Latest news with #SC63
The Citizen
11-06-2025
- Automotive
- The Citizen
All systems go: What to expect from 2025's 24 Hours of Le Mans
The world's oldest and prestigious endurance race promises to be another suspense-filled one come 16h00 on Saturday. The 93rd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans kicks-off this weekend with Ferrari defending back-to-back victories. Photo by Gregory Lenormand / DPPI via AFP. In one of its biggest highlights for years, the 93rd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans this weekend sees the return of not only Aston Martin to the premier Hypercar class, but and expanded field of LM GT3 cars in the category's second running since replacing LM GT last year. Packed grid The fourth round of this year's World Endurance Championship, which carries double points to the overall series, the event will once more be contested by entries competing in WEC, as well as the North American IMSA series, the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) and for the first time, the Asian Le Mans Series (ALMS). ALSO READ: Ferrari takes second straight win in dramatic 24 Hours of Le Mans Also competing for the first time is a single entry from the GT World Challenge and a further entrant without any affiliation to the mentioned series'. Hypercar In the Hypercar class, a field of 21 cars will be contesting, lad by reigning champions Ferrari with three 499Ps, Toyota with two GR010s, Porsche with four 963s and Cadillac with four Rs. Besides the two new factory supported Aston Martin Valkyries, Alpine returns with two new works A424's, as does BMW with the M Hybrid V8. Rounding the list of manufactures off, is Peugeot with the latest version of the 9X0. Missing is Lamborghini after the abrupt cancellation of the SC63 project after two rounds of the IMSA series. LMP2 In the second-tier LMP2 class, 17 entries will campaign the venerable Oreca 07 Gibson in its swansong before the arrival of a new class in 2026. LM GT3 The biggest entry at La Sarthe is, however, the 24-car LM GT3 class won last year by the Porsche supported Manthey Racing team. Out of the entries, Stuttgart will have three 911 GT3 R's competing against a pair of Aston Martin Vantages, three Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3 Rs, two Ford Mustang GT3s, a similar number of BMW M4 GT3s, and three Ferrari 296 GT3. Returning are the pair of Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F GT3s and the United Autosports pair of McLaren 720s GT3. For the first time since the infamous 1999 event, Mercedes-AMG makes a comeback, albeit with the private Iron Lynx team in three AMG GT3 Evos. Along with the SC63, no Lamborghinis will be competing in LM GT3. South African interest Set to start at 16h00, with tennis great Roger Federer being the official flag marshal entrusted with dropping the French tricolour, South African interest will be provided by brothers Kelvin and Sheldon van der Linde. While the younger Sheldon makes his second start in the Hypercar class sharing the #20 BMW, as last year, with Dutchman Robin Frijns and Germany's Rene Rast, Kelvin remains in the LM GT3 class, but now with BMW following Audi's withdrawal from GT racing at the end of last year. Contracted by Audi at the time, the older van der Linde swaps the Akkodis Lexus he raced at Le Mans last year for the official #46 WRT BMW M4 GT3 in which he will share driving duties with Oman's Ahmad Al Harthy and MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi. Where? As in previous years, the event will be streamed live on the World Endurance Championships' YouTube page, and shown in South Africa on a dedicated SuperSport channel from beginning to end at 16h00 on Sunday. In addition, Le Mans organisers, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest, have provided a detailed spotters guide of each entry which can be downloaded here. NOW READ: Ferrari returns to top spot at Le Mans after over five decades
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Lamborghini clarifies future direction for SC63 program
Lamborghini has outlined its future plans for the SC63 prototype program following the car's early exit from the 2025 Rolex 24 At Daytona with cooling issues. Speaking with select media including RACER during the race at Daytona, Lamborghini's newly appointed motorsport boss Maurizio Leschiutta, Rouven Mohr, Squadra Corse's technical director, and Stephan Winkelmann, the company CEO, laid out their strategy and ambitions for the car in Year 2 and beyond. After operating single-car entries in the FIA WEC's Hypercar class and IMSA's GTP with partner team Iron Lynx in 2024, the SC63 effort has been scaled back for 2025 to just five IMSA endurance races. And this shift is at the heart of Lamborghini's blueprint for the project moving forward. The Italian OEM evaluated stepping away from both championships entirely this year to focus on developing the car. But despite the restrictions on testing that come with running a race program, the final decision was made to keep the IMSA effort going. The importance of the U.S. marketplace and a 'commitment to IMSA and (President) John Doonan' were cited as key factors. 'When you're testing, you're always in first place,' Leschiutta observed. 'It often generates a false sense of security, thinking that you've done better. The only time you measure improvements is when you measure them against the field. We have to strike a compromise. 