Lamborghini takes aim at Le Mans victory as it confirms LMDh car

Sports Car News

Lamborghini has announced that it is developing an LMDh car for Le Mans and Daytona, targeting World Endurance Championship and IMSA Sports Car Championship entries from 2024

Teaser image of Lamborghini's LMDh car

Lamborghini's teaser image of its 2024 LMDh car

Lamborghini

Lamborghini has confirmed that it will race in the top class at Le Mans with an LMDh prototype car due to enter competition in 2024.

The new car will also compete at the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring as part of a World Endurance Championship (WEC) and IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship programme.

It will be the first time that Lamborghini has targeted overall victory at the endurance classics, but it will face wide and varied opposition, with Porsche, Ferrari, Peugeot, BMW and Honda joining Toyota, Glickenhaus and Alpine in the top tier from next year.

Lamborghini Huracan GT3 cheered across the finish line

Lamborghini Huraçan GT3 was launched in 2015, with an EVO2 upgrade recently announced

“This step up into the highest echelon of sports car racing marks an important milestone for our company,” said Stephan Winkelmann, Lamborghini chairman and CEO. “We will be measuring ourselves against the very best, on the most demanding proving grounds.

“On one hand, this will give our successful motorsports program even more visibility, but it will also allow us to test future technologies: our LMDh prototypes will become our most sophisticated open laboratory on four wheels.”

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The hybrid powertrain used by LMDh cars is seen as an ideal fit for the company, which will only be selling hybrid road cars from 2024.

Lamborghini has indicated that its LMDh entry will be run by customer teams, building on its continuing GT3 programme, which has seen success in IMSA, winning the GTD championship in 2018 and 2019, along with class victory in the 24 Hours of Daytona for three successive years from 2018.

“LMDh will play a special role in Lamborghini’s motor sports strategy, giving us the unique opportunity to expand our customer racing activities to new platforms and enforce our long-term partnership with customer teams and drivers,” said the company’s head of motor sport, Giorgio Sanna.

The timing of Lamborghini’s entry could fit with Valentino Rossi’s ambitions to race at Le Mans. The nine-time motorcycle GP champion is currently competing in the GT World Challenge Europe Series in an Audi, a sister company in the Volkswagen Group. Audi is understood to have pulled its own LMDh programme in favour of Formula 1.

Lamborghini Huracan GT3 at Sebring

Huraçan has won IMSA’s GTD class twice

“Lamborghini is an iconic brand but it has never competed in the premier class of endurance racing before,” said Frédéric Lequien, WEC CEO. “They will join the WEC at a very exciting time in its history. For the 2024 season there will be an exceptional line-up of marques competing in our premier class.

“The competition will be fierce but we have no doubt that Lamborghini will be in the thick of the fight. Lamborghini has been highly successful in other classes of endurance racing so we cannot wait to see them compete for overall victories.”