This 12 months’s Le Mans 24 Hours is the primary for which LMGT3 automobiles will probably be eligible. The place within the earlier GTE period skilled drivers allied to producers aside from Aston Martin, Corvette, Ferrari and Porsche had been frozen out, this 12 months 5 new marques have been added to the aforementioned quartet, opening up alternatives for brand new names to shine. With the Hypercar class additionally seeing a lift to 23 automobiles for Le Mans, a plethora of high GT3 stars will get their long-awaited debut in endurance racing’s most well-known occasion.
Christopher Mies (Ford), Kelvin van der Linde (Lexus), Daniel Juncadella (Corvette), Franck Perera (Lamborghini) and Valentino Rossi (BMW) are among the many massive names getting their first shot at Le Mans in GT3, whereas Edoardo Mortara (Lamborghini) will probably be joined by BMW trio Raffaelle Marciello, Sheldon van der Linde and Marco Wittmann among the many contingent of high-profile rookies in Hypercar.
However which different high GT3 names but to pattern the 24 Hours would we wish to see in future editions? Motorsport.com writers pick a number of the greatest.
Maro Engel: The Mercedes GT3 kingpin
Engel has been a number one gentle of the Mercedes GT programme for over a decade
Photograph by: Edge Photographics
An extended-time member of the Mercedes AMG GT3 roster, Engel has gained most issues price successful in what till this season was another code of GT racing outdoors the sphere of Le Mans 24 Hours organiser Vehicle Membership de l’Ouest.
Amongst his credit are a victory within the Nurburgring 24 Hours, a GT World Problem Europe Endurance Cup title and no fewer than three wins within the massive race on the streets of Macau. But this high performer in GT3 for thus lengthy is aware of that the chance may by no means come provided that Mercedes just isn’t one of many chosen producers allowed to race in LMGT3 within the World Endurance Championship and subsequently Le Mans.
It’s most undoubtedly on his bucket record — and he even had a visit deliberate for this 12 months in a RV to pattern the ambiance for the primary time. Engel admits that it’s going to harm if he finishes his profession with out racing on the Circuit de la Sarthe. It could be a loss for sportscar racing if Le Mans passes him by. Gary Watkins
Jack Hawksworth: IMSA champion waits within the wings
Defending IMSA GTD Professional champion Hawksworth has missed out on Le Mans alternatives afforded to team-mate Barnicoat
Photograph by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Photos
It’s one of many nice anomalies that Jack Hawksworth, the reigning IMSA SportsCar GTD Professional champion has by no means raced within the Le Mans 24 Hours.
The 33-year-old former IndyCar racer – who positioned inside Autosport’s High 50 drivers of 2023 – has been a GT class full-timer since 2017, when he joined the Lexus GTD programme. Initially run by 3GT, the mission was elevated by Vasser Sullivan Racing since 2019 and the five-litre V8-powered RC F machine – which isn’t a real GT3 race automobile, extra of a ‘Frankenstein’ design – has flown in Hawksworth’s fingers.
He has a dozen class wins and 15 poles to his title, and though success within the Daytona 24 Hours has eluded him, he’s gained the 12 Hours of Sebring twice, together with Petit Le Mans in 2022. And he’s stacked up effectively on tempo with Lexus team-mate Ben Barnicoat, who has began Le Mans 3 times.
Lexus is predicted to utilise Toyota’s true GT3 racer deliberate for 2026, which ought to open the door for Hawksworth to lastly make that long-awaited Le Mans debut. If that’s the case, watch him fly. Charles Bradley
Ricardo Feller: Audi’s rising star
Feller has gained twice in DTM with Abt-run Audis and is the reigning GT World Problem Dash Cup champion
Photograph by: Alexander Trienitz
Feller has made a huge impact since throwing his hat into the GT3 enviornment as a 16-year-old after calling time on single-seaters after a solitary season. The Swiss, nonetheless solely 22, was picked up by Audi for 2022 after successful the Silver Cup class within the GTWCE Endurance Cup on the wheel of an Emil Frey Lamborghini the earlier 12 months and has continued to impress as a manufacturing facility driver.
Feller sealed the Dash Cup title final 12 months and put in a starring efficiency on the Spa 24 Hours, each with the Tresor Attempto group. Issues occur when Feller will get behind the wheel of an Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo 2: he’s an actual racer of the old fashioned and a pleasure to observe. There are nonetheless some tough edges to be smoothed off, however he clearly has an enormous future forward of him.
He’s remained a part of the rump of the once-bulging Audi GT3 roster because the German producer downscales its involvement in GT3, so his subsequent step as that course of continues will probably be essential in his profession improvement — and can decide if and when he will get to Le Mans. GW
Lucas Auer: Mercedes all-rounder
Auer got here near successful the DTM in 2022 and has been a number one gentle of the Mercedes GT programme lately
Photograph by: Alexander Trienitz
If Mercedes manages to achieve an entry into Le Mans subsequent 12 months, it ought to look no additional than Lucas Auer for its designated Professional driver.
