Rounding out the field in this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans is the LMGT3 class, the largest of the three categories with 25 cars. At Le Mans, the 18 full-season WEC entries are joined by seven wildcard entries representing the European and Asian Le Mans Series, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and GT World Challenge Europe.
It’s been 20 years since the very first GT3 race in Silverstone, and since then it’s grown into one of the most popular forms of racing around the world, for professional drivers of all skill levels. If there have been any apprehensions about LMGT3 replacing GTE as the standard of grand touring racing in the WEC, the level of competition hasn’t been one of them. Though at Le Mans, Manthey has been by far and away the gold standard over these last two years.
Early on in 2026, five out of the nine LMGT3 manufacturers have put one of their cars on the podium in WEC. That includes Porsche and Ferrari, who along with Ford have introduced new Evo kits for their established GT3 platforms in 2026.
The mix of 75 drivers in this year’s field include 12 drivers with either an overall or major class victory at Le Mans, and 22 rookies – ranging from ex-Formula 1 talent to prominent factory drivers to ambitious amateur and emerging young drivers realizing a personal dream of competing on the biggest stage of endurance racing.
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3
#23 Heart of Racing Team 🇺🇸 WEC
Gray Newell 🔰🇺🇸 (B) / Eduardo Barrichello 🇧🇷 (S) / Jonny Adam ⭐️🇬🇧 (P)
#27 Heart of Racing Team 🇺🇸 WEC
Ian James 🇺🇸 (B) / Zacharie Robichon 🇨🇦 (S) / Mattia Drudi 🇮🇹 (P)
#59 Racing Spirit of Léman 🇫🇷 ELMS
Clément Mateu 🔰🇫🇷 (B) / Marius Fossard 🔰🇫🇷 (S) / Valentin Hasse-Clot 🇫🇷 (G)
Aston Martin has had a fair bit of success at Le Mans in the GT ranks over the last two decades; from the DBR9 GT1 to two different generations of the Vantage in GTE. In 2026, three iterations of the current V8-powered Vantage AMR (LM)GT3 have a great opportunity to extend Aston Martin’s winning tradition into the new era of GT competition.
This year’s three-car entry is comprised of the two full-time WEC cars from Heart of Racing Team, joined by a one-off entry from former WEC competitors Racing Spirit of Léman, who’ve been invited out of the European Le Mans Series. On the Heart of Racing side, this is also the 25th straight Le Mans for renowned operational and technical partner Prodrive. It’s an occasion that everyone at Prodrive would love to celebrate with a victory.
Leading the way is the #27 Heart of Racing Vantage of veteran driver/team principal Ian James, Canadian Silver specialist Zacharie Robichon, and perhaps the superstar of Aston Martin’s factory GT drivers – the speedy Italian Mattia Drudi. Last year Drudi put this car on pole position, en route to a fourth-place finish for the #27 team. They’re coming off a runner-up finish in the 6 Hours of Spa; on paper, this is one of LMGT3’s strongest driver combinations from top to bottom. James still has strong racing instincts, Robichon has been generally excellent in his WEC career, and there’s not much else to write about Drudi that hasn’t been already written, he’s that spectacular.
Heart of Racing’s new-for-2026 #23 car is headlined by a two-time GT class winner at Le Mans, Jonny Adam. Adam hasn’t run this race since his GTE Am victory in 2020, but he’s hardly been sitting idle in that time, and together with last year’s WEC “Revelation of the Year” Eduardo Barrichello and debuting young Bronze driver Gray Newell, this entry also has the potential for a strong result. Barrichello has the makings of a future top-tier works GT driver, of course. Success in the race may hinge on the form of Newell: The son of Heart of Racing co-founder Gabe Newell has driven at the Circuit de la Sarthe before, but it’s his first time in the main event.
RSL’s all-French line-up is headlined by Valentin Hasse-Clot alongside two rookies at the 24H, Clément Mateu and Marius Fossard. They’ve struggled early on in the 2026 ELMS season, leading to tempered expectations going up against a very tough field – but they will try and put their best foot forward for a good result.
We’ve only seen the new Vantage AMR GT3 win once in the WEC’s new era, back in 2024 at COTA. So this feels like as good a time as any for one of these three Aston Martins to put the British marque back on the top step of the rostrum – the platform is there to make it happen.
