The three-race European leg of the 2025 FIA WEC season starts this weekend with a six-hour clash at Imola. All eyes will be on Ferrari, which is looking to put on a show in front of its home fans and follow up on its dominant display in Qatar back in February to kick off the season.
Last year’s 6 Hours in Italy was a real barn-burner, with rain showers shaking up the race and ultimately, through strategic errors, costing the ‘Prancing Horse’ a famous home victory. This year’s edition has a lot to live up to, but with a field this deep, there’s every chance we’ll leave Emilia-Romagna with plenty of talking points to discuss as Le Mans approaches.
Covering off Ferrari first, there’s every reason to believe that the 499P as a package will be a tough nut to crack for the opposition once again in Imola.
The car was rapid on the 4.9 km circuit last year and looked destined to power AF Corse to a dominant victory before a gamble on tyres that didn’t pay off in changing conditions handed the advantage to Toyota. The team will be desperate to avoid similar disappointment this time around and heads into the weekend high on confidence.
Both factory cars were in fine form in Qatar, with the #50 of Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina taking the win and the #51 of James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Gionvinazzi finishing third. Adding to the positivity party, the privately entered #83 of Robert Kubica, Ye Yifei, and Phil Hanson made it a 1-2-3 by coming home second and fought for the win until the closing stages.
If it is Ferrari which finishes on top at home, then it’s hard to pick a favourite from the three, though it feels at this stage like the #51 crew has the most to prove. Their one and only Hypercar win came at Centenary Le Mans back in June of 2023. A second visit to the top step of the podium seems long overdue.
If not Ferrari, then who else should we expect to be in the mix for the win?
Toyota Gazoo Racing, as ever, is one to watch. It picked up plenty of points in Qatar, with the GR010s finishing fifth and sixth on a circuit that the team feels doesn’t suit its package, and a win at last year’s race in Italy is reason for optimism.
BMW Team WRT also ran well in Imola last year, with the #20 finishing an encouraging sixth in the team’s second ever race in the class. Better still, the M Hybrid V8 looks like a more complete package, showing real pace on both sides of the Atlantic since the IMSA season got underway back in January.
Dries Vanthoor has led the line for BMW in both GTP and Hypercar this year, scoring pole position for the Bavarian marque in Daytona, Sebring, and Long Beach and sticking the #15 on the front row in Qatar. So keep an eye out for another standout performance here.
The issue has come in the win column, as through four races in 2025 for BMW’s prototype programme with RLL and WRT, speed on Qualifying day hasn’t translated into a single victory. Vincent Vosse and co have a real chance to change that this week, though, as the programme has never looked more competitive or poised to score BMW its first-ever WEC overall win.
Cadillac shouldn’t be counted out either, even though 2025 hasn’t been kind to General Motors’ LMDh efforts to this point.
JOTA’s debut as a factory Hypercar service provider showed real promise in Lusail before disaster struck. The cars sat 1-2 at the head of the field during the race before Alex Lynn and Jenson Button infamously came together at a botched safety car restart and ended any chance of a podium for either car.
Add that to disappointments for Wayne Taylor Racing and Action Express Racing through the opening trio of IMSA races, and it’s becoming harder to predict where the next big result for the V-Series.R will come from.
This weekend, therefore, serves as a real opportunity to kick-start the season with a big result and put Cadillac’s sportscar activities back on course.
Cadillac has a world-class team, a set of six world-class drivers and a car that’s proven its worth over multiple seasons for its WEC effort. If it all comes together and the V-Series.R looks like a better prospect on the undulating Italian circuit than it did last year, then the sky’s the limit.
The pair of V8-powered prototypes has had multiple tweaks made to their BoP values for the weekend. They will run 11 kilos heavier, and with a -1.4 per cent power gain after 250 kph, but with a 7 kw increase in power below 250 and an additional eight MJs in stint energy.
Porsche’s situation is a similar one to Cadillac in the WEC, as Penske is eager to put its rather disappointing Qatar trip behind it and find a way to fight at the sharp end once again.
Over in the US, it’s been a near-perfect start to 2025 for Roger Penske’s team, winning all three races, but in the WEC opener, it could only muster 10th and 11th, and on a circuit which Porsche dominated at in 2024. Was BoP to blame for the drop-off, or has the competition upped its game over the off-season? It’s likely a combination of both factors. Regardless, there’s no reason to push the panic button.
As for Proton Competition and its privately run 963, Imola, like Qatar, will likely serve as another learning exercise for Nico Pino and Nico Varrone, who are still getting to grips with life in Hypercar. Fighting for points will surely be the target.
Of note, the latest round of BoP changes sees the 963s handed an 11 kg weight break, a minus 5 KW power reduction below 250 kph and a -0.2 per cent reduction in power gain above 250.
What about the French OEMs? Will they begin to gain traction as the all-important 24-hour race at home approaches?
The brains trust at Alpine believes the A424 has the potential to regularly fight at the front end following its first ‘Joker’ update, played over the off-season to improve its V6 engine.
However, Qatar didn’t go the way of the Signatech-run team, which failed to sneak a car into the top 10. Last year’s visit to Imola was a disappointment too, with neither crew coming away with points on the board.
The hope is that the team’s fortunes will change on its second visit, which will see the blue prototypes race two kilos lighter and with 11 additional KW below 250 kph, plus a three MJ increase in stint energy.
The same narrative can be applied to Peugeot. The 9X8 has been updated for 2025, but the team feels the characteristics of the billiard-table-smooth Qatar circuit didn’t showcase the car’s true potential.
The #93 of Mikkel Jensen, Paul Di Resta and Jean-Eric Vergne did at least score points in ninth.
That leaves the Aston Martin THOR Team. The Valkyrie’s hectic start to competitive life continues this week, following two hugely challenging IMSA races at Sebring and Long Beach over the past month.
Ultimate speed hasn’t been unlocked just yet, but there have been plenty of early progress markers to celebrate.
The team got one of the two WEC chassis to the finish in Qatar, and the single example that’s taking on the IMSA GTP season finished an impressive ninth in Sebring on debut and had a trouble-free run on the streets of Long Beach last week.
Another metronomic performance would go a long way in building confidence within the team that big results will be possible down the line, once more data has been gathered and lessons have been learned.
The second part of DSC’s Imola preview, covering the LMGT3 runners, can be found HERE >>>
