Welcome to Part 2 of DSC’s LMGT3 preview, which looks at the WEC’s all-new GT field. (Missed out on our Hypercar preview? CLICK HERE >>>)
With GTE Am retired as a category, LMGT3 takes the stage, sporting nine manufacturers bringing two customer-run cars with pro/am driver line-ups featuring a mandatory Bronze.
Many of the programmes came together late, once it became clear how many manufacturers would be accepted and which ones made the cut. But that hasn’t in any way affected the quality of the teams and drivers present.
This is a GT3 field worthy of an FIA-globetrotting championship, utilising a new performance balancing system featuring torque sensors, which in theory should provide the rule-makers with more transparency than ever before.
It remains to be seen just how effective this new system will be in practice. But if it lives up to the promise it should make for close, hard racing all season long.
As for the BoP table for this weekend’s race, there are too many unknowns to make any educated predictions, instead, the form in Qatar is likely to be dictated by the speed at which the teams and drivers get comfortable with their new machinery.
We cannot wait to see this field in action. Bring it on!
Aston Martin
#27: Heart of Racing Team – Vantage AMR LMGT3 – Ian James, Daniel Mancinelli & Alex Riberas
#777: D’Station Racing – Vantage AMR LMGT3 – Clement Mateu, Erwan Bastard & Marco Sorensen
The new-look aerodynamically and under the skin, new pretty much everything (bar the engine) Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3, has started its FIA WEC career on the pace. Not just with the Pro drivers, but all the way through the driver crews for D’Station and Heart of Racing. Representatives from both teams made it clear to DSC that they hope and expect that the days of being punished for showing speed in testing are over.
Representing Aston Martin this year are two returning customer teams, both supported by Prodrive, eager to start the season on the front foot, confident that the new Vantage is a significant improvement over the outgoing model, which towards the end of its life developed a reputation for being a tough nut for amateur drivers to crack. The feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive.
The Prologue as a whole was strong for both teams. Not only did the car show potential in performance, but significant mileage was completed from both teams with no major issues delaying the cars.
For Heart of Racing, James, Mancinelli and Riberas return after taking over the Northwest AMR Vantage last year. They look to build on the strong finish to the season which saw them score a podium at Bahrain.
D’Station meanwhile, brings a new-look driver squad, with Erwan Bastard the only driver set to complete the full season. He will be joined by factory driver Marco Sorensen and Clement Mateau, making for a crew that could pack a punch.
BMW
#31: Team WRT – M4 LMGT3 – Darren Leung, Sean Gelael & Augusto Farfus
#46: Team WRT – M4 LMGT3 – Ahmad Al Harthy, Valentino Rossi & Maxime Martin
BMW’s GT effort in LMGT3 brings with it a world-class team in WRT and a true global superstar in Valentino Rossi, so there will be plenty of eyes on the M4 LMGT3s all season long.
One immediate point alongside the competitiveness of the cars should be mentioned upfront. By a distance, the pair, but in particular the #46, sport liveries that just about every observer in the paddock agrees, do not reflect the undoubted quality of this programme.
That aside, there’s a case to be made for WRT being the favourite in this company. The M4 has little to prove, as a car that has won the Spa 24 Hours, the Dubai 24 Hours and the GTD title in IMSA last season. It is considered by many to be the strongest product that BMW’s customer motorsport division has ever produced and with an EVO on the way, is set to take a further step up from 2025.
This car, plus the six drivers signed for the season, looks like a winning combination. The question has to be asked, will it be the capabilities of its Bronze drivers, Darren Leung and Ahmad Al Harthy, that make the difference here?
Leung was a star in British GT en route to the GT3 title last year and has worked extremely hard to take his race craft and fitness to another level over the winter. Al Harthy meanwhile, has GT3 experience by the truckload and came achingly close to an LMP2 title in the Asian Le Mans Series in last month.
That pairing, joined by Rossi, 2023 FIA WEC LMP2 champion Sean Gelael and factory stars Augusto Farfus and Maxime Martin, is surely going to make WRT tough to beat at every stop on the calendar.
Corvette
#81: TF Sport – Z06 LMGT3.R – Tom Vam Rompuy, Rui Andrade & Charlie Eastwood
#82: TF Sport – Z06 LMGT3.R – Hiroshi Koizumi, Sebastien Baud & Daniel Juncadella
While Valentino Rossi’s presence is likely to soak up a great deal of attention during this season in LMGT3, many eyes will be firmly fixed on the new cars in the field, which means TF Sport and Corvette can expect plenty of interest in Year 1 of this new partnership.
Let’s talk about TF first. The longstanding Aston Martin customer made the tough decision to shift its flagship programme to Corvette last year in part because of the uncertainty for a long stretch over AMR’s future plans in GT3 racing. Yet here we are, with Aston Martin debuting a new product in 2024 in direct competition with Tom Ferrier’s outfit. Whether or not TF enjoys a stronger season than the Aston Martin customers this year will surely be one of the most intriguing storylines to follow.