BMW M4 LMGT3 Evo
#32 Team WRT 🇧🇪 WEC
Darren Leung 🇬🇧 (B) / Sean Gelael 🇮🇩 (S) / Augusto Farfus 🇧🇷 (P)
#69 Team WRT 🇧🇪 WEC
Anthony McIntosh 🔰🇺🇸 (B) / Parker Thompson 🔰🇨🇦 (S) / Dan Harper 🔰🇬🇧 (P)
Team WRT’s reputation as an elite sports car racing team was built upon its windfall of success in GT racing. The Belgian team was, and still is, the first and greatest dynasty of GT3 racing around the world: If there was a major endurance race or championship to win, a WRT Audi or BMW has won it, often several times over.
Since then, WRT has spread its wings, won LMP2 at Le Mans, and become the leading BMW racing team in endurance racing, representing the Bavarian marque in WEC Hypercar and now IMSA GTP. One would have expected when the LMGT3 era began that WRT would effortlessly continue its winning ways, and while the team and its BMW M4 GT3s have won in WEC, it hasn’t been as frequently, and it hasn’t yet come at Le Mans.
Two years ago, the trio of Darren Leung, Sean Gelael, and Augusto Farfus finished second at Le Mans behind the winning Manthey Porsche – that’s as close as one of the WRT BMWs has come to winning here so far. After a year adrift, Leung and Gelael came back to WRT this year to rejoin Farfus in the #32 BMW; they had a decent showing at Imola, but Farfus, the 20-year BMW factory mainstay, took a lot of heat for his role in an incident with the #51 Ferrari 499P in Spa. The Brazilian will be motivated to get back to his best form, alongside Leung and Gelael, who are two solid drivers in their roles.
But it’s the new-look #69 BMW which has people buzzing with excitement. The livery pays homage to the Gulf-liveried McLaren F1 GTRs of yesteryear (all of them powered by BMW V12 engines), and though the three drivers may be Le Mans rookies, they are all outstanding additions. Of BMW’s factory drivers, Dan Harper is one of the youngest and most exciting talents to come through their junior system, and many are eager to see what the rapid Ulsterman can do on his debut. He’s joined by an excellent Bronze in Anthony McIntosh – whose inspirational rise from MX-5 Cup to the WEC in just six years, all after defeating a life-threatening illness, has been nothing short of incredible – and an equally-capable Silver in Parker Thompson, who boasts a mighty track record of his own in IMSA.
At Imola, the #69 BMW of McIntosh, Thompson, and Harper broke a two-year winless drought in WEC LMGT3. It showed that even without the star power of Valentino Rossi and Kelvin van der Linde here at Le Mans this go-around, optimism is still plentiful in the WRT camp – as it should be.
We certainly know the M4 GT3 EVO is a capable platform, and WRT has regularly gotten the most of it in endurance races since last year. It’s just perplexing that it hasn’t yet come to fruition at Le Mans. Will this be the year that this combination finally realises all that potential?
Chevrolet Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R
#2 TF Sport 🇬🇧 INV
Prince Jefri Ibrahim 🔰🇲🇾 (B) / Lorcan Hanafin 🇬🇧 (S) / Ben Green 🔰🇬🇧 (P)
#13 13 Autosport 🇨🇦 IMSA
Orey Fidani 🇨🇦 (B) / Lars Kern 🇩🇪 (S) / Matthew Bell 🇬🇧 (G)
#33 TF Sport 🇬🇧 WEC
Ben Keating ⭐️🇺🇸 (B) / Jonny Edgar 🇬🇧 (S) / Nicky Catsburg ⭐️🇳🇱 (P)
#34 Racing Team Turkey by TF 🇹🇷 WEC
Peter Dempsey 🔰🇮🇪 (B) / Salih Yoluç ⭐️🇹🇷 (S) / Charlie Eastwood ⭐️🇮🇪 (G)
2026 is a milestone year for Chevrolet and the flagship Corvette sports car at Le Mans: It’s the 25th anniversary of Corvette Racing’s first victory with the C5-R, the first of nine Le Mans class wins for the Pratt Miller-run factory squad. And with four cars in the field, this is an excellent chance for the newest Corvette Z06 GT3.R to join four other generations of racing ‘Vettes as part of the manufacturer’s proud Le Mans legacy.