Auer proved his mettle in each the Class 1 and the GT3 period of the DTM, establishing himself as a daily frontrunner. The way in which he strung collectively a title problem in 2022 in opposition to the all-new BMW M4 of Sheldon van der Linde was mighty spectacular, particularly when you think about his unmatched pace within the second half of the 12 months that earned him a spot in Autosport’s High 50.
Past DTM, Auer has raced within the GT World Problem Europe and enduro occasions at Spa, Nurburgring and Daytona, making him a GT3 all-rounder. He additionally has one other ace up his sleeve; the Crimson Bull-supported Tremendous Components marketing campaign in 2019 throughout which he took a podium end for the nascent B-Max/Motopark partnership.
And whereas some might take into account him as being too loyal to Mercedes, he did spend a 12 months with BMW in 2020 and attracted curiosity from Porsche in ‘22 earlier than inking a recent cope with the Three-Pointed Star. Rachit Thukral
Markus Winkelhock: Audi’s man for the large event
Loyalty to Audi might trigger Winkelhock to overlook out on a Le Mans alternative
Photograph by: Alexander Trienitz
Now 43, Markus Winkelhock is nearer to the top of his profession than the beginning. However given his glittering CV racing Audis in GT3 competitors, the absence of a Le Mans begin from a CV is the one actually lacking omission.
Victorious within the Spa 24 Hours and Nurburgring 24 Hours in the identical 12 months on two events (2014 and 2017), he claimed his newest win in a round the clock enduro in January’s Dubai 24. That was his sixth, having additionally gained the Nurburgring 24 in 2012, the identical 12 months Winkelhock was topped GT1 world champion with the All-Inkl Lamborghini squad after a controversial final-round crash at Donington with Yelmer Buurman’s BMW. He was quickly a Daytona 24 Hours class winner in 2014 too, till a penalty handed to Alessandro Pier Guidi for edging Winkelhock onto the grass on the ultimate lap was rescinded hours after the race.
That Winkelhock discovered his method into Audi’s GT roster by way of its DTM programme, reasonably than LMP1, explains why the one-time Grand Prix starter has by no means raced within the occasion gained by his uncle Joachim in 1999. And alternatives for the German are seemingly slim even now LMGT3 automobiles are permitted, given his loyalty to a marque that has ditched its manufacturing facility racing programmes outdoors Components 1.
However ought to an Audi buyer squad earn one of many prized entries to the world’s most well-known endurance occasion, then it may do a lot worse than choosing up a driver who has a knack for accumulating outcomes over sportscar racing’s most gruelling distance. James Newbold
Joao Paulo de Oliveira
Japan-based Brazilian de Oliveira has been a power in Tremendous GT’s GT300 class
Photograph by: Masahide Kamio
He could also be a whole unknown to anybody who doesn’t comply with the Japanese motor racing scene, however Joao Paulo de Oliviera’s success in each Tremendous GT and Tremendous Components makes him a horny possibility for any group searching for a left-field possibility.
De Oliveira was harshly dropped from Nissan’s manufacturing facility GT500 programme on the finish of the 2018 season, however it allowed him to have a brand new lease of life in Tremendous GT’s secondary class. Becoming a member of the Kondo Racing group in a Nissan GT-R GT3 NISMO in 2020, the Brazilian gained the GT500 title twice within the subsequent 4 seasons – and completed second and third within the intervening years.
His potential to tug the automobile to the entrance in races the place the success ballast is on the most has been a key to his current success, and so has been his intricate data of GT3 tyres due to the shut relationship he enjoys with Yokohama.
He has WEC expertise too, having contested two occasions within the Vanwall Hypercar final season, and drove the equally Kolles-run Lotus T128 LMP2 automobile on the Le Mans Check Day in 2013 albeit with out beginning the race. RT
Phil Eager: British GT benchmark
Eager has impressed in Mercedes equipment in British GT this season, having beforehand proven his credentials in Porsches and Lamborghinis
Photograph by: JEP
All people who has set foot in a British GT paddock over the previous decade or so is aware of of Phil Eager’s high quality. Since his sequence debut in 2006, he has gained a record-equalling 19 races outright, tied with Jonny Adam, is a three-time championship runner-up and has been aggressive in Porsche, Lamborghini and Mercedes equipment.
He has often outpaced drivers who’ve beforehand taken class wins on the Circuit de la Sarthe – and people who are set to make their Le Mans debut this 12 months. But a spot on the grid has all the time eluded the self-effacing 40-year-old.
He got here shut in 2015 by driving on the official Check Day, however his Gulf Racing squad by no means obtained a Le Mans entry that 12 months. Eager has not been as shut since, however 9 years on from his final European Le Mans Collection marketing campaign with Gulf’s Porsche he returned to the sequence this season with Le Mans stalwart JMW Motorsport in a Ferrari 296, additional underlining his versatility.
Ought to a chance finally come his method within the years to come back, it could be well-merited. Ed Hardy
Eager turned out in Gulf Porsche for Check Day in 2015 however did not get to race
Photograph by: Eric Gilbert
