Choosing Prototype of the Year was pretty hard. Do you pick the car that won the biggest race or races? Do you select a championship winner? How about a car that’s sustained success over multiple seasons or made the most progress during a single campaign?
Across 2025, there were a bunch of standouts that we’ll mention first.
In the WEC, the Aston Martin Valkyrie, Alpine A424 and Cadillac V-Series.R all made tremendous progress during the year. The Valkyrie went from seconds off the pace in Qatar to fighting at the front in Bahrain and finishing on the podium at Petit Le Mans in IMSA. If Aston Martin THOR Team can find ways to improve tyre life and kerb compliance, there’s little doubt the Valkyrie can and will win races.
As for the Alpine, winning the 100th WEC race in Fuji – also the car’s first – was a pleasant surprise. In some ways it was a victory achieved with a significant dose of luck, but the car itself is edging closer to the sharp end. Better still, in 2026, when the Joker update – which promises to counteract the challenges posed by the introduction of two-stage BoP – is introduced, Alpine hopes to be in the fight throughout the season.
Cadillac, meanwhile, came on strong in IMSA late in the season, winning the final two races, and won its first WEC race at São Paulo in July. Hertz Team JOTA looked right at home with the V-Series.R from the first round of the season onwards, and could have won in Qatar had its two cars not hit each other in a safety car queue while sitting first and second!
The most successful cars in Hypercar/GTP, though, were the Ferrari 499P and Porsche 963.
The former won Le Mans a third time in a row, and the WEC titles. Any other year, that would have surely been enough to hand it Prototype of the Year status. It’s certainly the car to beat in the WEC going forward.
Porsche’s 963 also shone, not so much in WEC, though Penske did win a race and finish second at Le Mans. Where it shone was in IMSA. The start of the GTP season was dominated by Porsche Penske Motorsport, which won Daytona, Sebring, Long Beach and Laguna Seca en route to a sweep of titles.
And finally, the ORECA 07 in LMP2 competition deserves a mention here. The reason it had no competition from teams running with Ligier, Dallara or Multimatic chassis it’s such a strong package that nobody can afford to go against the grain anymore. And it continued to provide spectacular racing in the ELMS, Asian Le Mans Series, IMSA and the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2025.
That leaves us with our winner.
Dailysportscar’s 2025 Prototype of the Year
The Ligier JS P325
2025 brought a new era for LMP3 racing, with a turbocharged Toyota engine and new bodywork for all four chassis. For Ginetta and ADESS in particular, it represented a fresh start, and a chance to build a customer base after Ligier and Duqueine controlled the vast majority of the marketplace.
What we did see in year one for the current formula was decent variety, with ADESS appearing in the Le Mans Cup and Ginetta represented by DKR Engineering in the Le Mans Cup and European Le Mans Series. Duqueine was also present in both, as well as at the opening round of the current Asian Le Mans Series season in Sepang.
However, there was one clear winner from the shift to LMP3 Gen 3, and that is Ligier. Its JS P325 is fast, reliable and easy to drive, a killer combination in a closed marketplace like this one where yearly updates and BoP are not on the agenda for its competitors. Ligier’s customer support continues to be top-notch and widely praised by its customers too, and it has needed to be because the order book was stacked long before the start of the season.
Across the year, not only did Ligier attract the most customers (by a distance), the JS P325 also won practically every race it contested, including all six in the ELMS. Short of R-ace GP’s success in Le Mans Cup, it clinched the lion’s share of titles too.
In customer racing at the LMP3 level, teams vote with their wallet, and it’s clear that the Ligier is the car to have in the category going forward. That’s why it’s our Prototype of the Year in 2025.
Hat’s off to all at Ligier Automotive for producing such a well-engineered, cost-effective prototype that promises to keep LMP3 as relevant as ever for years to come.