All four Chevrolets are run in whole or in part by WEC customer TF Sport. Tom Ferrier’s squad has already won with the Corvette in WEC, and before then, it won Le Mans with Aston Martin two times in 2020 and 2022. From a somewhat difficult start in 2024, TF Sport and Corvette have consistently trended upward ever since.
Most eyes will be on the yellow #33 Corvette, and the reunion of 2023 GTE Am winners Ben Keating and Nicky Catsburg. The charismatic Keating has long been regarded as one of the top Bronze drivers of this era, and his connection with Catsburg and Nico Varrone throughout 2023 formed an incredible effort in the final year of GTE. But Keating is just coming off a training injury that shelved him for the first two races, so will he be able to return in his usual, excellent form? There’s less hesitation around Catsburg, who enters Le Mans as the co-leader in a tight IMSA GTD Pro title race. Taking Varrone’s place from three years ago is Jonny Edgar, the outstanding young Silver-graded sophomore who can give the top pros a run for their money.
2020 Le Mans GTE Am class winner Charlie Eastwood finished third in LMGT3 last year driving the other TF Sport Corvette, which has now rebranded and renumbered into the #34 Racing Team Turkey by TF entry. Eastwood and his long-time co-driver Salih Yoluç are previous Le Mans class winners with years of experience, and the debut of Indy Lights cult hero Peter Dempsey after more than a decade away from racing is a very exciting prospect. The results so far this year have not been a reflection of what the #34 team is capable of, which is a genuine threat for the win.
Formerly AWA, Canadian team 13 Autosport returns to Le Mans after owner/driver Orey Fidani won his second consecutive IMSA Bob Akin Award, given to the top Bronze driver in the series’ GTD class. Fidani returns with his red and white maple-leaf liveried #13 Corvette, along with his regular supporting cast of experienced GT endurance racers Lars Kern and Matthew Bell. There’s a lot of confidence within this group that it can build upon a solid top-ten finish from last year.
TF Sport also cashed in an invitation from winning the 2025 ELMS title – but the #2 car at Le Mans is, for all intents and purposes, Malaysia’s Johor Motorsports Racing (JMR) making its Le Mans debut. This is a proud moment for Prince Jefri Ibrahim of the Johor royal family, who’s steadily built this team into a leading force in GT World Challenge Asia, while building his own driving skills. He and co-driver Ben Green were part of a very successful first year as part of the Corvette Racing family, springing JMR towards bigger ambitions on the world stage. Lorcan Hanafin, who has experience with the Z06 GT3.R, was a last-minute addition to the team; he makes his second start after debuting with Iron Lynx last year.
There’s a lot of quality between these four Z06 GT3.Rs. Chevrolet’s customer teams have been strong across WEC, ELMS, and IMSA among others, and it would be no great surprise if any one of these cars ends up on the top step of the podium to claim Corvette’s milestone tenth Le Mans win.
Ferrari 296 LMGT3 Evo
#21 Vista AF Corse 🇮🇹 WEC
François Hériau 🇫🇷 (B) / Simon Mann 🇺🇸 (S) / Alessio Rovera ⭐️🇮🇹 (P)
#54 Vista AF Corse 🇮🇹 WEC
Thomas Flohr 🇨🇭 (B) / Francesco Castellacci 🇮🇹 (S) / Davide Rigon 🇮🇹 (P)
#57 Kessel Racing 🇨🇭 ELMS
Takeshi Kimura 🇯🇵 (B) / Conrad Laursen 🇩🇰 (S) / Daniel Serra ⭐️🇧🇷 (P)
#74 Kessel Racing 🇨🇭 GTWC
Dustin Blattner 🔰🇺🇸 (B) / Lorenzo Patrese 🔰🇮🇹 (S) / Dennis Marschall 🔰🇩🇪 (P)
#150 Richard Mille AF Corse 🇮🇹 ELMS
Custodio Toledo 🇧🇷 (B) / Lilou Wadoux 🇫🇷 (S) / Riccardo Agostini 🇮🇹 (G)
Along with its three 499P Hypercars, Ferrari’s presence at Le Mans is completed by the presence of five 296 LMGT3 Evos, the most populous manufacturer in the LMGT3 grid.
Ferrari introduced the 2026 Evo package to make the car a more formidable challenger in traffic as well as in clean air. It’s been an effective upgrade in multiple championships, and will certainly serve AF Corse and Kessel Racing’s cars well at Le Mans.
