Like Aston Martin, Toyota has announced that it will be fielding a hypercar for the 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans, just hours after the publication of the regulations. The Japanese manufacturer will continue to compete in the premier league of endurance for the 2020-21 FIA World Endurance Championship, which ends with the 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans.

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24 Heures du Mans

FIA WEC

The Asian Le Mans Series 2024-25 season continues this weekend with the 4 Hours of Dubai. Two four-hour races are scheduled at the Dubai Autodrome involving 47 cars across three classes (LMP2, LMP3 and GT).

RD Limited will undoubtedly be seeking to follow up on their successful weekend in Malaysia. The French team comes into the third round as leader of the LMP2 class. With 43 points, the #30 Oreca 07-Gibson shared by Fred Poordad, Tristan Vautier and James Allen holds a six-point lead over the #25 Oreca of Algarve Pro Racing, winner of the second round of the 4 Hours of Sepang. Michael Jensen, Malthe Jakobsen and Valerio Rinicella will be determined to bridge that&nbsp;gap.

In LMP3, Ultimate (#35 Ligier JS P320-Nissan) put in a faultless performance in Malaysia, picking up the maximum 52 points. With High Class Racing (#49 Ligier) sitting 16 points adrift, the French outfit will attempt to retain its advantage ahead of the season finale in Abu Dhabi.

<h2>A bumper GT grid</h2>

Five new cars have joined the GT class to bring the total to 30 entries. The pack comprises three Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3s, eight Ferrari 296 GT3s, a Lamborghini Hurac&aacute;n GT3 Evo2, two McLaren 720S GT3s, six Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evos and ten Porsche 911 GT3 Rs. In Dubai, Winward Racing (#81 Mercedes) will defend a seven-point lead over AF Corse&rsquo;s #28 Ferrari and a 10-point advantage over another Ferrari, the #57 of Car Guy.

The 4 Hours of Dubai marks a key stage in the race to the 2024-25 Asian Le Mans Series crown, with the LMP2 and GT title winners being guaranteed a slot on the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans grid.&nbsp; 
Race 3 of the season will be held on Saturday 8 February at 10:10 UTC, followed by Race 4 at the same time on Sunday. Both will be shown live with English commentary on the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@AsianLeMansSeries" target="_blank">Asian Le Mans Series YouTube channel</a>.

Asian Le Mans Series – all eyes on Dubai

The Alpine Endurance Team has taken the wraps off the two Alpine A424 Hypercars set to compete at the 93rd 24 Hours of Le Mans (11-15 June 2025) and in the FIA WEC World Endurance Championship. The full driver line-up for the French manufacturer’s campaign has also been revealed.

The colour scheme chosen for the Alpine Endurance Team&rsquo;s #35 and #36 A424s reflects the brand&rsquo;s visual identity. Predominantly blue &ndash; the French manufacturer&rsquo;s signature colour &ndash; it incorporates touches of black and white that amplify its aggressive yet refined style. The red highlights and tricolour accents add further contrast while recalling the French team&rsquo;s heritage. A chrome-finished roof protects the cockpit from the sun&rsquo;s rays and affirms the prototype&rsquo;s distinctive visual signature.&nbsp;The result is a sleek, modern aesthetic that perfectly embodies the spirit of the Hypercar class.&nbsp;Note that the photos of these liveries were taken at Monza in Italy, where Alpine has no doubt been testing the car.&nbsp;Proof that the squad, headed by Philippe Sinault, is actively preparing for the season ahead..

<h2>Drivers primed for the challenge</h2>

As well as revealing its liveries, Alpine has confirmed its driver lineup for each car for the approaching season.&nbsp;The #35 Alpine will be driven by&nbsp;Ferdinand Habsburg,&nbsp;Paul-Loup Chatin&nbsp;and&nbsp;Charles Milesi, and the #36 by&nbsp;Jules Gounon,&nbsp;Mick Schumacher&nbsp;and&nbsp;Fr&eacute;d&eacute;ric Makowiecki. A crew of experienced and talented drivers, all determined to propel Alpine to the highest level of the Hypercar class.

After a year gaining valuable experience in endurance racing&rsquo;s top tier, Alpine is ready to apply what it&rsquo;s learnt to rival the best teams on the grid. 
With this new livery and a robust driver line-up, Alpine is approaching 2025 with ambition and determination.

More images of the 2025 Alpine Elf Endurance Team Alpine A424 below.

.

First look at the 2025 Alpine A424 Hypercar livery

Two Aston Martin Valkyries will take the start in the 93rd 24 Hours of Le Mans on 11-15 June and in the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship. The British carmaker has just released the names of its driver line-ups as well as first images of the Valkyrie Hypercar.

