in 2022 that brought to an end a relationship with Ferrari. The new partners took their first steps together last year in the GT World Challenge Europe and IMSA, while maintaining a presence in GTE Am with Porsche. Now it’s full steam ahead with Lamborghini across multiple series – it’s also running an SC63 in IMSA. Factory driver Franck Perera is the lead driver in one car, while the ‘Iron Dames’ entry is all female. Doriane Pin, now a member of the Mercedes Formula 1 junior set-up, joins Michelle Gatting and Sarah Bovy.

 

Ford

Ford returns to the WEC after an absence of four seasons with a GT3 version of the seventh-generation Mustang, above. The US marque took a sledgehammer to GTE Pro with the Ford GT that tipped its hat to its Le Mans winners of 1966-69, but now it has opted to enter a category orientated towards customer racing. The car, developed like its predecessor by Canadian-headquartered Multimatic Motorsports, will be available to customers all around the world. The German Proton Competition squad, which also raced as Dempsey-Proton, runs the WEC Mustangs after decades representing Porsche in the GT ranks. Yet the link-up is more obvious than it might seem: Multimatic helped run one of the Porsches at Le Mans in 2021 and through 2022. Brit Ben Barker leads one car after being awarded a factory contract, Dennis Olsen, who has defected from Porsche, the other.

 

Ferrari

AF Corse runs the factory 499P Le Mans Hypercars for Ferrari, just as it masterminded the Italian manufacturer’s GTE Pro WEC campaigns of 2012-22, taking the drivers’ title five times along the way. But AF has always maintained a foothold in the customer ranks in the WEC and beyond. There are two arms to the team, and it is the one that’s been a consistent frontrunner in GTE Am – four WEC drivers’ titles won, including one under the SMP Racing banner – since the rebirth of the championship that has picked up the baton in LMGT3 with the new 296 GT3, above, that arrived last year. The car was a winner in its maiden season in the GT World Challenge Endurance Cup and took GT Daytona Pro honours in the season-opening Daytona 24 Hours IMSA SportsCar Championship round in January. Factory drivers Davide Rigon and Alessio Rovera lead the two line-ups.

 

Chevrolet

Chevrolet has long since been a major player in the world of GT racing. The Corvette Racing programme stretches back to 1999 through four generations of the ’Vette and multiple classes, but in 2024 it is setting out in a new direction. Previously it was about going racing with a factory team, one that has taken nine class victories at the Le Mans 24 Hours. But as it brings forward the Z06 GT3.R for this year, it is now building cars for customers as well, a key requirement of GT3. The British TF Sport squad flies the flag for Chevrolet in the WEC after moving over from Aston Martin, with which it took GTE Am honours at Le Mans and the class title in 2022. Leading the driver line-ups are team regular Charlie Eastwood and Daniel Juncadella, who have joined the Chevy factory roster from Aston and Mercedes respectively.