Of course, AF Corse’s Ferrari 499Ps have won overall the last three years. Prior success in the GT classes with Ferrari is what made their ascent to Hypercar possible; AF Corse’s last GT class triumphs at Le Mans came in 2021 when the Italian team swept both GTE Pro and GTE Am. Vista AF Corse hasn’t yet won LMGT3 at Le Mans, but they did come closest last year, finishing second with the #21 car of François Heriau, Simon Mann, and Alessio Rovera.
The good news is that all three AF Corse LMGT3 entries are back with the same driver line-ups as last year; The #21 Ferrari is expected to lead the way, with its strong line-up anchored by one of WEC’s top Bronze drivers in Heriau, the rapidly-improving Mann, and Rovera, who many fans hope to see in a Hypercar very soon – but for now, he is the ace driver of the Ferrari factory GT driver stable.
It’d be a good opportunity for the #54 machine of Thomas Flohr, Francesco Castellacci, and factory Ferrari mainstay Davide Rigon to break a brace of back-to-back Le Mans DNFs; an early crash in ’24 and mechanical troubles in ’25 have kept this group from keeping pace with the other full-season WEC entry. Flohr and Castellacci have been racing here together for almost ten years and would love to finally get their first Le Mans class win – and for what it’s worth, Castellacci did set the fastest LMGT3 time during test day.
The #150 Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari also returns from last year, with Custodio Toledo, Lilou Wadoux, and Riccardo Agostini all returning in a Brazilian-themed livery in deference to Toledo. If he can put together a clean drive in the race, the skilled, young duo of Agostini and Wadoux will have the opportunity to drive this car towards the front. And while Wadoux has never particularly cared for gender-centric accolades, it can’t go unspoken that if she wins LMGT3, she’ll be the first woman to score a class win at Le Mans in 48 years – and that is quite significant.
Swiss team Kessel Racing returns to Le Mans with two entries won via two ‘golden tickets’ for winning the Asian Le Mans Series GT title and the GT World Challenge Europe Bronze Cup. Of all the ‘wild card’ entries, theirs may be the most capable of grabbing Le Mans class honours from all the WEC regulars.
Takeshi Kimura and his CarGuy Racing outfit head up the #57 team, which also benefits from the speed and tenacity of experienced Brazilian Daniel Serra, a two-time GT class winner at Le Mans. Together, they’re coming off a win in the most recent ELMS round at Le Castellet, which has catapulted them to the lead of the series’ standings. Conrad Laursen fulfills the Silver driver obligation in his second Le Mans start – the Dane is still so very young, and with lots of room to improve with experience.
And while the #74 has three Le Mans debutants on board, it will be a car to watch closely. American Dustin Blattner has rapidly emerged as one of GT racing’s best Bronze drivers, forming an electric connection with former Audi works driver Dennis Marschall. Together, they romped to the GT World Europe Bronze Cup and Asian Le Mans GT titles. Meanwhile, second-generation driver Lorenzo Patrese has all the makings of a future superstar in this sport: He’s shown incredible speed behind the wheel of a Ferrari GT car on multiple continents, in many other series.
Between AF Corse and Kessel’s entries, there’s several strong contenders for Ferrari to grab its first LMGT3 class win at Le Mans – you never know, it could even bolster a Ferrari double victory come Sunday afternoon.
Ford Mustang LMGT3
#77 Proton Competition 🇩🇪 WEC
Eric Powell 🔰🇺🇸 (B) / Ben Tuck 🇬🇧 (S) / Sebastian Priaulx 🇬🇧 (P)
#88 Proton Competition 🇩🇪 WEC
Stefano Gattuso 🇮🇹 (B) / Giammarco Levorato 🇮🇹 (S) / Logan Sargeant 🔰🇺🇸 (P)
It was just two years ago that two-time Le Mans class-winning squad Proton Competition debuted the new Ford Mustang GT3 at Le Mans and exceeded modest expectations with a third and fourth-place finish. Now, Proton’s pony cars could give Ford a very lovely anniversary gift at La Sarthe.
As many may know, it’s been 60 years since the Ford GT40’s first and most famous win at Le Mans over Ferrari in 1966. And if you can believe it, it’s also the 10th anniversary of the modern Ford GTE’s Le Mans win in 2016. The new Mustang (LM)GT3 Evo kit debuted this year, and the refinements which have provided a wider operating window and a more well-rounded package have paid dividends in many series. Just not the WEC, at least not through the first two races.
