Who are the favourites to win the 2024 Le Mans 24h race?
With just over a month to go before the historic 24 hour 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 Championship in 2024, the Italian manufacturer will start the Le Mans 24 hour race as a firm favourite to repeat their success of last season.
Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and ex-F1 driver Antonio Giovinazzi were the trio that took Ferrari to victory at the great race last season.
Competition at Ferrari will be intense as the 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 Ferrari 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 better of all three cars.
The third Ferrari car is one that has two names that will be well known to Formula 1 fans as Robert Kubica leads a team that includes Robert Shwartzman and Yifei Ye.
Ferrari have not won a race yet in 2024, but chances of them 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 again put on a competitive showing.
Their recent triumph in Imola with Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck De Vries means they have the speed to make noise.
As is 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 performance they’ve shown in 2024, but also their previous history at Le Mans.
The two factory Toyota cars will be the only GR010 Hyrbid machines competing at the 2024 edition.
Porsche
Perhoas Ferrari’s biggest threat, Porsche 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 Porsche Penske Motorsport team of Kévin Estre, André Lotterer, Laurens Vanthoor.
Lotterer is a Le Mans specialist and will be expected to deliver big for the German manufacturer, but he won’t be carrying the team as Estre and Vanthoor are extremely talented drivers too.
Aiding Porsche’s bid to win the 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, Robin Frijns and Rene Rast.
Only tenth in the season-opener at Qatar, van der Linde, Frijns and Rast were sixth in the 6 hours of Imola race.
How competitive BMW will 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 Marciello and Marco Wittmann
