The first WEC race of the season back in February produced a thrilling encounter in LMGT3, arguably the most entertaining race for the young class to date.
TF Sport’s #33 Corvette won from 13th on the grid, securing the Z06 GT3.R its first world championship victory, off the back of strong performances from Ben Keating, Jonny Edgar and a late Daniel Juncadella defensive masterclass.
It was a race which produced a bundle of storylines to follow ahead of the first six-hour race of the year.
The first of which concerns TF Sport and Corvette. Across the globe, the Z06 GT3.R has been scoring standout results so far in 2025. In addition to TF’s Qatar success, AWA won GTD at the Rolex 24 Hours back in January and JMR scored the car its first win in World Challenge Asia earlier this month.
Will this newfound form carry on into the 6 Hours of Imola? TF Sport will head into the race weekend full of hope. The winning car from Round 1 should only improve as Jonny Edgar, who won GTD in a one-off drive with AO Racing at Long Beach last weekend, gets more track time in the car and more LMGT3 experience. Though by winning in Qatar, it must be noted that the #33 will carry 36 kilos of success ballast.
Meanwhile, Charlie Eastwood, Tom Van Rompuy and Rui Andrade in the sister car will be keen to bounce back after retiring from the opener after just 27 laps with an electrical issue. Of note, the trio will be utilising a brand new chassis in Italy, after a testing incident at Spa wrote off the team’s ELMS car before the season started. This prompted Tom Ferrier to call for a brand new chassis for the WEC. Qatar’s #81 will become the new ELMS #82 as a result.
TF’s closest competitor in the Middle East was United Autosports, which took pole with the #95 and scored a mighty second-place finish with the #59 GT3 Evo of Sebastien Baud, James Cottingham and Gregoire Saucy.
It increasingly feels like the Anglo-American team’s first WEC LMGT3 win is coming. Fresh from McLaren announcing its intention to race in the FIA WEC’s Hypercar class in 2027, will Imola prove to be the site where Richard Dean and Zak Brown’s team breaks through?
Much was said and written about the head-turning runs from Corvette and McLaren to kick off the year. Neither marque delivered the biggest surprise though; that honour goes to Lexus after AKKODIS ASP delivered a fine fourth-place finish with the #78 RC F LMGT3.
It was by far the most impressive showing for the Japanese brand in the WEC thus far, after the ASP team’s challenging debut campaign netted a best finish of sixth, at Le Mans. Was it a flash in the pan? That’s the big question. Either way, the entire crew enters the race meeting with a spring in their step, and both RC Fs have received a three per cent increase in power gain after 200 kph in the latest BoP table.
Of note is a driver change within the team – the only one to report in the field. Ben Barnicoat is unable to drive the #78 alongside rapid youngster Finn Gehrsitz and Arnold Robin after injuring himself mountain biking. He will be replaced by a highly capable and familiar face to the team, Esteban Masson, who formed part of the #87 line-up in 2024.
WRT and BMW will also head to Italy full of optimism. The new-look #31 crew of Yasser Shahin, Timur Boguslavskiy and Augusto Farfus took no time at all to gel and make an impact, with a podium finish in Qatar from a starting spot outside the top 10.
Last year the BMW M4 GT3 looked at its strongest at the fabled Autodromo, with WRT capturing a 1-2, a result which would prove to be the highlight of the team’s season.
After starting so strongly with the new Evo-spec M4 in Lusail, it appears there’s every chance Vincent Vosse and co can replicate that winning feeling 12 months on.
Elsewhere in the field, it’s a big week ahead of Vista AF Corse on home soil for Ferrari and drivers Alessio Rovera, Francesco Castellacci and Davide Rigon. The pair of 296 LMGT3s had a rather anonymous start to the season, though both the #21 and #54 finished inside the points.
The pair of wins captured at the end of last season showed the potential of this group. What better place to rediscover that form than Ferrari’s backyard?
For the remaining quartet of brands – Aston Martin, Ford, Mercedes-AMG and Porsche – Sunday’s race provides an ideal opportunity to bank a strong performance and calm the nerves before the most important stretch of the season.
Perhaps Aston Martin is best positioned to show off its race-winning and title-challenging credentials. Heart of Racing’s #27 came home sixth in Qatar and, with its strong line-up of Mattia Drudi, Ian James and Zach Robichon, has every chance of delivering a strong result.
Racing Spirit of Leman’s trio in the other Vantage may prove to be one to keep an eye on too, as the Swiss team looks to build on its ninth-place finish on debut.
The enigma is Porsche. After a dominant 2024 campaign, the two 911 GT3 Rs from Manthey 1st Phorm and Iron Dames finished 11th and 12th in Qatar and were nowhere on pace. Will it prove to be an anomaly, attributed to the ebb and flow of BoP, or the start of a tricky campaign? The latest BoP alterations suggest things may improve, as the 911s will run 16 kilos lighter and with an additional 7 MJ of maximum stint energy.
Beyond that, Iron Dames certainly made the case earlier this month in the ELMS season opener that the best is yet to come.
Following a rough Asian Le Mans Series campaign and tough trip to Lusail for Michelle Gatting and the team’s new Bronze Celia Martin, the pair played a role in dominating the 4 Hours of Barcelona. Martin in particular stood out, putting in by far her most impressive performance with the team to this point.
The same can be said for Iron Lynx, which showed real promise in Spain with its ELMS-entered AMG GT3, scoring pole position and running at the front of the field before hitting terminal trouble late in the race.
With the programme coming together with Mercedes-AMG so late and the brand not yet fully up to speed with torque sensors, Qatar was always going to be a struggle. “We didn’t even know if we would make the race,” team boss Andrea Piccini admitted to DSC in hindsight.
Data gathering was the sole aim in its first outing with its new partner OEM back in February. Now, with that initial struggle out of the way, expectations will almost certainly still be kept in check, but the focus can shift to closing the performance gap with the other brands.
That leaves Ford’s outfit, Proton Competition. The hope for Christian Ried’s team is that its Mustangs will no longer prove to be a fire hazard after two additional mishaps in Qatar (believed to have been caused by the silencers now in place on each LMGT3 car) set the team back enormously.
The bottom line is if the team can put all its reliability worries to bed, then there’s real potential here. Proton knows what it takes to win in the WEC, the Mustang GT3 is now a more mature package (which lest we forget won the Rolex 24 Hours a few months ago) and there’s top talent in the team’s ranks in the form of rising star Ben Tuck, and factory drivers Ben Barker and Dennis Olsen.
The Mustangs will also benefit from a 21 kg weight break to 1328, making them the lightest cars in the field.
A trouble-free weekend with both cars in the points would be welcomed with open arms by everyone in the garage.
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