The 2026/ 27 Asian Le Mans Series entry is currently coming together with significant numbers in both LMP2 and GT3, but the newly introduced Hypercar class looks set to feature very possibly as few as two full-season cars with a couple of other possible part-season additions. So why so few?
Announced in the summer of 2025, the prospect of Hypercar being added to the Asian Le Mans Series was a big headline, with the additional quirk of this being the first time Hypercars would be run with Pro-Am driver line-ups mandated. To that point, only one Bronze-rated driver, Ben Keating, had sampled a Hypercar/GTP in competition with a one-off appearance in the Rolex 24 Hours with JDC Miller in 2024.
It was not a happy outing, Ben proclaiming that the experience had not been a pleasant one. The 963, even for its factory pros, proved to be one of the least driver-friendly of the current crop of top-class prototypes.
One driver’s experience, though, has not removed the appeal for some to sample the current top class in sportscar racing, and it was on that basis, and with a view to putting Hypercar in front of potential takers from the Asian driver market, and the region’s OEMs. With the ongoing geopolitical uncertainties in the Middle East, though, and the knock-on hit of increased logistical costs going further East finally receiving a knockout blow around the clashing wishes of the Series and MotoGP with regard to Chang Circuit at Buriram, the series ended up, with limited surprise to all interested parties, being announced as taking place entirely in Southern Europe.
There were other options and proposals, notably one that could have seen the series relocating to Australia with potential rounds at The Bend, which hosted in 2020, and, apparently, Phillip Island and/or Sydney Motorsport Park. That though, fell victim to cost, again impacted by the woes in the Gulf with fuel prices and air fares as well as freight costs both increasing and erratic.
Southern Europe it was then, and this dealt something of a body blow to some potential programmes. In the words of one seasoned and successful Bronze-ranked LMP2 driver – “It’s already four times plus more expensive than driving a car that is more fun, and less expensive if anything bad happens. But add into the mix that there is no Le Mans invitation to win at the end of it and now that it’s likely to be cold and wet too – I’ll pass!”
On the ‘cold and wet’ front, there is at least some succour for potential entrants: the Hypercars will be permitted tyre warmers, DSC understands. The lack of a Le Mans invitation, though, is a decision that bears some examination. It’s clear that the ACO are trying to reel in a process that up until recently saw c.17 invitations earned via success in an array of series and classes, to a position at present that sees up to 11 awarded via ELMS, IMSA, Asian Le Mans Series and GT World Challenge Europe.
That’s a reflection of the realities provided by packed full season grids in the WEC and ELMS, since the ACO are keen to reward their best and most successful customers. But the decision not to do so for the ‘Am’ Hypercar drivers has misfired. Pretty much all of the target audience in that demographic spoken to on and off the record by DSC has mentioned the decision as at least a supporting factor in stemming their interest.
And pretty much all of that group (with just a couple of exceptions) are seasoned multi-season Bronze-supporting programmes across multiple racing platforms. In other words, some of the best customers in any paddock. There’s irritation too from some, and certainly from the others in the paddock, that to accommodate the prospect of Hypercars the LMP2s in the Winter Series will be ‘stratified’. In other words, they will run with more weight and less power than in the ELMS, as they do when they race at Le Mans each year.
DSC understands that the cars will run to the same spec as in IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – gaining weight and losing a chunk of bhp but retaining the high downforce bodywork. They’ll also run, as does every class in the Championship, on Michelins rather than the Goodyears seen in the ELMS. There are several voices that say that the reeling in of the LMP2s has stunted interest from their regular, and some new, customers.
As for the confirmed runners:
Ferrari will field two 499Ps from an initial potential trio, the efforts utilising the same technical crews and the same cars that are fielded in the 2026 FIA WEC.
Whilst early prospect Francois Perrodo has opted to stand back from a 2026/27 effort with a hectic business schedule, two other long-time major customers of Ferrari and AF Corse will both race with Luis Perez Companc and Roberto Lacorte both confirmed in a pair of 499Ps, the second under Lacorte’s Cetilar Racing banner.
Lacorte will drive the #47 Ferrari alongside his young racer son Nicola and 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Antonio Fuoco.
Cetilar Racing finished as LMP2 runner-up in last season’s Asian Le Mans Series, with Roberto Lacorte, Fuoco and Charles Milesi winning two races aboard an AF Corse-supported ORECA 07 – Gibson.
The #90 Ferrari meanwhile will see Luís Pérez Companc supported by Le Mans winners Nicklas Nielsen and Ye Yifei.
Pérez Companc most recently has been racing in LMP2 in ISA competition with AF Corse, taking a class win in 2024 at Watkins Glen.