Let’s not forget either, this is also the prologue to Ford’s long-anticipated return to the top class at Le Mans in 2027. Safe to say that expectations will be high for Ford Racing, which proudly presents itself as “America’s Race Team” these days, along with its German customer team.
The #77 Mustang features rookie Eric Powell, a former stunt driver who fought and clawed his way up the American sports car racing ladder to this opportunity. Silver-graded Ben Tuck is a true X-factor: His speed in the rain nearly netted Ford its first WEC win in COTA last year. And after four years away from this event, young second-generation star Sebastian Priaulx returns to Le Mans as one of the ‘trajectory drivers’ who’ll be part of Ford Racing’s WEC Hypercar programme next year. He’s a prodigious talent who’s already left his mark on Ford’s GT racing programmes in North America.
The other future Hypercar driver is two-year F1 veteran Logan Sargeant, by far the biggest mainstream draw in LMGT3 this year as he makes his first start at Le Mans. The 25-year-old American in the #88 Ford is due for a standout performance after spending the first two races trying to find his feet again in sports cars. His co-drivers, both Italian, have plenty of GT racing experience: Stefano Gattuso, once a top talent in GT3 competition, returned to racing recently and has become a top Bronze driver in WEC, maybe the best of the pack. And don’t overlook what young Giammarco Levorato can accomplish – he has as much experience in the Mustang GT3 as any of Ford’s coveted factory stars.
For Proton Competition and Ford, the potential is there, the people are in place – but now is the time for them to deliver on all fronts.
Lexus RC F LMGT3
#78 Akkodis ASP Team 🇫🇷 WEC
Tom van Rompuy 🇧🇪 (B) / Hadrien David 🔰🇫🇷 (S) / Jack Hawksworth 🇬🇧 (P)
#87 Akkodis ASP Team 🇫🇷 WEC
Petru Umbrǎrescu 🇷🇴 (B) / Clemens Schmid 🇦🇹 (S) / José Maria López ☆🇦🇷 (P)
This year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans should mark the end of an era for Lexus and the greater Toyota Motor Corporation. This is expected to be the last year for the Lexus RC F as the Japanese brand’s GT3 challenger in all major series including the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Next year, Toyota will launch its new GR GT3, and Akkodis ASP Team already has plans to bring the car to the WEC, and Le Mans, by this time next year. In this farewell year for the RC F, there’s still one more chance for Jérôme Policand’s team to claim victory in LMGT3 in the biggest race of the year.
It would also tick the box that Policand tried for many years to achieve as a driver, to reach the top step of the podium at Le Mans, now as the owner of a team which has gone from a powerhouse in GT World Challenge to a strong challenger in the WEC.
For the third year in a row, Jack Hawksworth has been added to replace one of ASP’s regular drivers. Thankfully, the past IMSA GTD Pro champion, who’s driven for Lexus since the RC F GT3 made its North American debut, wasn’t a last-minute call-up due to injury. Esteban Masson’s prior commitments in LMP2 mean that “The Hawk” will slide into Masson’s spot in the blue and yellow #78 car alongside Belgian Tom van Rompuy, who finished third here last year, and another outstanding young French driver, the debuting Le Mans Cup champion Hadrien David. This is yet another car whose early season results aren’t indicative of what it can achieve in the race, after suffering a technical issue at Spa.
The green and black #87 car features the same line-up as last year, with 2021 overall winner José Maria López as the front man alongside Romanian Petru Umbrǎrescu and Austrian Clemens Schmid, who ran well in his debut last year. Last year, this group captured a best-ever Le Mans finish for the RC F in fifth place, and then took the car’s first two WEC race wins. López feels right at home here in an environment not unlike that of his touring car heyday, and still has a lot to give and prove as a driver.
Many still marvel at the RC F GT3’s age relative to the newer generations of cars in its class, and how it’s able to achieve strong results as time has gone on. Now in its 11th year of full-scale racing, can a Le Mans win go down as maybe the last great triumph for the rumbling V8-powered Japanese stalwart?
