Rumours were circulating during the WEC’s visit to Japan last month over the potential for Lamborghini to reverse its original plan to scale up to two Hypercars for 2025 and depart the FIA WEC at the end of 2024.
A couple of polite background enquiries elicited some interesting responses from reputable sources.
In short – at that point and in the weeks that have followed – no decisions have been made. But decisions must be made very shortly.
The issue is, as accurately reported by colleagues elsewhere, that Lamborghini is aware that the SC63 needs development. Whilst the car has shown flashes of form, most notably at Le Mans and the flyaway races this year, attention to the dampers, drivability and weight of the car is required to take the next step.
That’s all, effectively, a knock-on effect from a disastrous car-destroying accident at Paul Ricard early in the SC63’s test programme which saw Lamborghini scrambling to ready itself for the homologation deadline. This resulted in it having to make some conservative choices to do so, creating a lengthy prevailing job list of development tasks.
Unfortunately, that list, and the time pressures upon it, coincides with the introduction by the FIA WEC of the ‘two-car rule’, which requires a factory team to enter two cars in Hypercar from 2025.
That’s a particular problem, as the combined fiscal impact of the second entry, plus the development programme, is understood to take the factory beyond its currently agreed budget.
Add in too that the LMGT3 programme in FIA WEC with the Huracan LMGT3 EVO2 is not going to plan, with just a single podium finish (for the #60 car at Spa) on the 2024 scoreboard through seven races and you have a real problem. Thankfully it was a different story in the ELMS this year, with Hiroshi Hamaguchi, Axcil Jeffries and Andrea Caldarelli clinching the LMGT3 crown at Portimão earlier this month.
Nevertheless, there have been rumblings that service provider/programme partner Iron Lynx may be looking at other options in LMGT3, should things with Lamborghini move in a direction they are unhappy with.
All in all, it’s not a simple puzzle to unpick.
So what are the available options?
In Hypercar, Lamborghini could opt to enter a pair of SC63s for the 2025 WEC season, building on its maiden single-car campaign this year.
The regulations do not permit it to either field a single factory car, or a privately-entered Lamborghini, if two factory-nominated cars are not on the grid. Effectively it is two, or none.
For IMSA the possibilities in GTP are somewhat more flexible. A single car for the full season, a single car for the Endurance Cup, both, or two in either the full season or Endurance Cup, are on the table.
At present a single car is listed for the five Endurance Cup races – but that could change.
In LMGT3 meanwhile, Iron Lynx looks set to continue with Lamborghini, but the likelihood is that the Iron Dames effort may switch to a Manthey-run Porsche in the FIA WEC.
This would see the Dames replace championship winner Pure Rxcing as it takes on the challenge of LMP2 in the Asian LMS and ELMS together with TF Sport. In that case the Dames effort would be racing alongside another new signing for Manthey: Ryan Hardwick.
Crucially, there seems to be no risk of the WEC counting out an LMGT3 effort as a standalone, in the wake of a pause in the Hypercar programme. The WEC’s higher ups look set to play the long game.
A new Lamborghini GT3 car – based around the just launched Temerario road car – is due in 2026, with track testing believed to be getting underway any time now and there may be potential for the SC63 to return to the FIA WEC down the line.
Lamborghini Squadra Corse may for instance, opt to pause the WEC programme and push in the background to free up the subsequent development budget required to take steps forward.
All of the above though is now very urgent, not least because amongst the options to replace the SC63s in the WEC entry are a pair of Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evos.
Those cars need time to be put through LMGT3 homologation, a process not so far undertaken by AMG and which it will not undertake without a guarantee of entries.
