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The ACO have published their provisional entry list for the 2025 Le Mans 24 Hours.
A field of 62 cars, consisting of 21 Hypercars, 17 LMP2s and 24 LMGT3s, will take to the legendary Circuit de la Sarthe in June for the 93rd running of the French endurance classic.
To save you the time of scrolling through the spreadsheet with a ruler pressed against your screen, here's the key storylines you need to know about...
Four Cadillacs in Hypercar
A record four Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh machines will be present in the top class, as the ACO extends an invite for the first time to Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing.
The IMSA GTP squad will field 2017 DPi champion brothers Jordan and Ricky Taylor, with team regular Filipe Albuquerque completing the trio in the #101.
'It has always been our plan to go to Le Mans with a shot at the overall win,' said Wayne Taylor, team principal.
'When I was there with Cadillac in 2002, I was driving and both my kids were with me as spectators. Now, 20 years later, they are here driving for me with Cadillac. It is very exciting.
'Cadillac has built an amazing race car. This is such an important event and to be competitive you must arrive with everything in place. I believe we now have the car to beat.
'With the combination of Cadillac and our team partners at JOTA and AXR, we have a really strong organization. We are grateful to have a chance to compete at Le Mans.’
The #311 Action Express, Whelen-sponsored Cadillac will also return, having raced at Le Mans in 2023 and 2024. They'll be hoping for better in 2025, given their previous two appearances in France have resulted in crashes — Jack Aitken crashing on the first lap in 2023, and Pipo Derani's heavy shunt into the barriers in 2024.
And JOTA will contest its first Le Mans as a factory team, after two years as a customer team in Hypercar and many years bossing LMP2, even coming close to winning overall in 2017 when the LMP1s began dropping like flies.
IMSA invitees take up ticket to La Sarthe
Porsche Penske have routinely received a third entry to bring an extra Porsche 963 to Le Mans, but this year they earnt that extra ticket through winning the 2024 GTP title. This means they get invited to bring a third entry as a result of their 2024 GTP title success.
The #4 car will feature Rolex 24 winners Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy, with the third driver still to be confirmed. Pascal Wehrlein is rumoured to be favourite for the seat, and the conversation surrounding Sebastian Vettel hasn't completely died down.
Wehrlein raced at Daytona in the JDC-Miller Motorsports customer Porsche and impressed, so don't be surprised to see Porsche's reigning Formula E world champion alongside Nasr and Tandy, this year's Daytona 24 winners, in June.
AWA will bring their #13 Corvette Z06 GT3.R to the LMGT3 class after Orey Fidani booked a ticket to Le Mans with his Bob Akin Award in 2024 - a separate title for the best-placed Bronze driver in IMSA GTD.
Third Mercedes-AMG and Porsche in LMGT3
The two German marques have bolstered entries at the 24H. Firstly, Iron Lynx add a another Mercedes-AMG to their programme after winning the 2024 ELMS LMGT3 title, the #63 driven by father-son pairing Stephen and Brenton Grove.
The space for this third car is secured via their LMGT3 title success in ELMS last year, with hindsight now slightly awkward, since it was achieved with Lamborghini machinery.
Manthey also add a third Porsche after their Asian Le Mans Series success, and it's worth noting that the renamed Ziggo Sport Tempesta #193 Ferrari takes up the GT World Challenge Europe Bronze invite from 2024.
GR Racing on reserve list
GR Racing have been included on the reserve list for the race. Why, you might ask, is this surprising?
Well, that's because Mike Wainwright, the team owner, has recently been found guilty of making bribery payments in order his company, Trafigura, to access the Angolan oil market.
Wainwright's been sentenced to 32 months in prison in Switzerland, with the company being fined $148m.
The GR Racing team is still listed on the entry list for the European Le Mans Series, with Wainwright still listed as a driver. He's also listed as a driver on the Le Mans entry list, despite the conviction.
Lamborghini's unsurprising absence
This isn't necessarily something we learnt directly from the entry list, more a reminder to fans of the 'Charging Bull.' Due to their lack of presence in the WEC Hypercar class, Lamborghini do not gain automatic entry or extended invites via their single-car IMSA programme.
It's worth noting that a Lamborghini did in fact win a Le Mans invite, as Iron Lynx claimed the ELMS LMGT3 title last year. But, the subsequent split between the team and manufacturer sees that space taken by the third Mercedes-AMG operated by the Italian organisation, as the invite goes to the team responsible — not the manufacturer providing the car.
Whether Lamborghini return to WEC, and therefore Le Mans, remains to be seen, in either GT3 or in Hypercar with the SC63. That said, the new Lamborghini GT3, based on the Temerario road car, is due to make its global debut next year.
Lamborghini are surely going to want the car to race on the biggest GT3 stage on the planet. But with the WEC grid, currently at 36 entries and with a non-negotiable maximum of 40 entries, gaining the addition of Genesis next year and more prototypes likely on the way in 2027, space is at a premium.
A few other little things we've noticed...
- The two Aston Martin Valkyries are listed as US-flagged on the Le Mans entry list. That's because The Heart of Racing, the team operating the programme, are US-based. However, on the WEC entry list for Qatar, they are British-flagged. We asked Aston Martin about the discrepancy and were told the US-flagged Le Mans entry is correct, and to ask WEC about the British flags on the WEC entry list. We did, but received no reply.
- Proton Competition's second Porsche 963 is first reserve. The team has five entries already in the race, the WEC-entered Porsche 963, two cars in LMP2, one of which is partnered with Iron Lynx, and two WEC-entered Ford Mustangs in LMGT3. If any entries pull out before the race, Proton could have two entries in each class – equalling AF Corse for the most entries in the race, with six (three Hypercar, one LMP2, two LMGT3).
- More than half the LMP2 field is entered as pro/am, with 8 cars in the all-pro 'main' class and 9 in the 'sub' class. This marks the first time the pro/am cars outnumber the all-pro cars, despite the class as a whole having one more car than last year (17 in 2025, 16 in 2024).
Feature image: Javier Jimenez / DPPI