The Z06 GT3.R itself is a real unknown at the moment. The car’s global debut at Daytona was a real rollercoaster, with flashes of pace from all four cars blunted by reliability issues. This is to be expected for any new car, but it does mean that we will have to wait a little longer to find out just how strong Pratt Miller’s new challenger really is.
Early feedback on its drivability is all-around positive. “It’s got a ton of potential. It may look similar,” Nicky Catsburg told DSC at Daytona, “but behind the wheel, it feels totally different (to the C8.R).”
In the meantime, while TF Sport, which only managed one (heavily disrupted) test with its newly delivered chassis ahead of the Prologue, gets up to speed, newly-minted Corvette factory drivers Charlie Eastwood and Daniel Juncalla may be required to do a lot of heavy lifting.
Ferrari
#54: Vista AF Corse – 296 LMGT3 – Thomas Flohr, Francesco Castellacci & Davide Rigon
#55: Vista AF Corse – 296 LMGT3 – Francois Heriau, Simon Mann & Alessio Rovera
It’s a new look for the Ferrari GT effort in the FIA WEC in two regards, the 296 LMGT3 makes its debut and the team is rebranded with the very smart VistaJet colours of Thomas Flöhr’s business jet concern.
The 296 platform is now a known quantity, reliable and fast and already with big endurance race wins on its roll of honour.
On the driver front, there’s a lot of crossover from last season. The #54’s race-winning trio from 2023 carries on with Flohr increasingly ambitious, and increasingly competitive too! His WEC experience could prove important in a season where there are so many Championship rookies.
Simon Mann stays on for another WEC season with Alessio Rovera switching from last year’s #83 to the #55 in 2024. The trio is completed by the addition of bronze-ranked Francois Heriau and there has been no shortage of effort to gel this crew, the trio have already combined at the Rolex 24 and in the Asian Le Mans Series in pursuit of the required mix of chemistry, performance and understanding.
Ford
#77: Proton Competition – Mustang LMGT3 – Ryan Hardick, Zach Robichon & Ben Barker
#88: Proton Competition – Mustang LMGT3 – Dennis Olsen, Giorgio Roda & Mikkel Pedersen
It’s been a tough start to Proton Competition’s WEC campaign with the Mustang GT3. With two brand new cars, one delivered incomplete to the circuit prior to the planned start of the Prologue and the other, plus the remaining componentry for the first car, arriving late in a container, it became a scramble to get the cars assembled and on track. That also saw the team taking longer than most to ensure that both cars were track-ready, something which was reflected in the relative lack of mileage during the two-day test.
However, the Mustang GT3 is a good, old-fashioned, 21st-century muscle car, with massively purposeful looks and a refreshingly rumbly soundtrack. Ford has poured a lot into the development of the car over the past year and is determined to show that it can be a winner in the most elite company.
Signing up Proton for this new adventure was a statement of intent, prying it away from Porsche was not a simple task. Leaving the difficult lead into the season aside, Christian Ried’s team has decades of experience racing at the highest level to draw from and is ever-present in this championship. If any team on the grid can find a way to extract pace and deliver strong results quickly with a brand-new car, it’s Proton.
The driver line-up promises to be one of the strongest in the field, with factory drivers Ben Barker and Dennis Olsen headlining a sextet that includes 2023 ELMS GTE winners Ryan Hardwick and Zach Robichon, fast-improving Bronze Giorgio Roda and Proton WEC returnee Mikkel Pedersen.
With the car’s global debut at the Rolex 24 in the rearview mirror and the pre-season testing complete, the hope is that this weekend at Qatar will show us another glimpse of what the Mustang GT3 is made of.
Lamborghini
#60: Iron Lynx – Huracan LMGT3 Evo2 – Claudio Schiavoni, Franck Perera & Matteo Cressoni
#85: Iron Dames – Huracan LMGT3 Evo2 – Michelle Gatting, Doriane Pin & Sarah Bovy
One of the great things about GT3 racing is the variety of shapes and sounds that the formula produces. There are few better of the latter than the wailing 5.2-litre V10 of the Huracan. That will be the soundtrack for a third consecutive season in different machinery in the WEC for the Iron Lynx and Iron Dames concerns. The Lynx and Dames units are however more than simply familiar with the Huracan, after campaigning them elsewhere throughout 2023.
In the yellow corner, Schiavoni, Perera and Cressoni team up in the #60. The team’s success will hinge on the performances of Schiavoni, who has become a steadier hand in the past year and will look to add further pace to his consistency.