Aston Martin THOR Team, fielding two&nbsp;Valkyries this upcoming season in the FIA World Endurance Championship (FIA WEC), revealed the livery of its Hypercar, thrilling expectations with the&nbsp;iconic&nbsp;British&nbsp;Racing Green. Design&nbsp;touches of fluorescent yellow&nbsp;on the mirrors, fender edges and aerodynamic contours&nbsp;add to the overall effect on the&nbsp;#007 and #009. The&nbsp;logo The Heart of Racing&nbsp;will also feature,&nbsp;the American team&nbsp;running the two Valkyries in the FIA ​​WEC and&nbsp;IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (the North American endurance championship).

<h2>A&nbsp;100% Brit Driver Line-Up at the 24 Hours of Le Mans</h2>

Aston Martin has also confirmed&nbsp;its driver line-ups. The&nbsp;#007 will be shared&nbsp;by&nbsp;Harry Tincknell (LMGTE Pro winner at the 2020&nbsp;24 Hours with&nbsp;Aston Martin Racing) and&nbsp;endurance rising star&nbsp;Tom Gamble. The sister car will be entrusted to Marco S&oslash;rensen (LMGTE Am winner at&nbsp;Le Mans with&nbsp;TF Sport) and Spanish driver Alex Riberas.

In the&nbsp;IMSA,&nbsp;Ross Gunn&nbsp;and&nbsp;Roman De Angelis&nbsp;will share the sole Valkyrie fielded. Gunn will join the duo Tincknell/Gamble for the&nbsp;24 Hours as&nbsp;De Angelis forms a trio with&nbsp;S&oslash;rensen/Riberas.&nbsp;Adrian Hallmark, Chief Executive Officer of Aston Martin Lagonda:&nbsp;&ldquo;This is a proud moment for Aston Martin. To be returning to the fight for overall honours at the 24 Hours of Le Mans exists at the very core of our values and marks a key milestone in our motor racing heritage. As the only Hypercar born from the road to challenge at the top of sports car racing in both the WEC and IMSA, the Valkyrie is an embodiment of our enduring sporting ethos, one that has defined the brand for more than century.&quot;

<h2>15,000 km of Testing</h2>

In the wake of first test&nbsp;sessions with the&nbsp;Valkyrie in July&nbsp;2024, The Heart of Racing committed to an extensive testing and development&nbsp;programme, surpassing a stunning&nbsp;15,000 km. The tests kicked off in the U.K. at&nbsp;Donington Park at&nbsp;Silverstone followed by more track time at&nbsp;Vallelunga in Italy and Jerez in Spain, as well as at&nbsp;Bahrain,&nbsp;Qatar,&nbsp;Road Atlanta,&nbsp;Sebring and&nbsp;Daytona.

The goal was to measure capability&nbsp;on sample tracks to get a feel for what awaited the Aston Martin THOR Team in the&nbsp;FIA WEC and&nbsp;IMSA. Ian James: &quot;You can always be further up the road, but I&#39;m happy with how the programme has progressed and with the reliability we have shown. The whole team, from design to AMPT, from the manufacturing element to the race team, I couldn&#39;t be happier in terms with how everything is integrated.&quot;

Aston Martin won the 24 Hours of Le&nbsp;Mans in 1959 with a DBR1 driven by&nbsp;Carroll Shelby and&nbsp;Roy Salvadori.

Before seeing the two Aston Martin Valkyries hit the track at&nbsp;the 24 Hours of Le Mans, check out the livery of the British Hypercar in&nbsp;this&nbsp;photo gallery below.

Aston Martin THOR Team unveils Valkyrie livery

The 2025 season of the Michelin Le Mans Cup promises to be historic with a record 44 entries. This benchmark championship for GT3 and LMP3 endurance racing, due to kick off in Barcelona on 5 April, will come to La Sarthe in June with two races organised as part of the support programme to the 93rd 24 Hours of Le Mans (11-15 June 2025).

The 2025 Michelin Le Mans Cup grid will feature 88 drivers representing&nbsp;29 teams and 14 different nations. They will be split into three classes &ndash; LMP3, LMP3 Pro/Am and GT3. Six rounds will be on the agenda: Barcelona, Le Castellet, Spa-Francorchamps, Silverstone, Portim&atilde;o and Le Mans. New this year is the introduction of 100% professional line-ups in LMP3, whereas the LMP3 Pro/Am class requires at least one Bronze driver.

