WEC delays plans to expand full-season grid to 40 cars

Series organisers the FIA and the Automobile Club de l’Ouest outlined their idea to maintain the size of the entry at 2023 levels over the course of last weekend’s Bahrain WEC season finale, while insisting that they are still working on an expansion.

WEC boss Frederic Lequien described 37 cars, the same number as this year, as “the right number”.

“That is the plan, but the goal is to increase the grid in 2025,” he said.

The FIA and the ACO have arrived at 37 cars because this is the number of pit boxes available at the Imola and Austin rounds in April and September respectively.

They are the tracks on the 2024 schedule with the smallest pit complexes.

There were 38 cars on the entry published for this year, but the #88 Porsche 911 RSR run by Proton Competition up to and including the Le Mans 24 Hours and the #99 963 LMDh it fielded from the next race at Monza were effectively one and the same entry.

The plan to go up to 40 cars proved “too complicated for the refuelling of the cars”, explained ACO president Pierre Fillon.

Photo by: Shameem Fahath

#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa, #85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR - 19: Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting, Rahel Frey, #41 Team WRT Oreca 07 - Gibson: Rui Andrade, Robert Kubica, Louis Deletraz

It required some or all of the teams in the new LMGT3 class that replaces GTE Am for next year to run both their entries out of a single garage.

“Two cars in the same garage would mean two different refuelling systems [or rigs]; it is unfair,” continued Fillon.

No insight was offered by the FIA and the ACO how they will overcome this problem for 2025 when Aston Martin will arrive in the Hypercar class and Lamborghini is expected to run a second of its SC63 LMDhs.

Fillon stated that no decisions on how the grid will be split between the Hypercar and LMGT3 categories, the only two classes in the WEC from next year after the disappearance of LMP2, have been made.

He insisted this will be decided after entries close on 20 November during the subsequent meeting of the FIA/ACO selection committee.

FIA Endurance Commission president Richard Mille confirmed that the organisers are expecting the entry to be oversubscribed.

With regard to turning away entries, he said: “We have, unfortunately, to make this decision, which is not easy.”

It seems certain, however, that the full-season WEC grid next year will be made up of 19 cars in Hypercar and 18 in LMGT3.

There should be 20 applications in Hypercar if Ferrari pushes forward with its plan to run three cars.

That number includes only one entry from WEC newcomer Isotta Fraschini, which has confirmed that it has dropped plans for a second of its Tipo 6 Competizione Le Mans Hypercars.

The nine manufacturers in LMGT3 are set to be Porsche, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Chevrolet, Lexus, Lamborghini, BMW, Ford and McLaren each with two cars.

There are also potential entrants wanting to run Mercedes and Audi machinery in LMGT3.

The ACO has also clarified the future of the LMGT3 class in its European Le Mans Series.

Only those manufacturers represented in LMGT3 in the WEC will be allowed to supply cars to the teams running in the class in the ELMS, which is expected to number only 10 or 12 cars.