Who are the favourites to win the 2024 Le Mans 24h race?
With just over🐷 a month to go before the historic 24 ꦚhour of Le Mans race, we look at the favourites for victory.
After Ferrari’s🍃 triumphant return to Le Mans in 2023, all eyes will again be on ♉the Hypercar class.
A year that could promise to be the best ever for endurance racing and the 24 hours of Le Mans, many big manufacturers🅠 and big-name drivers will be locking horns to try and secure victory for their respective teams.
Ferrari
Although Ferrari has not made a lightning start to the FIM Endurance World Ch▨ampionship in 2024, the Italian manufacturer will start🐻 the Le Mans 24 hour race as a firm favourite to repeat their success of last season.
Alessandrღo Pier Guidi, James Calado and ex-F1 driver Antonio Giovinazzi were the trio th🌜at took Ferrari to victory at the great race last season.
Competition at Ferrari will be intense as t🌼he other car will see Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen line-up in the second Ferrari 499P car.
Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen claimed pole position at the recent 6 hours of Imola race, thus demonstrating the speed the 499P machine has as Fe♉rrari locked out the top three positions.
However, the race did not go to plan for Ferrari as all three cars went backwards and both Toyota and Porsche got the bet🐼ter of 🙈all three cars.
The third Ferrari car is one that has two names that will be well known to Formula 1 fans as Robe🅠rt Kubica leads a team that includes Robert Shw꧅artzman and Yifei Ye.
Ferrari have not won a race yet in 2024, but chances of the🎉m doing🐲 so at Le Mans will be high.
Toyota
So often at🌊 the front when it comes to the Le Mans race, Toyota will be expecting to once agai𝐆n put on a competitive showing.
Theﷺir recent triumph in Imola with Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck De Vries means they have the speed to make noise.
As ꦆis the case with the number 7 car, the number 8 machine will have veteran drivers of the Le Mans race in Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa.
Toyota can’t be ruled out, not only because of the perform💦ance they’ve shown in 2024, but also their previous history at Le Ma🧸ns.
The two factory Toyota cars will be the only GR010 Hyrbid machines competing at t⛦he 2024 edition.
Porsche
Perhoas Ferrari’s biggest threat, Porsꦓche will be looking to build on their fantastic start to 2024 by making a big impact.
Leading the Endurance world championship after two rounds is the P❀orsche Penske Motorsport team of Kévin Estre, André Lotterer, Laurens Vanthoor.
Lotterer is a Le Mans specialist and will be expected to deli🧔ver big for the German manufacturer, but he won’t be carrying the team as Estre and Vanthoor 𓄧are extremely talented drivers too.
Aiding Porsche’s bid to win tཧhe Le Mans race is the fact they have six cars competiting, including the two Hertz Team Jota cars which have also been fast in 2024.
Estre, Lotterer and 🌌Vanthoor won the season-opener in Qatar but the Hertz Team Jota car consisting of William Stevens, Norman Nato and Callum Ilott was 🌞second.
Outside chance - BMW?
BMW did not compete in the Hypercar class🦹 in 2023 but they will do so with two cars in 2024.
Leading their charge will be the BMW M Team WRT in the hands of Sheldon van der Linde, Robin൩ Frijns and Rene Rast.
Only tenth in the season-opener at Qatar, van der Linde, Frij꧟ns and Rast were sixth in the 6 hours of Imola race.
Ho💛w competitive BMW wil🍸l be remains to be seen, however, this weekend’s round three of the season at Spa should provide a clearer picture.
The second BMW Hypercar will be driven by Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marcie🀅llo and Marco Wittmann