The four new homologated LMP3 chassis will make their track d&eacute;but this season. They will include 12 Ligier JS P325s, five Duqueine D09s, two Adess AD25s and a Ginetta G61-LT-J325-EVO. All these cars will be powered by a Toyota V35A twin-turbo V6 engine. 
Among the teams hoping to be in the running for the championship title are reigning champions CLX Motorsport (ex-Cool Racing), 2023 champions Team Virage, four-time former title winners DKR Engineering and&nbsp;Nielsen Racing.

With 14 Ligier JS P325s and two Duqueine D09s, the LMP3 Pro/Am class promises some nail-biting track action. Racing Spirit of L&eacute;man, Inter Europol Competition, Rinaldi Racing, R-ace GP and CD Sport will all hope to be among the frontrunners.

<h2>Ferrari, Aston Martin, Mercedes and Porsche in the GT3 field</h2>

In GT3, we shall see four Ferrari 296 GT3s take on two Porsche 911 GT3 Rs (992), a Mercedes-AMG GT3 and an Aston Martin Vantage GT3 EVO. AF Corse will be back to defend their title. The Italian outfit will face a two-pronged attack from Kessel Racing, as well as Ebimotors who are returning to the Michelin Le Mans Cup fold with a Porsche, the Iron Dames, Biogas Motorsport, Code Racing Development and Motopark.

All these teams will be determined to shine at Road To Le Mans. Two races will be held on Thursday 12 and Saturday 14 June in the run-up to the 93rd 24 Hours of Le Mans.&nbsp;

Pierre Fillon, President of the Automobile Club de l&rsquo;Ouest:&nbsp;With a record number of cars on the grid, all the signs are suggesting that this 10th season of the championship will be fiercely contested! The six rounds will give the drivers invaluable endurance experience on prestigious circuits. We look forward to the curtain-raiser in Barcelona in April and, of course, to the two Road To Le Mans races in June on the 24 Hours of Le Mans bill.

Fr&eacute;d&eacute;ric Lequien, CEO of Le Mans Endurance Management (LMEM):&nbsp;2025 is a historic year for the Michelin Le Mans Cup, as it will mark 10 years since the series was unveiled. With a bumper 44-car field and some superb line-ups, this is an ideal opportunity for teams and drivers looking to launch a career in endurance. 
It&rsquo;s fantastic to see all four chassis constructors &ndash; Ligier, Duqueine, Adess and Ginetta &ndash; represented on the 2025 grid with the new generation of LMP3s. Meanwhile, the GT3 class is shaping up to provide lots of thrills once again. 
We are grateful to our title partner Michelin for their longstanding support and thank all the teams who are joining us for a fascinating endurance season in 2025.

Check out the 2025 Michelin Le Mans Cup&nbsp;<a href="https://storage.googleapis.com/doc-prod/OTFK-DQIZciWatOb8Hd3e_yW.pdf" target="_blank">entry list</a>.

Michelin Le Mans Cup attracts record 44-car field for 10th season

24 Heures du Mans 2019

Under the new rules announced by the Automobile Club de l&rsquo;Ouest this morning, manufacturers may choose to develop their hypercar from a prototype or a production car. Toyota has opted for a hybrid prototype based on the GR Super Sport, the hybrid concept car unveiled at the 2018 Tokyo motor show.

Pascal Vasselon, technical director of Toyota Gazoo Racing: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s logical for Toyota to choose a prototype because we don&rsquo;t have a hypercar in our range. We&rsquo;ll be developing the GR Super Sport and the racing prototype at the same time. They&rsquo;ll have the same hybrid system. The prototype will hit the tarmac first, probably by mid 2020. The hypercar lap times should be similar to the Toyota TS050 Hybrid. First, because in the new regulations the onus is on cost-effectiveness rather than a quest for performance and second, because the aerodynamics will be less efficient. Our goal is simple: to make Toyota part of the legend of Le Mans.&rdquo;

This weekend, Toyota will attempt to become the twelfth manufacturer to win Le Mans at least twice.

PHOTO: LE MANS (SARTHE, FRANCE), CIRCUIT DES 24 HEURES, TOYOTA CONFERENCE, SATURDAY 14 JUNE 2019. Toyota announced its participation in the next WEC season with a hybrid hypercar based on the GR Super Sport.

24H LE MANS

24 Hours of Le Mans - Toyota to continue in top-flight endurance with a hypercar

Related News

Asian Le Mans Series – all eyes on Dubai

First look at the 2025 Alpine A424 Hypercar livery

Aston Martin THOR Team unveils Valkyrie livery

Michelin Le Mans Cup attracts record 44-car field for 10th season

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