The FIA World Endurance Championship is currently enjoying a rise in popularity from manufacturers and fans alike.
All five races so far this year have been objectively good races, with competition in abundance in both the Hypercar and LMGT3 classes. Le Mans, WEC’s crown jewel, was another classic race, a titanic battle between Porsche, Toyota and Ferrari for the top honours, with Ferrari prevailing for the second year in a row.
Meanwhile, a different car has won each of the five races this year, shared between four teams — Toyota, Ferrari, Porsche, and Porsche’s customer team, JOTA. It’s made the championship battle exceedingly tight with three races to go, with just 17 points between the top three manufacturers in the manufacturers’ world championship, and a 22-point gap between the top three in the drivers’ championship.
And in terms of entry numbers, the series is blooming. 23 cars in the Hypercar class at Le Mans, with 19 of those entered for the full season, with that number due to increase to an expected 22 cars next year. Plus, LMGT3 is also exceeding healthy, with the switch from the LMGTE regulations to the global GT3 class having succeeded in rasing the numbers in WEC’s GT class.
And that’s not to mention the IMSA Sportscar Championship, which has five manufacturers currently competing in the top GTP class, with 11 cars total using the LMDh ruleset.
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A ‘golden age’?
The term ‘golden age’ is bandied around a lot in motorsport circles. Sometimes it’s hard to truly appreciate what you’re living through until it’s been and gone, and that is true of motorsport as well.
Did those who lived through the 50s and 60s, watching classic sportscars in the Mille Miglia, Targa Florio, Goodwood, Le Mans, Daytona and many other tracks realise it was probably ‘the’ classic golden age of motorsport? Maybe, maybe not.
Similarly, was Group C, in the 80s, seen as such when Porsche were dominating with the 956 and 962? It’s heralded now as one of sportscar racing’s great eras, but in the moment when Porsche was almost certain to win a race before a lap had even been set?
And in the LMP1 hybrid era, with the 1000 horsepower spaceships from Toyota, Porsche and Audi? This is more recent and many reading this will fondly remember the great racing between the three manufacturers, but it’s possible we didn’t truly appreciate it until Toyota were winning every WEC race with hardly a look in from their competition, in the form of Rebellion, Alpine and Glickenhaus at various times.
So, this is a golden age because…
To try and bring balance, both sides of the argument over whether sportscar racing is currently in a golden age, or whether various factors mean it’s not.
Vast amount of manufacturer entries
As of June 2024, the current entry list for the WEC’s Hypercar class is stacked with names. Toyota, ever-present in the world championship, alongside 2023 and 2024 Le Mans winners Ferrari and championship leaders Porsche head the field, with the likes of BMW, Alpine, Cadillac, Peugeot, Lamborghini as well as Isotta Fraschini all chasing.
This will grow next year with the addition of Aston Martin, who are bring the Valkyrie AMR-LMH to play, with its glorious Cosworth V12 engine and looks that are reminiscent of a Group C car.
It’s definitely a positive to see so many manufacturers present in the series. It shows a healthy and attractive set of regulations, but it is also a bit like dancing with the devil for the ACO.
Despite any efforts, competition will only drive costs upwards and these expensive motorsport programs will be expected to deliver results, both on track and in the showrooms. Once these results don't deliver, there will likely be little hesitation to pull the plug on the program. Indeed, we’ve already seen hints of this from Peugeot.
Close racing
For many years now, Le Mans has been classed as a 24-hour sprint race and we're also seeing this in the 6 hour WEC races. There's no time for preservation and reservation. It's full power and strategy, all out, for the entire race length.
Imola and Spa particularly demonstrated this in the 2024 WEC season so far, with even teammates battling side by side, tyre strategy bringing different cars in and out of play, and then the field also being completely mixed up by the weather.
Seeing the different cars demonstrate different strengths and weaknesses in such different conditions is a thrilling watch, and the engagement for whole endurance races has been off the imaginary charts.
In this respect, there’s little doubt of how good this current set of regulations are. They’re doing what they were designed to do: create close, exciting racing and get the attention of manufacturers, drivers, teams, and fans alike.
Transition of talent
There's a real transition of names in the sport. There are more and more solid, experienced names making mistakes and not being the reliable driver they're expected to be anymore.
Instead, we're seeing names like Nyck de Vries, Mick Schumacher, Callum Ilott, Yifei Ye, and Julien Andlauer impressing so far this season in different ways.