The pink corner meanwhile, Iron Dames returns, its historic GTE Am win in Bahrain still relatively fresh in the mind. The line-up is tweaked, with Gatting and Bovy back, joined by Doriane Pin who is pairing this programme with an F1 Academy drive as Rahel Frey moves into a project management role. It’s a trio that on paper should be challenging for podiums and wins.
Lexus
#78: AKKODIS ASP Team – RC F LMGT3 – Kelvin van der Linde, Arnold Robin & Timur Boguslavskiy
#87: AKKODIS ASP Team – RC F LMGT3 – Takeshi Kimura, Esteban Masson & Jose Maria Lopez
AKKODIS ASP Team is one of the newest teams to the FIA WEC, and campaigning the RC F GT3, the oldest car in the field. Usually, this would make for an underwhelming and forgettable effort, but the combination of Jerome Policand’s team and the RC F should not be underestimated.
The French team, now in its 25th year of competition and fresh from a highly successful tenure with Mercedes-AMG, is a title winner across GT3 racing. The car has title-winning form in IMSA’s high-quality GTD Pro class too with Vasser Sullivan. This is a brave new world for Lexus, racing in the WEC’s LMGT3 class, but it comes into this season determined to make an impact before its brand-new GT3 car, which still awaits a full reveal, finally makes its debut.
The driver line-up across the two cars includes some pleasant surprises, with Jose Maria Lopez finding a new home after exiting the Toyota Hypercar programme and Kelvin van der Linde signing to become a works driver for the brand after a late call-up to a test in Barcelona last November.
These two will be joined by a strong cast of characters, including Timur Boguslavskiy, who shone with ASP in World Challenge last year, Arnold Robin who won the 2023 Le Mans Cup GT title, Esteban Masson who found real pace at the Prologue and Takeshi Kimura who brings Car Guy branding back to the paddock.
It has the makings of a line-up that could spring a surprise or two if the drivers get up to speed quickly after a somewhat limited winter test programme.
McLaren
#59: United Autosports – 720S LMGT3 Evo – Gregoire Saucy, James Cottingham & Nicolas Costa
#95: United Autosports – 720S LMGT3 Evo – Marino Sato, Nico Pino & Josh Caygill
McLaren are one of four marques debuting in the FIA WEC in 2024 and to do so they have paired with a team that the WEC was very keen to retain in the World Championship, United Autosports.
It’s a return to their GT racing roots for the Yorkshire, UK, and now Charlotte, North Carolina USA-based squad who will be looking to bring their LMP race and Championship title-winning ways to LMGT3.
To do that they’re playing a little bit of catch-up, likely the very last customer LMGT3 team to be confirmed they had a hill to climb to gather the kit, the people and the budgets to make this campaign a reality.
The pace though is already there and the 720S LMGT3 Evo absolutely looks the part!
Much of the early effort will be in bedding in some very new-look driver crews to the team with all six drivers full-season WEC rookies and the most experienced driver in GT3 actually one of their Bronze-ranked pilots, James Cottingham who has turned heads in both British GT and, in Mclaren machinery, in Asian Le Mans Series. Indeed the team’s other Bronze, Josh Caygill also has international race-winning experience in GT3, albeit in a Bentley rather than a Mclaren!
Beyond that there is potential aplenty with youth in the shape of single-seater champion Gregoire Saucy, LMP3 and LMP2 race winner Nico Pino, ELMS Championship runner-up and double 2023 race winner Marino Sato and reigning Brazilian Carrera Cup champ Nicolas Costa.
Porsche
#91: Manthey EMA – 911 GT3 R LMGT3 – Yasser Shahin, Richard Lietz & Morris Schuring
#92: Manthey PureRxcing – 911 GT3 R LMGT3 – Joel Sturm, Alex Malykhin & Klaus Bachler
For the FIA WEC’s new-look GT class, former GTE Pro factory outfit Manthey returns to the championship, operating a pair of 911 GT3 R LMGT3s for EMA and Pure Rxcing.
Both cars bring strong line-ups, with the #91’s trio bolstered by the experience of factory stalwart Richard Lietz and the #92 crew fresh from an eye-opening, title-winning, GT campaign in the Asian Le Mans Series over the winter.
Pure Rxcing in particular is a team to keep an eye on and may emerge as a contender in this company. It’s a team that since its GT3 debut just last year has two significant title wins in Asian LMS and World Challenge Europe and sky-high ambition as the first team in WEC and Le Mans history to race under the Lithuanian flag.
The question mark concerns the car. The original version of the 992 had some significant issues in the drivability department, which required updating during the 2023 season. Right now, it appears to be a far stronger package, with significant results around the world including a class win at Sebring and a DTM title (with Manthey).
If in Year 2 it continues to mature nicely then there’s no reason the German marque can’t add an LMGT3 title to its bulging trophy cabinet.