Of the remaining prospects, there are slim pickings to consider.
Vanwall was quick out of the traps in expressing interest – but after initial strong suggestions of interest, nothing whatsoever has been heard publicly or otherwise from the somewhat dormant ‘Black Sheep’ of the Hypercar flock.
Glickenhaus too courted interest and flirted with at least one serious potential customer. The cost, though, was too steep to resurrect the programme for the available marketplace.
Isotta Fraschini
sprung a surprise with an unexpected tie-up with High Class Racing. The Italian boutique manufacturer had not raced since a part-season in the FIA WEC in 2025 with its Tipo 6-C LMH car but had been testing at both Vallelunga and Barcelona with Gianmaria Bruni at the Italian test and with Anders Fjordbach, Roy Nissany and Theodor Jensen declared publicly as drivers at Barcelona.
Ukyo Sasahara and Bingo Sports Bronze-rated team owner Shinji Takei also ran in the Barcelona test with the Super Formula and Super GT racer a serious prospect with backing from Takei San. The Bronze-rated driver was understood not to be seeking a race outing in the car.
With the omission for the effort to show the competitiveness of the package, the low predicted turn-out for the Series put paid to a near complete plan for a revival this winter.
Peugeot’s representation was initially confirmed via BBM Sport, with Bob Berridge’s group the custodians of the ex-factory 9X8s now in private ownership. Three original spec ‘Wingless Wonders’ were delivered early this year with a further batch of 2024-spec cars also set to be delivered.
No confirmation was given of which spec would be used, with inside sources suggesting that the newer cars were most likely. Since then, though, the shift of the calendar to Southern Europe has cooled interest significantly.
Two to three cars had already become a likely two before the Middle East and Asian races were canned. Since then, it moved down to a possible single car, and now the potential of a full-season car appears to be unlikely, with the possibility of an entry for one or two weekends now being touted. Whatever the issues (and they are legion) around the question of budgets, it’s certainly the case that the calendar shift to Europe finally put paid to the full season prospects here.
Whilst there has never been a sniff of Porsche looking at anything close to a factory-backed effort, there have been multiple Porsche-equipped potential projects.
JDC Miller expressed some early interest but opted instead to consolidate with what has proved to be a very strong 2026 season with its 2025-spec 963, and to use that to push hard for a second car in IMSA in 2027. The retention of the right to field it in 2025 forms a key part of the fiscal plan.
Multiple overall Asian Le Mans Series Champions Algarve Pro Racing went some way down the line to a programme to run either one or a pair of Porsche 963s but have now parked the effort for the coming season.
With keen interest from more than one Bronze-rated customer early on, the death punch for the prospective programmes came with the inevitability of the decision to bring the Series to Europe. The customer interest cooled, and the risks those bringing additional cost to the budgets. APR though, remain very interested in a future programme and retain close links with senior Porsche Motorsport management.
Proton Competition too was keen to field at least one 963, despite some sources incorrectly claiming the cars were no longer with the team.
Alongside a brief and ultimately fruitless Goodyear tyre testing programme, there were plans to combine with a Japanese customer driver. Injury ultimately put paid to Banksy’s hopes for 2026/27.
A much-anticipated Acura privateer entry came to nothing with the intended bronze (believed to be Indian film star Ajith Kumar) coming to the correct conclusion that Hypercar was a significant step ahead of where their driving abilities were.
Whilst BMW and Cadillac have expressed possible future interest in the concept of fielding Pro-Am cars, the reality is that this was never looking likely for the first season, with or without the other issues that have gathered.
Genesis has stated that this comes too early for its programme, whilst Aston Martin and Toyota have not shown any interest at all as yet.
Through all of it, Ferrari has been clear that they have viewed the Asian Le Mans Series Pro-Am prospect from the very start as a useful add-on monetisation programme to help the wider Hypercar effort. Though the lasting power of the ‘Prancing Horse’s brand makes it an operation perhaps uniquely able to gather the significant sums required from its deep pool of customers.
Those costs, though, are indeed significant with budget levels fielded by a number of teams to customers, and potential customers per car seen by DSC ranging from just under two million Euros to as high as seven million Euros for the three-weekend, six-race season. With the current uncertainties around the sport that have proved, in several cases, to be a bridge too far.
There are important lessons too be learned from this journey, about the level of bang per buck that will actually sell in Sportscar racing, and about the issues to be tackled if a customer marketplace is to be enabled and encouraged either in the Asian Le Mans Series or elsewhere.
Does that mean that the experiment has failed? Only time will tell!
