When one surveys the landscape of GT3 racing at its highest levels, Mercedes-AMG is often running at or near the front, competing for championships and victories in the most prestigious endurance races.
It’s why some fans were unhappy about the ‘Silver Arrows’ being shut out of the ACO’s new LMGT3 category in both the FIA World Endurance Championship and European Le Mans Series this year. And there won’t be a pathway for Mercedes to be on the 2025 WEC grid, either, with the expansion of the full-time WEC grid being used to accommodate new Hypercar entries over new GT3 manufacturers.
During the previous SRO Asia GT PowerTour meeting at Fuji Speedway, Mercedes-AMG Head of Motorsport Christoph Sagemüller reiterated that the brand wants to be involved in the class – but acknowledged that the lack of a top-tier prototype effort has made it difficult to gain entry.
“Of course, I would definitely love to see the Silver Arrows back at Le Mans, and also in WEC,” Sagemüller said. “Nonetheless, it wasn’t up to us.
“We definitely wondered, and we were prepared quite well to be there. But unfortunately, we didn’t get any spots. We are not part of this so far.
“But maybe we can be part of the future because it’s the goal. Mercedes-AMG belongs to Le Mans as well.
“There are many rumours, but it’s obviously because we are not part of the LMDh programme – because we said we would focus first on our customer racing GT programme. But I don’t know the reasons behind it – so this is up to the ACO.
“And we are in good discussions with them, and can only hope that we can get some spots in the future.”
Mercedes-AMG has considered entering the European Le Mans Series for at least a year, which would be the firm’s only way of entering the 24 Hours of Le Mans without full-season WEC entries.
Mercedes customer teams competed last winter in the Asian Le Mans Series, and also raced at the Circuit de la Sarthe last month as part of the Michelin Le Mans Cup. These series run to the standard GT3 regulations instead of the ACO’s ‘enhanced’ LMGT3 ruleset – which implements torque meter sensors to monitor power levels in real-time, a component that is not standard in other forms of GT3 racing.
In the wake of Lamborghini’s recent announcement of its successor to the Huracán GT3, Sagemüller also reiterated that progress is well underway on the current AMG GT3’s successor – but stopped short of giving a timeline of when we could expect to see it racing.
“There will be a GT3 in the future – because for us, the customer racing programme is a very important topic for us as a programme,” he said. “So we are 100 per cent committed. And we will put a lot of effort into the next GT3 successor.”
“Rest assured, we won’t take too long. But it’s always better to announce something that is set in stone.”
Mercedes-AMG introduced the second-generation AMG GT sports coupe to showrooms at the end of 2023.
Feature image © Asian Le Mans Series