McLaren (720S) LMGT3 Evo
#10 Garage 59 🇬🇧 WEC
Antares Au 🇭🇰 (B) / Thomas Fleming 🔰🇬🇧 (S) / Marvin Kirchhöfer 🔰🇩🇪 (P)
#58 Garage 59 🇬🇧 WEC
Alexander West 🇸🇪 (B) / Finn Gehrsitz 🇩🇪 (S) / Benjamin Goethe 🔰🇩🇰 (G)
One of the most compelling stories of the early 2026 WEC season has been how quickly Garage 59 has acclimated to stepping up as McLaren’s full-season LMGT3 representative. The team certainly has a track record of excellence with McLaren in SRO competition, so its ability to get the most out of the car was never in doubt.
But as always, change is hard. United Autosports bowing out of WEC to prepare for the launch of the McLaren Hypercar programme presented the team with a new opportunity, and through the first two races, it seems like they’ve made the most of it with the 720S-based GT3 EVO.
The peak of which came last round at Spa-Francorchamps when the #10 McLaren of Antares Au, Tom Fleming, and Marvin Kirchhöfer took the victory. This combination has been excellent since the start of the year. Au is a colourful character who always gives an honest effort in his stints behind the wheel; if not always the quickest, he will try his best to run a mistake-free race. Kirchhöfer’s Le Mans debut is frankly well-overdue for the young German who has been the pillar of McLaren’s GT racing programme for many years, a real world-class competitor. But 23-year-old Briton Fleming has been the early contender for 2026’s revelation of the year, among the fastest drivers in all of LMGT3 – as a rookie, just three years removed from his car racing debut!
The #10 crew’s early success is amazing, but it should not overshadow what is a solid crew in car #58 with team co-owner and driver Alexander West bringing years of experience and success to his Bronze role, the quick young German Finn Gehrsitz looking to settle in after his move from ASP/Lexus, and the multi-national young talent that is Benjamin Goethe, yet another of the few but very mighty McLaren GT works drivers, eager to make an impression on his Le Mans debut.
It all looks incredible on paper, but McLaren’s struggles for reliability in the major 24-hour races may keep people from being bullish on any chance of victory. Only one 720S GT3 has finished Le Mans in the last two years (several laps off the lead), and United Autosports’ two-car effort didn’t see the chequered flag in ’24 and ’25.
For either Garage 59 car to have any chance at winning, both cars have to first and foremost avoid any major mechanical trouble. But if they do, they have two cars that are plenty capable of winning.
Mercedes-AMG LMGT3
#61 Iron Lynx 🇮🇹 WEC
Martin Berry 🇦🇺 (B) / Rui Andrade 🇦🇴 (S) / Maxime Martin ⭐️🇧🇪 (P)
#62 Team Qatar by Iron Lynx 🇶🇦 ELMS
Abdulla Al-Khelaifi 🔰🇶🇦 (B) / Julian Hanses 🔰🇩🇪 (S) / Giuliano Alesi 🔰🇫🇷 (G)
#79 Iron Lynx 🇮🇹 WEC
Johannes Zelger 🔰🇮🇹 (B) / Matteo Cressoni 🇮🇹 (S) / Lin Hodenius 🇳🇱 (S)
Last year, pigs flew over the skies of a freezing cold Hades, and Mercedes-AMG returned to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Mercedes was the latest addition to the LMGT3 grid, with three entries from Iron Lynx. Once again, Iron Lynx returns with three Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVOs, all in traditional German racing silver.
2025 was a difficult year for Iron Lynx on many fronts, headlined by the Italian team’s off-track turmoil. The 24 Hours of Le Mans debut for the acclaimed AMG GT3 platform was underwhelming, a reflection of the 2025 season as a whole. Of the nine LMGT3 manufacturers, the Silver Arrows are the ones with the most to prove at Le Mans.
Of the three entries, the #61 car is the standout favourite for a strong result. The combination of Martin Berry and Rui Andrade give the car two excellent drivers to fulfill the obligatory Bronze and Silver roles. Berry is in his element driving a Mercedes, and Andrade is an adaptable driver coming off a podium with TF Sport/Corvette last year. Maxime Martin won GTE Pro in 2020, and is coming off a Nürburgring 24 Hours win. He and Berry scored Iron Lynx’s best WEC finish last year, a second-place in Bahrain, to close out what had been an otherwise trying season.
Iron Lynx’s second WEC entry, the #79, has two Silver drivers aboard it – but new Mercedes-AMG’s newest factory junior Lin Hodenius is the ace of the staff, coming off a distinguished year in 2025 alongside Berry and Martin. For his second Le Mans start, the young Dutchman is alongside longtime Iron Lynx stalwart Matteo Cressoni, and rookie Johannes Zelger, in a car that’s not yet distinguished itself this year.