Endurance racing has a tendency to be a closed club in terms of drivers, and a lot often get regarded as undroppable due to past results. But that speed and reliability can begin to slip as time moves in.
We've seen this with Andre Lotterer this year and last. The three-time Le Mans winner has been somewhat struggling to match the pace from his teammates, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor, and only raced for four hours at Le Mans as the #6 Porsche chased victory, with the team eventually finishing fourth.
It’s excellent to see new faces challenging the status quo of the established driver lineup. Even drivers like Estre and Vanthoor, or the Ferrari crew in the #50 and #51, were established GT drivers before switching to the prototype class for Hypercar, abd have now made it their own.
However…
But, equally, there are various reasons why this may not be considered a golden age.
The cars are a bit of an enigma
There are a lot of positives about these cars. But just how inspiring are they, really? Are there going to be posters of these on walls? Huge demand for 1:18 models? It seems unlikely.
Pace wise, using Le Mans pole time as a comparison point: the 2018 Le Mans pole time was a 3:15.377 from the Toyota TS050. Five years later, the pole time was a 3:22.982 from the Ferrari 499P. Seven and a half seconds slower, five years later, is nothing inspiring at all. Looking at the two cars side by side also, the TS050 had a minimum weight of 875kg whilst the 499p hits the scales at 1,030kg.
There is of course the need to slow the cars down within safety parameters, simplify the cars for cost reasons and weight impact from advanced hybrid systems. But with these cars pegged back by Balance of Performance, meaning they’re unlikely to ever get to the pace the former LMP1 cars did… it’s a shame.
The difference between these cars and the LMP1s is also apparent, with the GT3 cars now being passed by the Hypercars in a straight line rather than in the corners, due to the lower apex speeds of the prototypes. In fact, in certain corners, the GT3s have similar apex speeds, or even higher, than the Hypercars.
GT3 cars are weaker than GTE
WEC’s former GT class, GTE, was fundamentally flawed in the cost and compatibility of the regulations. However, conveniently ignoring this, the cars were absolute weapons. Especially with the envelope being pushed by cars like the Ford GT, essentially a prototype in GT clothing, and Porsche even bringing the 911’s engine more towards the middle of the car, despite there not being a roadcar equivalent.
It is a bit of a catch 22. Yes, the top tier of sportscars should have a top tier class to go with it. But the value of these cars just isn’t there to not be able to race them elsewhere. GT3 is a very sensible choice for the GT class and something that was mentioned for years. But objectively, the GTE cars that were at the forefront of development were such beasts.
The performance gap
Currently in the WEC races, you either have a strong result, or you don’t. And you need to be in a Ferrari, Toyota, or a Porsche to realistically be in with a chance of a podium.
BMW, Peugeot, Alpine, Cadillac, Peugeot, Lamborghini and Isotta don't really have any chance of a green flag win currently. And there'll only be a limited amount of times these manufacturers will put up with that before looking to pull the plug. With more entries in the future too, this is going to be a very congested grid and some people are only going to be disappointed.
With customer Porsches performing well and the self-proclaimed “satellite” Ferrari on the grid and more customer cars rumoured, the series and regs could continue with a strong customer field but this would be a big downturn from such strong interest from the manufacturers currently.
There were signs of pace at Le Mans, particularly from BMW and Cadillac. Both got through to Hyperpole, as did Alpine, and Cadillac nearly claimed pole, before being beaten to it by Porsche at the last moment. That said, both benefited from Toyota not taking part in Hyperpole at all — the German team looked the fastest in regular qualifying.
In the race, BMW proved to be nowhere on the pace before both cars left the race spectacularly. Cadillac had a strong pace with the #2 car but fell away towards the end of the race. Alpine too were strong early on, before the Mecachrome-built engine exploded with only six hours gone.
But these manufacturers are going to have to step up next year if they want to cement their place on the grid and take the fight to the leaders.
In conclusion
So really, the current set of regulations, or the current era if you’d rather, fall somewhere between Group C and LMP for me. Group C does seem to be the pinnacle of a golden age given the blend of cars, circuits, drivers and manufacturers.
LMP lacks the manufacturer element but did have some great cars in amongst it. Currently, we have the manufacturers and drivers for a great series. But the cars seem flawed and Balance of Performance makes it the performance seem artificial.
In truth, it’s hard to say you’re in a golden age when you’re living through it. Only with a retrospective look can you truly say if it was a golden age or not. Only time will tell if the Hypercar era is.