It would probably be fair to say that, for the last few years, the 24 Hours of Le Mans has not been the most exciting race in the world. At least not in terms of the overall victory. Toyota have won every race at Le Mans since 2018, and have pretty much only had to fight themselves and manage issues with the cars since then. The 2022 edition of the race could have seen them lost out at various points with some reliability issues on the cars, but their rivals at Glickenhaus couldn’t keep up with them.
Things though might be different come 2023. The World Endurance Championship is ready to welcome a plethora of new manufacturers into the hypercar category at the top level of the series. This started with the addition of Peugeot at the recent Six Hours of Monza, and we will soon have more in the series as Porsche join the fray, alongside Ferrari and Cadillac with more to come beyond those manufacturers. This means that 2023 could see a return to the glory days of the LMP1 era when we had six or more cars fighting for overall victory.
The Lack Of Competition At The Top In Le Mans
It's important that we explore why Le Mans hasn’t been the best race for a few years. The writing was on the wall when in 2016, Audi left the LMP1 category, and indeed the WEC as a whole, partially blaming the emissions gate scandal and its focus on Formula E. Porsche and Toyota took up the mantle the following year and the series enjoyed a classic Le Mans in 2017, but Porsche then left the series after that season. Toyota then became the only manufacturer in the LMP1 category.
There were privateer teams, such as ByKolles and Rebellion plus a bodged effort from Ginetta. But none of those teams was able to rival Toyota as it swept the great race and indeed the championship from that year right up to the 2022 season, the second year of the hyerpcar regulations. In the championship in 2022, the grandfathered Alpine LMP1 car is at least giving Toyota a run for their money in the championship and Glickenhaus are getting stronger, but Toyota have still won the first two Le Mans in the hypercar era, introduced to save costs on the previous LMP1 cars.
2023 Le Mans 24 Hous Will Have New Manufacturers
The Six Hours of Monza in 2022 saw Peugeot enter the hypercar fray. While it had reliability issues, its pace at times was good enough that it was close to the pacesetters in Toyota and Glickenhaus, the latter of which took pole for that race and should have easily won had it not been for a penalty and mechanical failure. This is the start of the extra competition for the series. The hypercar ranks will expand in 2023 with a Chip Ganassi ran Cadillac, two cars from Ferrari with AF Corse, at least two cars from Glickenhaus for Le Mans, two entries for Peugeot and two cars from Porsche.
All of those cars are for the full season bar Glickenhaus, which is weirdly only doing a partial season. There is also hope that ByKolles will enter the 2023 season with its Vanwall named prototype. Porsche and Cadillac are entering with cars via the LMDh regulations, that the American IMSA series uses, while everyone else mentioned is conforming to the more WEC oriented LMH regulations. More manufacturers are coming in 2024, with Alpine bringing their LMH car to the fold that year after they take a break in the LMP2 class for 2023. Lamborghini are coming soon, as are BMW and Acura, after focussing initially on the IMSA Series.
What This Will Mean For 2023
Focussing on 2023, we will have 11 cars in the top category of racing at Le Mans, possibly 12 if ByKolles can get their Vanwall past the legal issues surrounding the name. A total of 12 cars is the most we have seen for many, many years, with us not quite reaching that number in the best days of the LMP1 era with Porsche, Audi and Toyota. Yes, some of these cars are on the LMDh ruleset, but that is all designed to allow cars to compete on the level of the LMH cars, but with a pre-bought chassis. The racing at the front could be spectacular.
More Racing To Come At Le Mans 24 hours
This is forgetting the no doubt titanic level battle we will see in the LMP2 category as ever, and the new GT3 ruleset for the GT category could bring in more cars, as the budgets will be lower, and more of the fantastic racing we have seen over the years in GTE Pro and GTE Am. All of those reasons mean that the 2023 battle at Le Mans could be one of the best yet. And it is a battle that the WEC, and the Le Mans event itself, desperately needs.
Sources: WEC, Toyota, Peugeot, Porsche