Also getting on the grid is Team Qatar by Iron Lynx, backed by the West Asian country’s motorsport federation. From the full-season ELMS programme, Qatari driver Abdulla Al-Khelafi brings a solid Porsche Cup background to his first Le Mans, and German Julian Hanses has been part of the QMMF’s early successes on the way to Le Mans. Joining them this year is a local hero, Giuliano Alesi, who’s best known these days as a race-winning GT500 driver in SUPER GT for Toyota Team TOM’S. The son of Jean Alesi and actress Kumiko Goto has also raced – and won – 24-hour races in the AMG GT3 before. All he lacks is experience around the Circuit de la Sarthe.
WEC has not yet seen the results that have made the Mercedes-AMG customer racing programme such a force in nearly every other championship with GT3 cars in it. A good Le Mans showing isn’t completely out of reach, though, and it could come this year.
Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3
#91 Manthey DK Engineering 🇩🇪 WEC
James Cottingham 🇬🇧 (B) / Timur Boguslavskiy — (S) / Ayhancan Güven 🔰🇹🇷 (P)
#92 The Bend Manthey 🇩🇪 WEC
Yasser Shahin ⭐️🇦🇺 (B) / Riccardo Pera ⭐️🇮🇹 (S) / Richard Lietz ⭐️🇦🇹 (P)
Well, this is odd, isn’t it? The very end of the LMGT3 preview brings us to the only Porsche cars in the field this year. In 1951, two Porsche 356 SLs entered the 24 Hours of Le Mans; one crashed out before the start of the race, but the other would win its class, the first of 112 total class wins for the German marque, including 19 overall wins – still the most of any manufacturer. Porsche and Manthey will pay homage to that original 356 SL with its special Silver liveries, as part of Porsche Motorsport’s 75th anniversary celebrations.
But with the withdrawal of the Porsche 963 Hypercar programme from the WEC (and this race), more manufacturers in the GT class, limited grid slots, and no additional invitations extended to Porsche customer teams over the winter, Manthey’s two Porsche 911 GT3 Rs make up the smallest Porsche contingent at Le Mans since that first entry in ’51. It does feel strange to see more Porsche works drivers driving cars built by ORECA, but such is the situation this year.
And yet, with only two chances to add another Le Mans class win to the ledger, Manthey represents the safest hands that those chances could be entrusted to. Manthey cars have won LMGT3 at Le Mans in each of the two years of this year, and gone on to win the FIA LMGT3 Endurance Trophy at the end of these past two seasons. The new 992.2 evolution of the GT3 R brought crucial aero and suspension changes to give the car a wider window at every circuit, and Manthey’s revised line-ups have the potential to do it all again.
On the driver front, Richard Lietz in his 20th Le Mans is the man who can make history this year, with a seventh GT class win. To highlight how rare that is, only Tom Kristensen has more overall or class wins in the Grand Prix d’Endurance. Lietz has another great supporting cast in the #92 Porsche to help him do it: Co-champion Riccardo Pera was a dynamo last year on the way to the LMGT3 win and the title in 2025, and it’s a wonder how he’s not already grouped with the top GT works drivers like Lietz. Taking Ryan Hardwick’s place from last year’s winning line-up is Australian Bronze driver Yasser Shahin, who won with Lietz in 2024. They’ve gone on about their business early in the WEC season with back-to-back podiums, and are poised to be one of the favourites for the win again.
But for all the talk about the reigning winners, the #91 Porsche has a solid crew as well, starring Turkish sensation Ayhancan Güven in his Le Mans debut. He’s one of Porsche’s newest works drivers, a just reward for winning the DTM title in 2025. Güven also has strong endurance racing credentials and results to his name. He’ll be joined by designated Silver Timur Boguslavskiy, who’s now making his third Le Mans start with as many manufacturers, and James Cottingham, who’s just eager to reach the chequered flag at Le Mans in his third entry.
There can be no doubt that with the combination of the evolved 911 GT3 R, the support of the powerhouse Manthey team, and its drivers, that Porsche can still steal some headlines this year. Even when it’s not part of the fight in the premier class.
Images © Peter “Pedro” May, Andrew Lofthouse / dailysportscar.com
