Five reasons to watch the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans
- Ghazlan Atqiya Firmansyah
- 8 hours ago
- 4 min read
Written by Ghazlan Atqiya Firmansyah, Edited by Aaron Carroll
The FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC)’s most anticipated round, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, will take place from 11–15 June, at Circuit de la Sarthe at 14:00 GMT. Here are the five reasons why you should not miss endurance racing’s most prestigious race this year.
Multi-class madness
This year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans boasts three classes: Hypercar, LMP2 and LMGT3. 186 drivers will be competing for class victories during the gruelling 24-hour race.
The Hypercar is the fastest class among the three, featuring the likes of Ferrari 499P, Toyota GR010 Hybrid and Porsche 963, just to name a few. The fan favorite Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMH will make its Le Mans debut this year.
All of the LMP2 class teams will drive the Oreca 07 car, as was the case in 2023 and 2024, consisting of LMP2 and LMP2 Pro-Am entries. The teams competing in this class are competitors from various series: European Le Mans Series (ELMS), Asian Le Mans Series (ALMS), and IMSA.
The last class is the LMGT3, which was based on mass-produced cars that were sold to the public at the time of homologation. You will see cars like the Porsche 911 GT3 R, Mercedes-AMG GT3, Ferrari 296 GT3 and more.
Survival is the name of the game
Le Mans is the ultimate battleground for the reliability of cars and the humans behind them. Since its introduction, the core philosophy of this endurance race has been to test the cars’ reliability and the roadholding quality.
Teams will battle for positions in changing weather conditions and through mechanical challenges until the clock runs out. For 24 hours, teams will have to manage pit stops, driver changes, tyre degradation, and unexpected incidents.
Special liveries for the big occasion
Le Mans is a special race for all the teams involved. Some of them also bring special one-off liveries to mark the occasion, which you can only see in this race.
In the Hypercar class, Toyota paid tribute to its Le Mans heritage by giving their No.7 car a livery based on the legendary GT-One (TS020), which gave the Japanese manufacturer its first Le Mans pole position in 1999.
Hypercar debutant Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac partners with Mobil 1 for their special livery. The livery features the Mobil 1 logo across the sides and front of the blue and white on their No.101 V-Series.R.
Unlike Toyota and Cadillac’s special liveries, United Autosports’ No.59 McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo livery is for a special cause: to spread awareness of meningitis. Their “meningtis flag” livery saw the McLaren retain its orange and black livery with blue, purple and yellow from the flag.
Iron Lynx and Mercedes-AMG celebrated the latter’s Le Mans return after 26 years of absence by running three AMG GT3s with a livery reminiscent of the legendary Sauber-Mercedes C9, which took a 1–2 victory in 1989.
The last one on the list is the all-female team Iron Dames. The team traded their signature pink livery on their Porsche 911 GT3 R for a predominantly white livery for their seventh Le Mans entry.
Famous names competing
The upcoming 24 Hours of Le Mans features some of the most famous names in motorsports, such as MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi and the 2009 Formula One (F1) World Drivers’ Champion, Jenson Button.
Toyota’s lineup features endurance racing veterans such as Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway, Brendon Hartley and Sébastien Buemi, who have taken Le Mans victories in the past. Former F1 driver Nyck de Vries took second last year and is gunning for victory with his No.7 co-drivers this year.
Ferrari returns as the defending Le Mans winner and aims to make it three in a row. Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen will pilot the No.50 car. The No.51 car will be driven by Antonio Giovinazzi, James Calado, and Alessandro Pier Guidi, the winners of the 2023 edition.
As the factory team of Cadillac in WEC, Jota acquired Cadillac drivers Earl Bamber, Sébastien Bourdais and Alex Lynn. Lynn lends his Cadillac expertise with co-drivers Norman Nato and Will Stevens. Bourdais and Bamber are paired with Button on the No.38 car.
Team WRT’s Rossi returns for his second Le Mans outing by joining forces with Ahmad Al Harthy and Kelvin van der Linde in the M4 LMGT3. Magnussen returns to Le Mans, driving the M Hybrid V8 Hypercar. The Dane is joined by Raffaele Marciello and Dries Vanthoor for his first Le Mans race with WRT.
In LMP2, IDEC Sport’s Genesis Magma Racing-branded No.18 car features W Series champion Jamie Chadwick, Mathys Jaubert and three-time Le Mans winner André Lotterer. 2022 LMP2 class winner and 2019–20 Formula E champion António Félix da Costa will pilot the No.183 AF Corse car.
This year’s Le Mans race unites champions, first-time entrants, and drivers hungry for more success.
An iconic circuit with an electric atmosphere
Watching the 24 Hours of Le Mans live on the iconic Circuit de la Sarthe is on the bucket list of many motorsports fans.
The track itself is over 8 km long. Cars will hit their top speed across tree-lined avenues like the Mulsanne Straight and its two chicanes before tackling the narrow sectors from Indianapolis to Porsche Curves before the tricky Ford Chicane just before the finish line.
The atmosphere at Le Mans is an event in itself. Spectators on-site gather together over their love of racing and entertainment. Viewers at home are treated to a unique ambiance that offers visual and auditory experiences that no other race can replicate.
The action kicks off on 11 June with the Free Practice (FP1) session at noon GMT, followed by the first rounds of qualifying afterward. The final qualifying shootout takes place the following day before we go racing on June 14 at 14:00 GMT.
With many cars and drivers entering Le Mans with their eyes on the prize, one question remains: “Will you be tuning into the 24 Hours of Le Mans this weekend?”