'We also want to support IMSA and IMSA gives us visibility in a marketplace that's important.' The abbreviated appearance of the Lamborghini SC63 of Mirko Bortolotti, Romain Grosjean, Daniil Kvyat and Edoardo Mortara at the Rolex 24 was a harsh reminder that evident progress in testing doesn't always translate to race results. James Gilbert/Motorsport Images With Iron Lynx out of the picture, following a split 'due to misalignment on certain topics,' Lamborghini confirmed that it will benefit from Riley's services for the full year. The American team will act as an operational partner to assist with the development work on the car and its races stateside. In 2025, the idea is to regroup and develop the car in-house before a coordinated push to get a customer program off the ground in 2026. The working plan includes the introduction of Evo 'Joker' upgrades. These will address some of the car's shortfalls in 'vehicle dynamics, suspension and aero' as well as its weight and could be signed off during the year. 'This year, we decided to run the car under our umbrella, Squadra Corse. It's mainly related to the fact that we want full control of the development of the car,' Mohr explained. 'Last year, we saw potential so we said: 'OK, if we have control we can better manage the performance development.' It's not our ambition to be a racing team in the future. 'Our focus is to develop the car — we make it competitive and then the operations are done by a team like in GT3. This will not change, the general philosophy. It's a special situation because the car is complex and we need to jump in.' A notable point from the discussion was that Lamborghini is not dead set on a swift return to the WEC's Hypercar class for 2026. By rule, it would be required to compete with two cars as a factory to return and, crucially, allow for customer teams to run the SC63 in the championship. This doesn't align with the fact that Lamborghini is not planning to race the car as a factory at all beyond 2025. 'I would not exclude it (WEC) but it depends strongly on the boundary conditions and how fast we are on improving the car,' Mohr continued. 'If we go in the next step to enlarge the program, it only makes sense if the car is sorted out and if the performance of the car is on the level that our GT3 cars. Then we can give the car to customers. 'LMDh will never be clear customer racing like GT3 — the car is too complicated and also too expensive. But nevertheless, the car has to have a solid base. We will charge the programs for the future depending on how fast we are progressing on performance development with the car.' No WEC program means no Le Mans. Winkelmann was asked how much of a blow that is to the brand. 'Le Mans is a very famous race, it's very emotional and gives a lot of visibility,' he responded. 'For us, it was important to be there and be part of Le Mans. We were all very excited, we had a good race. We finished 10th and it was not expected, beating teams that had done it more times than us. 'But we are always between the emotional part of racing and what we are as a company, which has to be run successfully. We cannot only be guided by emotion. But I'd love to be back at Le Mans as soon as possible.' Pausing WEC program means no more Lamborghini Hypercars at Le Mans, at least for now. JEP/Motorsport Images So does this all mean that Lamborghini is searching for a new Iron Lynx to run the SC63 program in the future? Not exactly. It wishes for the SC63 to be operated more independently from the factory by customer teams from 2026 on. 'If the car is ready from the development, our ambition is not to run the cars as a factory team,' Mohr said. 'Also in GT3 we are not doing this, as we don't want to race our own customers. The operation should be in the hands of the teams. 'But if we close the performance gap and can give it to customer teams, we are open to new teams operating with our support. I wouldn't say [Lamborghini is searching for] a replacement for the Iron Lynx situation.' Mohr skirted around the prospect of a hard stop to the entire project at the end of 2025 if the car doesn't meet performance benchmarks in IMSA GTP or if no customer team(s) are found. While it's clear that a contingency plan may be needed, he did stress that he remains confident in the potential for customer interest. 'I cannot say for sure, but I am confident. Last season we had some requests,' Mohr said when asked for some thoughts on the customer marketplace for top-class prototypes. 'The market is much smaller, not like GT3. The question is how big the market is and if it's in the long term you can reach a limit or level that's close to GT3 not in running costs, but with sponsors and media value and find a package with a balance. 'If we look at other manufacturers, the time will show this. I strongly believe that if there is a growth of manufacturers continuing then most manufacturers are looking for something like this. I'm optimistic to find a team or teams.' What if a customer team came forward with ambitions to race an SC63 in the WEC? Would Lamborghini be prepared to allocate more resources to a private outfit and treat them as a 'service provider' in a more traditional sense? 'It depends on the package,' Mohr said. 'If the car would be competitive and can be operated on a performance level that is sufficient for a team and we only have to support like in a standard case, then we are open — it's clear.' Another potential solution is a continuation of the Riley partnership beyond 2025 to keep the SC63 in competition. 'Never say never,' Mohr admitted. 'Let's see if during the year Riley is interested in operating the cars in IMSA next year. Why not? We are excluding nothing but it's too early.' With the SC63's Rolex 24 debut ending abruptly after just 34 laps, four races for the car and 34 hours of racing remain this year for the car before the big decisions need to be finalized. How will we look back on the program when all is said and done? The coming months look set to define the narrative… Story originally appeared on Racer
